Harry Osborn

Harry Osborn is the son of Norman Osborn and friend to Peter Parker. He tries to earn his respect from his father.

Physical appearance
Harry is a caucasian teenage male, with Auburn hair and grey eyes. He wears a brown vest with a yellow shirt underneath, with black pants and black shoes.

Personality
Harry's main personality trait, arguably, is a desire to be liked. He most wanted the approval of his overbearing father. Harry spends much of his life trying desperately to earn his father's approval due to the fact that Norman emotionally negligent, dismissive, and sometimes lashes out at him in fury. He tends to act the most casual around Peter and Gwen, presumably because they are already friendly with him. When popular with the jocks he acts noticeably jittery, spending a lot of time bragging about his wealth and at one point ignoring Gwen. Likewise he is willing to use Globulin Green to cheat in school and sports. Even when engaged in morally questionable activities, however, he rarely acts malicious, instead coming off as nervous and needy. He does, however, display fits of anger when taking Globulin Green.

Harry could be interpreted as having low self-esteem. He at first appears dependent on others for everything. When taking Globulin Green he becomes more confident, though too much so as he starts to ignore the friends he already had. After getting clean of the formula, his friends keep him confident.

While not particularly unintelligent, he is nowhere near as smart as his best friends or his father, the latter of whom openly disparages him.

He can fly a helicopter at only sixteen. He also apparently has some degree of acting talent, having achieved the role of Puck in the school play.

When last seen, he was not above manipulating others for his own personal gain.

History
At some point, Harry's father Norman became a cold and unloving father. Norman either contemptuously dismissed Harry or lashed out at him in fury. As a result, Harry spent much of his life trying desperately to earn his father's approval and always lived in his father's shadow.

Harry was close friends with Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy for years.

He greeted Peter on the first day of school, having been away for most of the summer. After school they went to Harry's home and talked about a job Peter and Gwen had been offered interning with Curt Connors. Norman overheard them and showed clear admiration for the achievement, while neglecting Harry for not having such an opportunity. Harry was clearly cowed by his father's disapproval, but paniced a moment later when Norman was kidnapped by Vulture. He ran off to call for help, leaving Peter behind. At some point after this, Norman created a formula called Globulin Green and showed it to Harry.

Peter agreed to help Harry study for an upcoming math test, but continually blew him off. First for his new job at The Daily Bugle, then to fight Shocker). Harry failed the test and complained to Norman that it was Peter's fault. Norman interrupts him off and coldly told Harry that he need to take responsibility for his own grades, popularity, and life. Norman cruelly tells harry to man up to get what he wants due to the fact that he considers harry of being weak. Harry took his words to heart and decided to try out for the football team, convincing Peter to join him. Both do well, but in the end Peter decided to throw the tryouts so that Harry got one of the available spots.

Harry began to hang out with the rest of the jocks. Kenny Kong and Flash Thompson played a prank on him, however, causing Kenny's girlfriend Glory Grant to break up with him and go with Harry to the Fall Formal. He tried to brag about this to his father, but caught him when he was having an argument with Hammerhead about their joint criminal activities.

Unfortunately, Harry is devastated when Kenny and Glory get back together at the dance, and ran out to his locker where he drank a vial of Globulin Green. He then ran out of the school. Shortly thereafter, Peter was called away from the dance due to an attack by a new villain, Green Goblin, who was attacking the reigning crime boss, and Hammerhead's boss, Tombstone. The Green Goblin made further attacks on New York, including on OsCorp and tried to kill Spider-Man. Meanwhile, Gwen found Harry passed out after taking more Globulin Green. He rebuffed her confrontations about it, at one point even pushing her against a locker when she tried to stop him from drinking it.

On Halloween, Harry was missing from the festivities he was supposed to attend, while the Green Goblin created a trap to kill Spider-Man, Tombstone, and Hammerhead at once. In the ensuing battle he crashed his glider and limped before managing to fly away. Peter, who already suspected Norman, followed the Goblin to the Osborn residence only to be shocked to discover Harry in the Goblin costume. Harry was confused, claiming to have blacked out and awoken with the outfit on. He also had an injured leg that he could not explain.

Norman walked in on the strange scene and discovered an empty vial of Globulin Green next to Harry. The substance, he explained, increased strength and intelligence, but was highly unstable and extremely addictive. Norman furiously accused Harry of having taken it for his own use, only for Harry to throw Norman across the room, screaming that he only did it to finally make Norman happy. He then nearly blacked out again and became dazed. Norman and Spider-Man concluded that Harry must have been turning into the Goblin during his blackouts, and expressed fear that Tombstone would have him killed if anyone found out. They reluctantly agreed to hide the truth so Norman could find some help for Harry, who was now nearly crying. Soon after Norman sent Harry out of the country to find treatment for his addiction.

Harry was gone for all of November and December, reappearing for the first day of school after the winter break. He was unaware that during his absence Gwen had kissed Peter, and that the two had nearly started dating before Peter instead began a relationship with Liz Allan.

Harry expressed gratitude to Gwen for trying to help him during his Globulin addiction, and asked her to be his date to Flash Thompson's birthday party. Apparently trying to move on from Peter, she accepted, and not long after agreed to be his girlfriend, despite obvious misgivings that Harry did not seem to notice. Around the same time he also expressed some jealousy of Peter, whom his father still seemed to favor. He expressed disbelief, however, when Venom attempted to out Peter as Spider-Man's secret identity.

Harry, along with his friends, took part in a Criminology class run by George Stacy. This involved a ride-along with members of the police department, during which Harry and Flash were made partners. Flash repeatedly acted rude to Harry, blaming his absence from the football team for a serious injury he had sustained during their final game. Harry sheepishly explained about his addiction, but this only makes Flash more furious, since if Harry was on Globulin during his games, the team could be retroactively disqualified from those wins and lose the championship. Nevertheless he went forward about Harry's cheating, making both of them disliked.

After school, Harry went home and opened a floorboard in his room, revealing a secret stash of Globulin Green that he had been keeping. Soon after, the Green Goblin suddenly reappeared, manipulating events so that all the other crime bosses of New York were neutralized. Harry noted how easy it was for an addict to backslide, in reference to Liz's brother Mark}, a gambling addict. Mark, as it turns out, is also being manipulated by the Goblin, turned into Molten Man and coerced into trying to kill Spider-Man. The Goblin admitted he did not want Spider-Man to realize that he was back.

Harry had been cast as Puck in the school's rendition of A Midsummer's Night Dream, an achievement that he was excited about. However, on the night of the play he was missing, while the Green Goblin arranged for Peter to be trapped in the Vault with most of his other enemies. When this failed the Goblin finally showed himself to Spider-Man, but was unable to kill him thanks to Black Cat's intervention. Peter searched for some sign of Harry, but nobody knew where he was.

Harry finally shows up a week later at Gwen's house, and Gwen called Peter over to help. Harry admitted to having been the Green Goblin before, but suddenly is unsure if that was even true. On the night of the play somebody else dressed as the Goblin had kidnapped him, and he had only just managed to escape. He claimed to have not taken any Globulin Green in months, he had smashed the secret stash. Both Peter and Gwen advised Harry to go talk to Norman about the situation. After he left, Peter admitted the feelings for Gwen that have been building before, and the two decided to break up with their respective partners, Harry and Liz, and date each other. Neither realize that Harry had lingered outside Gwen's house and heard their plans, which left him in a state of shock.

Harry went to talk to Norman, and Peter showed up as Spider-Man, figuring that either one of them could actually be the Goblin, until the Goblin attacked their meeting, allowing Peter to see the supervillain and both Osborns at the same time. Norman suggested his assistant Donald Mencken must be the Goblin, since he was the only other person who knew about the Globulin Green. At Mencken's, however, the Goblin attacked again, and Harry, who had followed with Norman in a helicopter, dive-bombed the windows to save Spider-Man from an attack of poison gas. He continued to follow as the hero and villain fought throughout New York City, during which the Goblin is finally unmasked revealing him to be Norman. Harry became suspicious of the Norman sitting beside him and discovered that he is really Chameleon. The real Norman, in fact, had been the Green Goblin the entire time and merely found Harry passed out on Globulin and framed him, even twisting his ankle to provide the limp.

The battle ended with Spider-Man apparently killing Norman, to Harry's horror. Peter and Gwen attended Norman's funeral, during which Harry states his belief that Norman was addicted like him and was driven insane with led him into framed Harry. Harry blames Spider-Man for his father's "murder." He then swears vengeance. When Gwen comforted him, he claimed that she was the only thing that kept him from relapsing into his own addiction. She did not notice the way he smirked.

Background in other media

 * This is Harry's third animated appearance, Previous versions include Spider-Man: The Animated Series and Spider-Man: The new Animated Series.