Goblin Songs -a mix for the Osborns and their family curse
[Meds – Placebo] [Getting Away With Murder – Papa Roach] [Haemoglobin – Placebo] [Turn Around -They Might Be Giants] [Lullaby – Editors] [Devils – The 69 Eyes] [No Son Of Mine – Genesis] [Here It Comes Again – Korn] [Scary Monsters and Super Creeps – David Bowie] [I Can’t Decide – Scissor Sisters] [Pity The Child – Chess] [Hello My Treacherous Friends – OK Go] [You Are A Runner And I Am My Father’s Son – Wolf Parade] [Prodigal – Porcupine Tree] [Only Human – Tides Of Man] [That’s My Boy – VAST] [Nightmare Part II – The Zutons] [If I Had A Heart – Fever Ray]
I was screencapping Spider-Man in high resolution (as you do) and I came to this bit, and I realised…hey, someone actually wrote out the article! That’s pretty damn cool.
Obviously it was relevant to my Osborn Interests so I read it. The most interesting bit, annoyingly, barely made it onto camera, but…
Married only once, to the artist Caroline Mulder…divorced after ten years
Is that Harry’s mother, except not called Emily in this universe?!
Is that actually a tiny bit of almost-canon about Norman’s wife??
If she is/was an artist, that explains why the two most prominent pictures of her and Norman in the Osborn home are paintings: it was her who painted them.
Assuming that is Harry’s mother (and she isn’t Emily who Norman just didn’t marry) where did she go after the divorce? Did she leave Harry behind? I mean, I assume she’s still very much dead in this ‘verse…
Do I finally kinda have a Harry’s-mother’s-maiden-name to use for fanfic now?!
That fic I wrote reminded me of how unnerving (and fascinating) I find Norman’s misogyny to be. In the comics, Norman’s murder of Gwen definitely has a misogynistic edge to it – he refers to her as a ‘worthless female’ and a ‘simpering girl’ and implies that her life wasn’t worth much anyway. (Which is another reason I’m so mad that the movies made Harry Gwen’s killer instead. Harry doesn’t have that same attitude, not at all.) Then, of course, much much later he slept with Lily purely to make her a pawn in his plans, slept with Gwen herself at one point (yeah, sorry, Sins Past is still in continuity, alas)…etc etc, I’d have to look for more examples. I think it’s probably one of those things that evolved as time went on, but I really want to know how and why and when.
Raimi-verse Norman, on the other hand, is definitely a misogynist from the get-go. He leers at MJ (that, and her reaction shot, was in there for a reason), he tells Harry that women -‘a pack of ravening wolves’- are only after his money, also tells him to sleep with MJ and then ditch her, later tells Peter he’ll kill MJ ‘nice and slow’ and just generally…yeah, I get a woman-hating vibe from him. Which I also find unnerving and fascinating. I mean, I loathe Norman as a person, but I love him as a character and villain, and him being (depending on the universe) at least somewhat of a misogynist is probably one of the reasons why – Green Goblins don’t exist in real life, but Norman Osborns definitely do.
Anonymous: You posted something related to Harry Osborn. You also spoke about his mother. Can you please tell more about her mother.. Some sources say she died when he was a year old, some say she died when he was 9 or 10.. I don’t understand!
Well! In the 616 universe, Emily Osborn died shortly
after giving birth to Harry, because of assumed complications in the
pregnancy or the birth. As for your sources that say that she died when
he was around nine or ten, those might (might!) be talking about the
Ultimates, but I couldn’t find a reliable source saying one way or the
other, and I’m not at home at the moment to sort through my comics to
find any references.
But, since the TASM movies seem to be doing an odd mash up of the
Ults, we can maybe assume that she died in the movies around the time
that she died in the Ults comics. However! I’m not claiming to be an
expert here, and if anyone has anything to add, that’d be so great thank
you ;3;
I’ve always been fascinated by Emily (I mean, dude. This is the person Norman described as the best woman he’d ever known.) Here’s what I know:
616 continuity: She died when Harry was still very
young. As complications from the pregnancy may have weakened her, that’s
the core of Norman’s resentment towards Harry- that he killed his
mother, the person he loved more than anyone, just by being born.
(Incidentally, as fascinating a character detail as that is, it’s almost
never brought up.)
Ultimates universe: Nothing of Emily is seen apart
from her charred corpse (sigh) but we know from Norman that she’s a
drinker and probably an alcoholic. She dies in the very early days of
Ultimate Spider-Man…fifth issue maybe? Norman burns his house down with
his wife and son inside it, Harry wakes up to hear his mother screaming
at him to get out, but he’s too late to save her. She’s brought up once
or twice after that, as Harry outright says about his father “He killed
my mom.”
Raimiverse: We only hear one line about her, Norman
to Harry: “Your mother was beautiful too, they’re all beautiful til
they’re snarling after your trust fund like wolves.” So he didn’t think
much of her, but then again this Norman doesn’t think much of women in
general really. (I really hope someone’s written something somewhere
about Norman and his misogynistic traits, because I want to read it.)
Emily – a brown haired woman in a black dress – can also be seen in a
painting in the Osborn house and in a picture frame at Peter and Harry’s
apartment. (Okay, no-one ever said outright it was her, but who else
could it be?!)
Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark: Apparently Emily is
an actual living character in this! Sadly I neither a) live in New York
or b) have a ton of money, so I have not seen it.
Webbverse: We haven’t heard anything about her and considering that series’s dismissal of most of the mothers, we probably won’t
but I’m assuming she’s dead. Although I’d have loved to know if/why she
married Norman knowing their child would inherit a horrible disease.
And just more about her in general, really, she’s one of the cogs the
entire story of Norman and Harry pivots around and we don’t even know
her maiden name!
Who would have thought that Spider-Man would’ve been the first movie to teach me that rich white men are invariably huge misogynists
Alternate title for this gifset: Fandom Actually Agrees With Norman About MJ: A Curious Tale Of How The Majority Of The Spider-Man Fandom Apparently Embraces The Misogyny Its Source Material Condemns
A part of me is fairly sure this is queerbaiting of some variety, but on the other hand a) it’s in character for Norman and b) it is very very very hard to argue that Peter doesn’t love Harry in some way, so I don’t know.
Slowly, on shaky legs, Harry rose from the chair. The television had been the only illumination in the room; Harry had found the darkness to be of comfort. Now it seemed to be hiding something…some new intruder.
But there was no-one there. He was sure of it. He walked to the door, looked outside the room. Still nothing. “If thou didst ever thy dear father love, revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.” Harry whipped around, taking in the entire study with a glance. He suddenly discovered he was seeing better in the darkness than he would have thought. [Spider-Man 2 novelisation]
Harry recieves a new bicycle from Norman, but it’s stolen by some neighbourhood kids. Norman chases the kids down, takes back the bike, and smashes it up in front of Harry to teach him “what happens to your nice things if you don’t take care of them”. Many years later, Harry relates that story at an AA meeting. [Amazing Spider-Man Extra #3 – “Nice Things”]
