Harry Osborn // The New Spider-Man

Background ;;

Harry was born to Norman and Emily Osborn and had a relatively happy childhood until his mother died. He absolutely adored her and stuck close to her as soon as he was old enough to do so, and losing her was not only incredibly hard for him but left him incredibly lonely

With Norman being such a busy distant, borderline abusive father, Harry largely grew alone until he began at school. Fortunately he became close friends with Peter Parker when he was younger and eventually the rest of the future Spidey Gang. They remained friends through their childhood and teen years

Both his friends and their families - namely Peter’s aunt - helped Harry feel that gap that had been left by his father’s negligence, giving him the love and care and support he needed most of the time, but he still grew up effectively without parents.

Unfortunately, Harry inherited the same genetic illness that took his mother’s life - Oshtoran Syndrome. The complications began in his teen years, but Harry did his best to hide them from his friends to save them from the pain he’d felt watching his mother be claimed by the same illness when he was a child

He used easy excuses like being busy with school, college, and eventually his Oscorp work, or claiming hangovers from partying to avoid suspicion when he was unwell

During his work with Oscorp he was determined to carry on his mother’s work, hoping to become an environmental attorney. He used his time, resources, and intelligence to try and better the city via Oscorp

Eventually his condition became critical and Harry couldn’t continue on without deteriorating rapidly as his mother had. Norman suggested they attempt an experimental treatment to which Harry agreed and, planting the cover story that Harry would be managing Oscorp’s European operations, he was put into a type of stasis to undergo the treatment. None of his friends knew at this point that he was sick, or where he was really going.

After deriving a treatment from Devil’s Breath failed, Norman made a last-ditch effort to preserve his son, a temporary solution until they found a permanent cure. He attempted to isolate the healing factor from the spider-venom and have it to Harry to try and treat him, but the isolation didn’t quite work and while the venom did cure him, it also gave him similar powers to Peter’s. That’s right, after hating Spider-Man for years, Harry came out of stasis with spider-powers.

At first, it wasn’t easy to cope with and Harry spent an inordinate amount of time trying to find a way to survive without the venom, to find a way to strip it out of his body without killing him in the process, to no avail. And once the anti-life equation hit there was no way to continue researching, and Harry found himself in a position he never expected. His father became infected almost instantly, and it was only thanks to his spider-sense and some crash course help from Peter that he was able to escape.

Knowing he would be no use on a technology-free world, Harry made the difficult decision to leave his Earth behind and travel to Earth-2 on the arks, knowing he could do much more good there to help people start over.

Where has he been these past 3 years? ;;

Harry has been on Earth-2, helping the remains of humanity settle on a new world. After seeing the anti-life equation rip through their world so quickly via technology, he’s been working to try and product equipment that’s less susceptible to network-wide issues, but it’s hard given how ingrained that was on their own home.

He’s also been Spider-Man, much to his frustration. It was a difficult mantle to take on at first, given how long Harry spent hating the vigilante. But the appearance of a suit tucked in with the belongings he took with him, and a heartfelt note from his best friend, managed to convince him that he could do some good there. And whatever issues Harry once had about Spider-Man had begun to dissipate when he found out who the vigilante was back home. This was a chance to start over, and.. despite his own feelings, people needed as much hope as they could get. And Sipder-Man can give them that, even if he’s not quite the same Spider-Man they remember.

What they've been doing/working on/focusing on for the past 3 years:

A combination of things, really. Harry had to learn fast, how to be Spider-Man. It’s not like he had time for heaps of training and tips back home. It’s been eye-opening really, to go through what Pete went through when he first got bitten, trying to figure things out on his own.

He’s also been working on shoring up any technology they may have gained on Earth-2, and creating new tech that’s just as useful but not network-linked or susceptible to widespread viruses of any kind, deadly or otherwise. Watching the anti-life equation tear through their home so quickly purely because of the convenience technology had begun to develop had been terrifying for him, given how much tech Oscorp created, and Harry doesn’t want to repeat the same mistakes.

He’s also been trying to research a cure, given biochem was a big part of Oscorp, but it’s been hard without a source of the equation to work on so he hadn’t made much headway.

How does he feel about coming back to Earth after so long?

Nervous, terrified they’re going to fuck something up, uncertain if earth can be saved - but relieved to be coming back, and incredibly glad that there’s been some confirmation that a cure could exist somewhere. That there could be a way to save all the people they left behind, infected or not. He’s confident if he can find Cyborg he can find the cure in his system somewhere, and he’s determined to do so. Not in the least because his own father is infected.