Early Life[]

Little was known about Harry Osborn's past, other than that his mother, Emily, died when he was 15 years old of a rare genetic disease known as “Oshtoran Syndrome”, and that he was very close friends with Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson all throughout High School. He first met Peter shortly after the latter’s Uncle Ben died, after an ordinary class, when everyone save for a crestfallen Peter had left. Harry had considered leaving, But ultimately decided to stay. He came to Peter and comforted him. As a result of this act of emotional support, Peter became friends with him from then on. Harry used to have them over to his father's expansive penthouse atop Oscorp Tower, though he always viewed his own life as excessively extravagant and actually preferred watching movies at Peter and MJ's smaller houses. As he grew up, Harry had the idea of commissioning several environmental research and protection labs to place atop buildings in New York City which would carry on his mother's legacy of environmental welfare studies.

Falling ill and Bonding with the Symbiote[]

At some point in time, presumably toward the end of high school or the beginning of college, Harry became ill with the same genetic disease that his mother had. It began to slowly kill him and, despite his searching, Harry could not find a cure to his ailment. After he feared to lose someone again to the disease, his father began again to research on a unstable serum known as GR-27, and believed that it could serve as the universal cure to genetic illnesses. The same serum was tested on a young Martin Li decades before, when Emily was afflicted by the same illness, but the serum proved to have disastrous consequences; The injection granted Martin volatile powers which led him to accidentally kill his own parents. The serum had a different but equally adverse effect on other individuals as well: it caused them to become severely ill with a viral infection which caused symptoms that ranged from a bad cold to hemorrhaging, and ultimately killed the infected victim.

Left with no other option, Harry wrote some final memoirs that detailed his illness in case he passed away from it like his mother did and addressed a final letter to Peter and MJ that told them that he was not, in fact, going to be in Europe searching for a cure as his father had planned to tell the world, but that his father would be placing him in stasis and continuing his research on the disease until he could find a cure.^[2] A year before the GR-27 crisis, Harry was put in stasis inside a tank by his father, who bonded him with a black alien symbiote that prevented his illness to grow further.^[1] MJ later discovered the letter in Harry's Journal and relayed it to Peter, though it was unknown to either where Harry was being kept in stasis.

Following the Devil's Breath (the vulgar name to the GR-27) crisis, Norman visited Harry, who was still inside that tank, the symbiote reacted to Norman placing his hand on the tank: it reached out to try and interact with him.^[2]

After a year or so, Harry regained consciousness and woke up to a news broadcast reporting Roxxon's criminal activity and Rio Morales's appointment as councilwoman. His father saw this and told the doctor looking over his son, Curt Connors, to get him out of stasis immediately.^[3]

Healing the World[]

Following his release, Harry fully recovered physically with the symbiote keeping his Oshtoran Syndrome in remission. He requested his father make a research building dedicated to fulfilling his late mother's dreams of "healing the world", naming it the Emily-May Foundation in honor of her and the late Aunt May.

Harry visited Peter at May's house, reuniting with Peter and May. He took Peter to Midtown High, offering Peter a position at the Foundation. In honor of his recovery, he met up with Peter and MJ at Coney Island, meeting Peter's new friends Miles Morales and Ganke Lee. However, Coney Island was attacked by the forces of Kraven. During the attack, Harry discovered the symbiote's other powers while trying to save civilians from a collapsing roller coaster, and that Peter and Miles were secretly the Spider-Men.

Astounded by his newfound powers, Harry went to the Emily-May Foundation to test the symbiote's abilities. After some experimenting, Harry used the symbiote to assist Peter in rescuing Tombstone from Kraven's hunters, manifesting it as a hybrid of black tactical armor and a Spider-Man suit. Despite Harry's callowness in crime-fighting, the duo succeeded in rescuing Tombstone. While celebrating their victory, the symbiote reached out for Peter, developing a spider symbol on Harry's costume. Afterwards, Harry returned to the lab to find Connors. In the meantime, he used his powers to stop crime in the city, occasionally assisting the Spider-Men in the process.

While Harry found Connors nowhere to be seen, MJ discovered he was captured by Kraven's forces, who were intending to turn him into the Lizard for Kraven's hunt. Peter and Harry arrived at Kraven's base at an abandoned zoo to rescue Connors, but Kraven successfully turned Connors into the Lizard, stole the antidote, and fatally stabbed Peter with a knife. Harry savagely used the symbiote to fight Kraven before turning his attention to a dying Peter. The symbiote then transferred itself to Peter, who used its powers to keep Kraven's forces at bay and buy MJ and Harry time to return to the lab.

Without the symbiote, Harry's Oshtoran syndrome returned. In the aftermath of the failed rescue, Peter tried to return the symbiote to Harry, but it refused to leave its new host. After Peter retrieved the antidote, Harry assisted Peter in creating a new antidote to restore Connors to normal. Peter used the antidote to cure Connors, but the symbiote mutated and began to corrupt him. Harry desperately requested the symbiote back from Peter, but Peter refused. Harry also discovered Norman praising Peter as a better son, worsening his self-esteem.

After Peter removed the symbiote with Miles's help, Peter swung over to Oscorp in an attempt to destroy it. Harry intercepted Peter and swung his cane at Peter in rage, cracking the symbiote's container. The symbiote broke free and bonded with Harry once more, but this time, it transformed him into a hulking, monstrous creature that rampaged through Oscorp. Kraven and his forces also intercepted the symbiote, but they were no match for its might, with the symbiote biting Kraven's head off. This act made Harry regain his senses, horrified at what he had done. He retreated to his mother's grave, where the symbiote convinced him with her voice to "heal the world" by infesting it with symbiotes.

Dubbing itself Venom, the symbiote controlled Harry's body as it enacted its plan to spread symbiotes to the world, even believing it was Harry and treating his memories as its own. Venom proceeded to produce more symbiotes, eventually infecting Mary Jane with the Scream Symbiote. Threatening Norman and Doctor Connors, the symbiote recovered the rest of the meteorite that brought it to Earth, merging together with the rest of it to produce more symbiotes.

Peter, Miles and MJ devised a plan to retrieve the meteorite and destroy it using the EMF's particle accelerator. Peter engaged Venom in a fight in order to distract it, but as soon as Venom noticed the meteorite being stolen, Venom defeated Peter and brought him to Emily-May, where it also faced Miles. Several times Harry tried to escape but the symbiote always engulfed him. In a climactic fight, Peter managed to burn it away with his new Anti-Venom symbiote; at the same time, the particle accelerator destroyed the meteorite and the symbiotes along with it.

Due to his disease, the shock of being separated from the symbiote after prolonged bonding, and the fight, Harry succumbed and died. Miles used his electric powers to defibrilate Harry in order to revive him. Though the procedure was successful, the brain damage prompted Harry to fall into a coma. Norman gave the medical assistance he needed, swearing vendetta against the two Spider-Men for conditioning his son into this.^[1]

• Oshtoran Syndrome: Rare genetic disease which was slowly killing him; Harry was placed in stasis in order to slow its progression while his father searched for a cure.

• Scott Porter voices Harry Osborn in Marvel's Spider-Man. Graham Phillips replaced him for Marvel's Spider-Man 2.
• Harry was briefly sent to Earth-616 by its Knull, but was returned with no memory of the event.^[4]

• This Harry comprises various characteristics of other iterations of the same character in other media:
  • He has been friends with Peter since childhood and suffers from a genetic disease much like the Harry Osborn from the Amazing Spider-Man duology, who suffered from Retroviral Hypodysplasia in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
  • He becomes the primary host of the Venom symbiote, much like the Harry Osborn from the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series.
• Harry is a V.I.P. member at the Deep End night club and would always try to get Peter to be included as well.
• While they were in high school, Peter and Harry would be "geeking out" in the A.V. Club.
• Harry's vigilante look was a visual nod to Agent Venom.^[1]