harry osborn
a spider-man / game of thrones au
Winter is coming for the Parkers of the North, whose house motto is “With great power comes great responsibility”. They have a dubious alliance with the Osborns, who are extremely skilled in alchemy and have a history of killing their enemies with wildfire. (Owing to this, their house sigil is a green goblin). Each house has only one male heir, Peter of the Parkers and Harry of the Osborns. The two boys played together and were close as children: had one of them been born female they might have united the houses.
Comfortable on the Iron Throne is Norman Osborn, the Goblin King. It is a fact well known to his closest circle of advisors – the Six – that he despises his young heir and greatly prefers the orphaned Peter. Peter is known to all as the Spider Prince – a nickname partly based on his house sigil, but mostly based on his cunning, agility and recklessness in battle, recklessness that many years ago lead to the death of his uncle.
The reign of the Goblin King is fraught with misfortune. The Six, despite their alleged loyality to Norman, are each plotting against him in their seperate ways. Harry falls in love with a beautiful prostitute, Mary Jane, but she doesn’t love him back, while Peter strikes up a relationship with Gwendolyn, daughter of the Hand of the King. Then disaster strikes: Norman is maimed by his own wildfire and lies close to death. He calls on his Hand, George Stacy, to force Harry to take the black while Peter – whose parentage is dubious, who’s to say he’s not Norman’s – claims the throne. When Stacy refuses, Norman has his seemingly most loyal henchman, the Octopus, murder him.
Suddenly alliances and friendships are stretched as far as they will possibly go. As the daughter of a traitor, Gwendolyn is taken hostage, an action that ultimately leads to her death. A griefstricken Peter swears revenge, but Norman dies before any action can be taken. Harry takes the Iron Throne and sits there very uneasily: he names Peter as his Hand but dismisses him in a fit of anger when he sees him and Mary Jane together.
Things go from bad to worse as the years go by. The Octopus, in an attempt to claim some power for himself, begins to court Peter’s aunt, the Lady May. Harry marries a princess, Elizabeth, and fathers a son who many of the Six and their allies want out of the picture – the Osborns have held power for far too long. Meanwhile a young man known only as the Knight of Venom is rallying a supernatural army for an attack on the throne: rumour has it that he can bond with shadow itself and is stronger than a thousand men. On the other side of the vast sea, two of Norman’s bastard children – Gabriel and Sarah, whose maternity is a terrible secret – are seeking to strengthen their claims as well.
Peter’s code of honour may outlast him: there is very little place for responsibility in this world, only power, and they say all men must die.
OKAY I’M SORRY JUST ONE MORE I PROMISE
Cycles and Circles was the second Spider-Man story about the Osborns and their cycle of child abuse. (The first was The Child Within, which is one HELL of a heavy story.) Thanks to some sciency mumbojumbo, Peter finds himself witnessing/feeling everything Harry and Norman before him witnessed/felt as children. So Peter sees Norman’s father turn on him and his mother, and then sees Norman grow up to neglect and abuse Harry, and then sees Harry raise his hand to his own son. (Although, correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m 99% sure Harry never actually hit Normie, never in any of the Osborn comics- heck, they made a point of it. So I’m glad they didn’t show him actually doing that). Peter saves a little boy from a fire and keeps referring to him as ‘Harry’ (who is dead by this point) which makes me cry. Anyway, by the end of the story Peter’s decided to try and forgive Harry for the terrible things Harry did to him, and he goes to see Normie and try and steer him on the right path, and YOU KNOW YOU SHOULD REALLY READ THIS ONE AND TCW SPIDER-MAN IS ACTUALLY ALMOST ALWAYS AT ITS BEST WHEN DEALING WITH REAL-LIFE ISSUES
I can’t believe it took me so long to realise that here, Liz is dressed in almost the exact same (now iconic) outfit that Gwen was wearing when she died- pink dress, green coat. Seeing as how Gwen’s ghost hovers over this entire story, it’s pretty appropriate…and is probably meant to subtly make us wonder if Harry is going to completely fall to his father’s legacy and kill another innocent woman, Liz this time. (Luckily, he doesn’t.)
