My problem with Emily Osborn/Lyman being revealed to have been alive all along is not so much the fact that she abandoned her baby son in the custody of an abuser whilst letting him believe she’d died. Yay for toxic female characters.
It’s more that this was not remotely treated with the weight it deserved when it could have been the perfect opportunity to explore her personality and relationship with Norman as well as delve deeper into Harry’s pre-established abandonment issues. Emily’s reintroduction should have added new fuel to the ever so compelling fire of Osborn Family Drama but alas, it did not and Harry shrugged off learning one of the most fucked up facts about his already deeply fucked up little life.
Congratulations! You brought this character who was practically just a concept into the story and you did it with a bang by establishing glaring faults counter to the bland saintlike perception everyone previously had of her while also granting her added complexity by having her try to iron out her previous wrongs! Now actually commit to giving her depth and let her impact things, please.
For a guy who can have anything he wants, he sure loves a home made cake from his friends. Happy birthday Harry, you’re the bestest friend a guy could ask for.
It is so buckwild to me what Insomniac did with Harry Osborn and Venom.
In the vast majority of Spider-Media, Venom’s defining character trait is his hatred of Spider-Man, and at first, it looks like Insomniac might be going that route. They give Harry ample reason to be absolutely furious with Peter, to resent him, resent the life he gets to live, a beloved superhero with a girlfriend, healthy and strong, a genius of such caliber that even his own father seems to prefer him to Harry. His supposed “best friend” who seems to be withholding lifesaving medical treatment just because he likes how it feels on him, because it’s not enough that he be better and stronger and smarter than poor, sickly, doomed Harry, no, he has to be stronger than himself, stronger than the old Spider-Man could ever hope to be. It’s not enough for Peter to have his own powers, he has to have Harry’s as well, and if that comes at the cost of Harry’s life? Well, that’s just the cost of doing business. As long as it makes him a better Spider-Man, that’s all that matters, right?
It seems like they are going down the route where Harry gives into his anger and resentment, the symbiote whispering in his ear and exacerbating his worst aspects until there is nothing left of the sweet boy that Emily Osborn raised to be so deeply good, only a supervillain hellbent on revenge and world domination.
But that’s not what happens.
Instead, almost everything Harry does after the Venom symbiote takes over is framed as helping. As a genuine, if twisted belief that the world he is making is a better world. Instead of seeking revenge against Peter, Harry/Venom wants to convert him. Wants him to stand beside him as they “heal the world” together. And the odd thing is, this only becomes more true with time. At first, Harry/Venom seems almost indifferent to Peter, and angers quickly when Peter calls them a “thing.” But we see that the idea of Peter doing this with him, the need for his best friend to be beside him at the end of all things, eventually becomes so important to him that it is ultimately a weakness the heroes exploit.
Think about that; Harry Osborn’s love for Peter Parker is so powerful that it almost seems to be corrupting the Venom symbiote, infecting it and twisting its mind as surely as it twisted Peter’s, but in the opposite direction. It’s so wild to watch the scenes at the end of the game and hear Tony Todd, in his deep-ass Venom voice, read lines like “Thanks for coming, Pete 😊” with the same casual inflection and tone as Harry would. Saying “This is where we became best friends. Now it’s where we become brothers!” and sounding so pleased and excited that you’d think he was talking about Pete’s mom marrying his dad and not infecting him with alien mind goop.
It’s so incredible to me that the defining trait of Insomniac’s Venom isn’t hate; it’s love. A twisted, warped love that doesn’t fully understand itself, but a sincere and true love nonetheless, one that holds to the very end.
