13. Whatās the worst character assassination youāve seen happen?
I know I’ve already talked about this but, uh, Kindred (Amazing Spider-Man [2018] #70-74…ish… I think…) really did a number on Harry Osborn and I’m so mad about it, and after reading literally everything about Harry before diving into THAT arc (I’m not even joking, I went down the wiki list of appearances) I’m just. I am just sitting here. Wondering what happened to my beautiful boy.
Also mad about this!!!!!! What the fuck!!!!!! Harry loves his family and would NEVER give up. Also taking psychic damage that this series forgot Stanley existed.
“But Kita, it wasn’t him, the Harry we saw post-OMD was a clone-” BUUUULLSHIT!!! You’re going to tell me that all the work during ASM v2 was just for nothing? That it was a clone + false memories?? And that even pre-OMD Harry, pre-SSM #200 Harry whatever I don’t care, that he was capable of being a criminal mastermind???
Goblin Jr. was never meant to BE a criminal mastermind. He turned to the Goblin because he felt it gave him power and strength he felt he needed to protect his family!! He was traumatized by his father constantly telling him he wasn’t good enough, literally HAUNTED by his perception of what others thought of him, do you know what killed Harold Theopolis Osborn? The Goblin Serum. The fact that his motivation would be anything but his own self-perception and desire to be what he felt everyone else expected of him is preposterous. I’m still mad. Don’t talk to me.
24. Ship(s) that makes you cringe.
I’m running out of examples for this question, but it’s still fun to answer, so: post-OMD Liz/Harry. Why. That is a full lesbian and a gay man. Please stop.
@softgrungeprophet said it best as they were witnessing my read of all things Harry Osborn:
also no offense that is the least sexy ear bite i’ve ever seen in my life
Thanks, Nadia. But yeah, for real though, I would love for them to be friends! They can be happily divorced parents who love their kids.
47. Whatās the worst blatantly untrue fanon take you thought was canon?
I consider myself quite fortunate that I don’t often wade into fandom circles where I don’t already have a really clear understanding of the source material. So it’s been more like, “lied to by adaptations” for most of this kind of thing. That and really out-of-context comic panels.
So, with that, and not to be mean, I will say I don’t think Spider-Man and Deadpool have very good chemistry in any sense of the word. Not from what I’ve seen written. Not compared to either of their respective usual supporting casts.
I’ll also say that I was briefly convinced that Tony Stark and Peter Parker had ever had a good relationship. After reading the events around Civil War and later appearances, I’ve decided it’s much better when they’re antagonistic. (Amazing Spider-Man #13… I think)
And LASTLYYY the adaptations gaslit me into thinking Peter and Harry were friends first but that’s NOT TRUE!! Guess who was friends first!!! Harry and Flash. And Peter was mad about it. š ASM Family #4 you are everything to me.
Shoutout also to Webspinners #3. JMD gets it. Also Harry was nursing a crush on Flash since they met in college and nobody can take this headcanon from me DIE MAD ABOUT IT.
I will forever and always be livid about Kindred. Pre-BND Harry got away unscathed by a hair I think (since it was established Mephisto influenced him into whatever the fuck that was with the demon twins), but post-BND Harry is more or less a write-off now. Died to save his abusive father mere minutes after it was established said father sold him to the devil. What. The. Hell.
Sorry for hijacking this post, but oh man. That storyline didnāt just make me hate Nick Spencer, didnāt just make me hate Marvel, it made me hate comics.
Harry Osborn really is just āI want people to be nice to me and love me. Thatās it.ā Like it really is. Of course he became Peterās best friend; the guy was nice to him. Does not take much. He convinces his dad to rent him an apartment close to college and asks Pete to just come live with him for free in a nice two-bedroom in NY because he wants him there. He drives around because he gets anxious and down and driving relaxes him and Peter doesnāt have a car so heās always like āOh oh! : ) Hi Peter do you need a ride?ā and Pete is like āthank god no taxi fare letās DO thisā. He thinks Gwen and MJ are so cool and neat and he loved Gwen so much even though she broke up with him and died two decades ago, he still thinks about how much she means to him. He just wants to hug Normie and tell him heās a great son and he loves him. He wants Liz to not hate him and think heās weak and heās terrified of people finding out all the things wrong with him but none of them care, and heās great. Heās the most tragic character of all time. He loves his terrible dad so genuinely and so much, and he loves his friends so much, he loves his family so much. Literally all he ever wanted was people to be nice to him and love him and his life and sanity fall apart and he gets tragedy after tragedy and breakdown after breakdown and but he never really breaks heās always just a little left. He tries so hard to go off the deep end but he can never really make himself hurt Peter, because of course he canāt. Heās Harry Osborn. Who loves friends from twenty years ago like it was last night. Even at his lowest he gets die telling his best friend he would have finally been proud of him because he was able for a second to be like he is, and pass while smiling and holding his best friendās hands. Of course he does. How else could Harry Osborn have ever died. Heās Harry.
#Heās so happy when he dies. itās the thing. heās so happy. heās been miserable for years and years and years#and exhausted and alone and insane and trying so hard and so broken and so desperate. he tries to kill himself with Peter becuase he canāt#go on any more. but he doesnāt. he gets to save his kid and his friend and his best friend. and they love him and try to save him#and he gets to die peacefully holding his best friendās hands in an ambulance. and three of the people he loves most in the world are with#him. heās not alone. and he saved their lives and theyāre being so nice to him because they really love him#and he gets to die like that knowing that and heās smiling
Man. An excellent post. I have so many thoughts on Harry and the thin line between sacrifice and suicide.
Still Absolutely Goddamn Losing It over this scene from Spectacular Spider-Man 221. Does YOUR friends-to-enemies-to-lovers OTP have a scene where one party begs the other to join them forever in eternity?
hellllllll yeah!! emily green goblin has also been on my mind a lot lol. ive been doing some sketches to try to figure out what she looks like based on the one crusty jpeg painting of her from the raimi movies. i dont know what im doing but its fun to play around with
616 Harry Osborn is such a unique character partially because he is composed of so many traits commonly derided, treated as jokes or used to turn a character into a one note gimmick in mainstream media yet he’s mostly (MOSTLY, I am glaring at a select few writers here) been written as someone we’re supposed to sympathize with, moreover someone who must learn to sympathize with himself
He’s far from conventionally attractive but is never mocked for it
He has no badass powers, yet his narrative is not about acquiring them but about how forcing them on himself is harmful. He’s not a genius or natural leader either, and he doesn’t need to be – His greatest asset is the love and gentleness in his heart
He’s a jumpy and effeminate man, but is never presented as lesser for it and must in fact accept himself, moreover accept that the people he cares for love and respect him as he is, in order to start healing from his childhood trauma.
He has a “scary” mental disorder, the handling of which has admittedly been dubious. But if nothing else, Harry gets to exist as a character who is kind and caring and deserving of love, who also happens to have schizophrenia. Not to mention that JMD has actually woven Harry’s condition into his goblinizing without using if as a direct cause, but rather as a contributing stress factor that accelerated a pre existing emotional issue.
Similarly, his substance abuse is rooted in his troubled upbringing and the emotional scars its left him with but is never played as “tragically beautiful” or “dark and sexy” (I could go on a whole nother tangent here about how 616 Harry defies the common troubled rich boy with daddy issues archetype in many ways)
I think all of these were pretty rare things to find in mainstream media for the time they were being written, and in many respects still are today. Finding all of them in one character who is so complex and well developed and iconic to the franchise on top of it is even more interesting
have now talked to two (three, including myself) people who watched the Raimi movies without ever noticing that Curt Connors was missing an arm even though it’s very much visible, and he’s, like, shown closing a bottle with his teeth and using a hands-free headset to talk on the phone. Movies are so rarely Normal about physically disabled supporting characters that it doesn’t even blip the radar when done reasonably
There’s 2000s movie series by afamouslybody-horrory director, and there’s a 2010s movie series by a romcom director. Guess which one handled discussion of the antagonists’ physical and mental state with more nuance and compassion. Go on, guess.
Eugene Patilio, a Z-list superhero who I was always quite fond of, showed up on She-Hulk last night! Well, sort of. That was #NotMyEugene, as Twitter might say. Others have pointed out that She-Hulkās rich loser, amusing though he was, didnāt really have much in common with the Frog-Man of the comics, and was really [ā¦]
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