Harold "Harry" Osborn is a fictional anti-hero in the Marvel Comics Universe. The character first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #31 (December 1965), and was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. He is Peter Parker's best friend, the son of Norman Osborn, and the second iteration of Green Goblin.

The character has appeared in many adaptations of Spider-Man outside of the comic books, including the 2002-2007 film trilogy portrayed by James Franco and appears in 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 portrayed by Dane DeHaan.

Biography

Harry Osborn is the son of Norman Osborn and Emily Osborn. The circumstances of Harry's birth weakened Emily and his mother died after several years of illness. Heartbroken, Norman becomes a cold and unloving father; Norman either contemptuously dismisses Harry, or lashes out at him in fury. As a result, Harry spends much of his life trying desperately to earn his father's approval.

Upon graduating from high school, he enrolls in Empire State University. Among the wealthiest students in the school, Harry soon becomes one of the most popular as well, despite his aloof manner. He has a clique of rich, popular students around him; one of these is the lovely Gwen Stacy. Gwen is intrigued by a new student: bookish, studious and painfully-shy Peter Parker. Harry takes a dislike to Parker; he resents the attention Gwen gives to Peter, and he assumes that Peter's standoffishness is snobbery. After confronting Parker, Harry realizes that Peter is merely shy, and is also worried about his ailing aunt May Parker. Despite this rocky start, Harry and Peter became friends, eventually sharing an apartment.

Harry does not realize that his best friend is the superhero Spider-Man, nor that his father became the supervillain Green Goblin in an accident while attempting to create a super-serum. Moreover, before he became friends with Harry, Spider-Man was unmasked and captured by Green Goblin. During the subsequent battle, an electric shock removed all memory of being Green Goblin from Norman's mind. Spider-Man then hid all evidence of Norman's double identity, to keep Harry from being hurt by the revelation.

However, Norman's Green Goblin persona resurfaces from time to time. These are difficult times for Harry, as his father's periodic episodes are unexplainable. He had experimented with drugs in his teens, but he escalates his usage, as well as trying ever-harder substances. This affects his mental stability and his relationships with his friends. Spider-Man uses this to his advantage during one battle with Green Goblin; he is able to stop the fight by showing Norman his son's emaciated condition, brought on by an accidental cocaine overdose. The sight shocks Norman so much that it brings him back to sanity.




Green Goblin

Harry Osborn is dumped by Mary Jane Watson due to being fed up with his self-destructive lifestyle. Disconsolate, Harry turns to drugs and suffers an amphetamine overdose. He survives, but this tragedy, compounded by imminent bankruptcy, drives his father over the edge. He kidnaps Gwen as bait for Spider-Man, and then throws her off the George Washington Bridge (or Brooklyn Bridge). In a vicious battle with Spider-Man, the Green Goblin accidentally impales himself on his own goblin glider. Harry Osborn secretly witnesses this. Wanting to protect his father's identity, he strips Norman Osborn's body of the Green Goblin costume to hide. Blaming Spider-Man for his father's "murder", Harry, angry and mentally unbalanced, swears vengeance. Having inherited his father's company, Harry manages to get the business back in shape. One day, to his shock, he finds a Spider-Man costume in Peter Parker's apartment and realizes that his best friend is the man he blames for his father's death. Using his father's old equipment, Harry confronts Peter as the second "Green Goblin".

Not wanting to hurt Harry, Peter avoids fighting his old friend. After Spider-Man is able to thwart Harry's initial attempt on his life, Harry is knocked unconscious and taken into police custody. There, he raves that he is the true Green Goblin and Peter Parker is Spider-Man, but is dismissed as a lunatic. He is put in the care of criminal psychologist Dr. Bart Hamilton to extract the Green Goblin secrets from Harry through hypnosis, and buries the knowledge deep within Harry's mind. Hamilton then raids one of Harry's hideouts and becomes the third Green Goblin. Meanwhile Harry is released and considered cured. He sustains a concussion that makes him forget his knowledge of Spider-Man's identity and he and Peter rekindle their friendship.

For a while, Harry's life seems back on track; his company begins turning profits once more, and he develops a romance with Liz Allan after they meet at the wedding of Betty Brant and Ned Leeds. Not long after the two are married, and eventually they have their son Normie Osborn named in memory of the boy's grandfather. Harry also gives his blessing to the marriage of Peter and Mary Jane Watson. However, Harry starts regaining his memories when he is blackmailed by the original Hobgoblin (Roderick Kingsley) with a package which contains evidence that his father was the original Green Goblin. When Hobgoblin learns he had raided all of Norman's hideouts, he leaves Harry alone, knowing he had nothing more to offer him. Later, Harry is forced to act as Green Goblin a few times, once to defeat the second Hobgoblin (Jason Macendale). This Hobgoblin is seeking the Goblin Formula that gave the Green Goblin superhuman strength; Harry is able to defeat him by doubling back during an aerial chase and emptying his entire supply of pumpkin bombs onto Hobgoblin. Harry even wonders if he could use the Green Goblin persona for a career as a superhero but Peter convinces him that Green Goblin had too much baggage for such a role. Harry buries the Green Goblin menace within his mind once more and focuses on his business and family.


Death

This tranquility is shattered when the aftereffects of the "Inferno" crisis sunder the barrier between Harry Osborn's conscious and subconscious minds. Once again, he remembers being Green Goblin—and his hatred of Spider-Man. Harry has now convinced himself that Peter Parker resents the Osborns' "stable family life" due to never having been wanted by his own parents or guardians, when in fact it was the complete opposite. He uses Peter's trust in him to capture him, and subjects him to hallucinogenic gases to psychologically torment him. He finds himself unsatisfied with this revenge, however, and decides to kill Spider-Man. However, given the opportunity he proves unwilling to kill his best friend.

Harry investigates his father's old hideouts and notes, and finally uncovers and ingests the formula for the original Green Goblin's superhuman strength. He then kidnaps his wife, son, and brother-in-law Mark Raxton, terrorizing them in an old family mansion. Raxton manages to signal their location to Spider-Man who defeats the Green Goblin and turns him in to the police. Spider-Man pushes for Harry to get psychiatric treatment from Dr. Ashley Kafka, but he is ultimately transferred to the Vault. However, the state is unable to put together a sufficient case against Harry, and after just a few weeks in prison he is released.

Harry discovers that his father developed an advanced version of the Green Goblin strength formula, but was unable to test it before his final battle with Spider-Man. After testing it, he ingests the new formula. When he spies Spider-Man investigating his townhouse, Harry loses his temper and attacks him as the Green Goblin. He injects Peter with a drug that leaves him immobile and, in a fit of depression, activates timed explosives that he had planted throughout the townhouse, planning to kill both himself and Peter. However, when he realizes that Mary Jane and his son Normie are also in the townhouse, he is shocked back to his normal self. Harry rescues Mary Jane, Normie, and Peter before he collapses. He belatedly realizes that he did not test the new formula diligently enough, and that it is in fact lethal.


Post-mortem
Some time before his death, Harry Osborn created a computer system with copies of his and Norman Osborn's minds programmed into it; after Harry's death, the computer system activates and abducts Normie Osborn with the intent of subjecting him to the Green Goblin Serum (the same one that that caused Harry's death) to make into the newest Green Goblin. This computer facsimile of Harry and its robotic drones (which resemble female versions of Green Goblin) were all destroyed by Spider-Man and the Molten Man who manage to save Normie from it. However, Harry had one last trick up his sleeve. Some time before his final confrontation with Spider-Man, Harry had employed the Chameleon to construct Life Model Decoys of Peter's parents to play with his emotions. The plot ends with both constructs revealed as fakes when both "die", shattering Peter's mind. After nearly killing the Chameleon, Peter found a tape Harry had left before he died revealing his role in the plot and mocking Peter, demonstrating that Harry was as manipulative and cruel as his father when gripped by insanity. Peter goes temporarily insane from the shock, even briefly rejecting his identity until the return of his clone Ben Reilly snaps him back to reality.


Return from the grave
It is subsequently revealed that Harry Osborn's supposed death is faked by Mysterio and his father who spirits his son away to Europe where he is held prisoner in several "rehab" clinics and believes that his son had relapsed into drug addiction, and this in turn led to his brief return to wearing the Green Goblin costume.

At some point, Harry is released from rehab and reunites with his friends. However, because of the machinations of his father and the mindwipe of the world's knowledge of Spider-Man's secret identity by Dr. Strange and Reed Richards, Harry no longer remembers that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. His marriage to Liz Allan also disintegrates and the two divorce. Harry engages in a string of relationships, several of which result in Harry marrying and divorcing in rapid fashion. He is in a relationship with Lily Hollister. Harry tries to help Lily's father in the latter's bid for Mayor of New York by funding her father's campaign with his dwindling finances.

Harry is also one of the leading suspects for the secret identity of the New Goblin. In the "New Ways to Die" story arc, Menace battles Norman Osborn and is infuriated when Norman states that all he cares about is killing Spider-Man. Norman dons the Green Goblin costume and mentions that Harry has been in the Green Goblin's lair. Norman calls Harry who realizes from Norman's distorted voice that Norman is wearing the Green Goblin suit. This horrifies and disgusts Harry who vows to stop his father. Harry angrily confronts his father who wants Harry to follow his legacy and become a greater man. The confused Harry is saved by Spider-Man. Spider-Man, who wants to beat Norman senseless, stops when he sees an area for Human Testing. Harry is claimed to be the one responsible for the atrocious acts although he attempts to plead innocence. Harry later states that he wants to talk to Peter, who moments earlier was kissed by Lily, and is seen leaving with a mysterious canister labelled "Prometheus X-90".

Prometheus X-90, it is revealed later, was developed as a successful cure for Mark Raxton's condition as Molten Man. The only human test subject was Charlie Weiderman, the short-lived second Molten Man, and the only person on whom the serum could be tested. After the cure is administered, Liz finally forgives Harry and gives him back the wedding ring, which she originally claimed she lost.

Renting out all of Liberty Island, Harry takes Lily there and, at the top of the Statue of Liberty, he gets down on one knee and proposes to her. Lily rejects his proposal because she is not sure where their relationship will lead, which surprises Harry. He later goes to her place to check up on her, and as he enters the room he is surprised to discover Lily wearing the Menace costume.

She found a hidden door in his closet and one of his old journals. She begins giving him a hard time about whining so much about his father. Harry thinks her behavior is because she's sick. She continues to tell him she uncovered one of Norman's secret rooms described in the journal. This explains why she kissed Peter after the Thunderbolts attacked; he almost found the secret trigger to open the room. When she first entered the room she found the Green Goblin's equipment and some experiments. Knocking over some chemicals, she absorbed them and is now able to transform at will. She explains that she discovered Menace's attacks against her father gives him more public support. She also tells him that she accepts his marriage proposal. After their talk, Harry enters one of his father's weapons caches, takes a glider (filled with bombs and winged bombs), a pair of Goblin gloves, a sword, and a dart gun containing an unknown chemical. In the midst of a battle between Menace and Spider-Man, Harry confronts and shoots her with that chemical, which is a type of antidote that reverts her back to her human form. He saves Spider-Man from the crowd and leaves. Lily is incarcerated but later escapes, leaving Harry her ring and a note.


Dark Reign
Harry Osborn is approached by Norman Osborn with the offer of a job within his father's personal Avengers. Harry initially declines, but after a visit from Lily Hollister revealing that she is pregnant, he accepts. Norman welcomes him into Avengers Tower and wants to make Harry into the American Son. Harry is shown to have an ulterior motive, however, based on his need to protect Lily and his child. Disabling the camera in his room, Harry sneaks off. He finds a cure for Lilly's Green Goblin condition that will be safe for her and the baby but she pushes him away. Lily reveals that it is all a ruse to coerce Harry into becoming American Son, whom Norman would eventually have die in a tragedy to increase sympathy for Norman and his Avengers. She also reveals that the baby is not Harry's but in fact Norman's. In retalliation for this news, Harry dons his American Son armor and fights against his father using the Iron Patriot armor.

During the battle, Norman declares that Harry is no longer his son and that he has bred a better child to replace the failure of Harry. After further taunts from Norman, Harry lashes out and defeats his father, declaring "I was never your son!". When Harry has the option of killing Norman, Spider-Man tells him to decapitate Norman, since Norman's healing factor may repair a blow to the head. Spider-Man states that killing Norman will cause Harry to "become the son Norman always wanted". Harry backs down, and walks away from Norman forever.

Harry is next seen in a psychiatrist's office, claiming to be getting over the effects of a medical treatment he received. The doctor offers to prescribe him oxycodone but it is not revealed if Harry takes the prescription.

Afterwards, Harry is cut off financially and is forced out of his penthouse apartment. He moves into Peter's old room at May Parker's. He also begins secretly dating Amy Reilly (Peter's cousin). After May returns and is corrupted by Mister Negative, she kicks Harry out of the house, forcing him to move in with Mary Jane Watson.


Heroic Age
After Norman Osborn's fall, the American Son armor is stolen and the police begin questioning Harry as only someone of the Osborn bloodline can use the American Son armor. Harry is then shot in the chest by Gabriel Stacy, claiming that Norman gave Harry a better life. However, Harry is saved by American Son and taken to a hospital. After Harry recovers from his wounds, he is escorted home by police. Fearing the damage that could be done with the American Son armor and perplexed by his encounter with Gabriel, Harry decides to figure things out on his own. After enlisting the help of a talented reporter named Norah from Frontline, Harry decides to visit Norman as only he would know about Gabriel. Harry and Norah eventually visit the Raft where they find Norman in his cell consumed by madness. Harry demands to know about Gabriel but Norman is unresponsive. Frustrated, Harry and Norah begin to leave, but before they exit Norman briefly returns to his senses and tells Harry that Gabriel is indeed Norman's son.

Trying to make sense of everything, Harry visits May Parker's work where he plans to volunteer. On his way, he realizes that he is being followed by the FBI. It is then revealed through FBI security footage that Gabriel is the one who stole the American Son armor and has been using the armor all along. Meanwhile, Gabriel confronts the American Son armor and is revealed to have developed a split personality similar to Norman's after his exposure to the Green Goblin Serum. This split personality explains to Gabriel that it represents all that is good in his soul and will use the American Son armor to undo each of Gabriel's crimes. After an intense psychological battle, Gabriel appears to gain the upper hand and proceeds with his plan.

Still attempting to understand Gabriel's plans, Harry determines that in order for Gabriel to truly hurt him he will attempt to abduct an innocent person and lay a trap. Harry then rushes to find Norah. Meanwhile, the police arrive at Gabriel's hideout but are unable to rescue Norah because of the American Son's interference. Harry manages to sneak in through one of his father's secret tunnels and confronts his half-brother. As the police prepare to make another attempt to save Norah, Harry frees her and gets the young reporter to safety. With Norah out of harms way Gabriel and Harry engage in an epic battle. During the fight, Harry attempts to convince Gabriel that Norman is evil and that attempting to follow in his footsteps is madness. Gabriel refuses to listen and continues his attempts to kill Harry. Saddened by his brother's choice, Harry hacks the American Son armor and knocks Gabriel unconscious. The battle causes the warehouse to go up in flames, trapping Gabriel and Harry inside, but Spider-Man arrives and saves them. Afterward, Norah visits Harry in his coffee shop, and notices a bottle of oxycodone in Harry's things. Troubled by what she finds, Norah concludes that Harry has a drug problem and resolves to help him through it.

After many near encounters, Carlie Cooper and Peter Parker meet at the coffee shop. Harry and MJ are there and the four are talking when Lily bursts through the wall, followed by an attacking team of supervillains. MJ asks Harry to help Lily Hollister who's gone into labor, but they are held captive by Doctor Octopus. Spider-Man manages to save them and rescue Lily's newborn baby from supervillains. Harry and MJ take Lily to get medical care, but Carlie was too angry with Lily to accompany them. When Spider-Man secures the baby from Doctor Octopus he runs an analysis on a sample of the baby's DNA and finds it matches Harry. Spider-Man encourages Harry to raise his son on his own and start a new life. Soon thereafter, Harry prepares to leave New York with the baby named Stanley. At his going-away party, Harry encounters former NYPD officer Vin Gonzales reveals he has a Green Goblin tattoo. After Gonzales relays a message from Norman, Harry shocks the man with a taser and beats him.

Months later, Harry is shown in Seattle, Washington, living with his son. He is shown to have completely changed his appearance, having shaved his head and grown a beard.

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