March 2018 marked 25 years since the publication of Spectacular Spider-Man #200, one of the greatest Spider-Man stories of all time.
The culmination of long-running plot threads from the creative dream team of J.M. DeMatteis and Sal Buscema, it saw Spider-Man face off with the Green Goblin for the final time, pitting onetime best friends Peter Parker and Harry Osborn against each other. By the issue's end, Harry Osborn was dead, having found a degree of redemption but leaving both Peter and the reader to reflect sadly on what might have been.
Harry may have been restored to life since this memorable demise, but that in no way detracts from the power of his final moments, or the journey that took him to that point. While Norman Osborn is often characterized as Peter's greatest villain, and has been used almost to saturation point in the last decade, in many ways it is Harry that is the more compelling character. He has a humanity, a tragic struggle and an emotional connection to Peter that Norman, for all his obsessive madness, can never hope to match. The DeMatteis/Buscema run on Spectacular Spider-Man had many high points but their treatment of Harry helped elevate it even further.
In many ways, Harry was hiding behind a mask long before he donned the garish costume of the Green Goblin. Desperate for the love and attention of a distant, driven father, he knew that he had to try and be the kind of son that Norman wanted - a true Osborn. The pattern continued into College and in the early issues of Amazing Spider-Man the reader sees a character who is often brash and arrogant, yet occasionally lets the mask slip to reveal the self-doubt hidden beneath.
Harry's sense of self worth wasn't helped by his friendship with Peter Parker. While readers know the demands that Peter's double life places on him, when looked at objectively, it's clear that he is a pretty poor friend. Even when he and Harry shared an apartment, they were more like strangers than best friends, with Peter failing to notice Harry's increasing reliance on drugs. It's easy to see how Harry may have come to resent Peter for his unreliability, his seeming indifference coming as a further blow to someone who craved acceptance by others.
Harry's initial tenure as the Green Goblin was the desperate cry of a man on the edge, broken by feelings of betrayal, loneliness and the awful emptiness of wondering what might have been. Even after Norman's death, Harry couldn't help trying to live up to his expectations and make him proud, attempting to kill Peter Parker/Spider-Man in an act of revenge. The double whammy of uncovering Peter's secret identity and his concealing the true circumstances of Norman's death made it easy for an unhinged Harry to view Norman as the injured party and Peter as the aggressor.
When Harry eventually made a return to the Spider-titles he was able to build the family unit that he had long dreamed of. Embarking on a relationship with Liz Allen, Peter's High-School crush, the two later married and had a son, Normie. While Harry never managed to entirely escape the legacy of the Goblin, with imitators such as Hobgoblin targeting him for his presumed knowledge, he made a conscious attempt to focus on his family. Sadly this was not to last, and the fact that Harry had managed to reach a place of contentment and stability in his life is what made his fall all the more tragic when it came.
After a shortlived phase where he toyed with using the Green Goblin persona for good, Harry eventually decided to exorcise costumed madness from his life and focus on his family. As a dividing line with his father, Norman, it was an important one, with Norman's inability to resist his costumed persona ultimately costing him any hope of a normal family life. Unfortunately for Harry, when J.M. DeMatteis joined Sal Buscema on Spectacular Spider-Man, his struggle to escape the demons of his past was what underpinned their entire run.
The first story arc from DeMatteis and Buscema, 'The Child Within', running from #178-184, wasn't just a superb examination of the inner demons that haunted Vermin (Edward Whelan), Peter Parker and Harry Osborn; it also had an emotional resonance that few tales can match, with Harry's struggles being especially heartbreaking. The three main characters in the storyline were all haunted by childhood experiences that still held them captive as grown men, shaping the lives they had forged for themselves. For Vermin, it was childhood abuse; for Peter, it was the loss of his parents; and for Harry, it was the fruitless search for approval from a father that he both loved and hated.
The early parts of the storyline saw Harry plagued by manifestations of Norman Osborn and Peter Parker who both sought to dictate the kind of man he should be. There's a tragic inevitability to these conversations, as the reader sees Harry's protests being ignored or countered by his inner demons until he finally gives in to his fate. Making this all the more tragic are the scenes detailing Harry's relationship with his family - in particular his young son, Normie. While the end of the storyline sees both Edward and Peter make peace with aspects of their childhood trauma, Harry remains ensnared, unable to escape his past. His use of the Green Goblin persona becomes not a means of securing wealth or power as it was for his father, but a facade behind which he can attempt to hide his human fears and doubts. Even then, Harry's turmoil is all too clear to see, particularly in Buscema's depiction of a heartbroken Harry saying goodbye to his son.
Much has been written about Spectacular Spider-Man #200 in the past, and with good reason. It's one of the greatest Spider-Man stories of all time, providing an anniversary issue that doesn't go for cheap shock value but instead presents a story that's fueled by real emotions and the deep bonds between its central characters. Spider-Man and the Green Goblin are enemies but Peter and Harry are friends, and it's this dichotomy that fuels the story's events. Each man knows the other well enough to expect the worst, but cares about the other enough to hope for the best.
By this point it's clear that Harry's sanity has reached a new low, committing to the Goblin persona and fueled by hatred of Spider-Man and the desire to avenge his father. But there are still glimpses of the good man that is still inside, as seen by his love for his family and the way he reminisces with Mary Jane about the carefree days of College. Unfortunately, Harry is unable to escape from the shadow of Norman Osborn, and the fact that his actions as the Green Goblin aren't for his own benefit but to win the approval of his long-dead father make the whole situation even more tragic. Harry had the family and stable home life he had always dreamed of, but in the end his father's desires outweighed his own. It's disturbing to see that history might also be repeating itself, with little Normie gleefully acting out the execution of Spider-Man.
But as tragic as this is to see, as heartbreaking as it is to watch a good man slip down and take others with him, Harry's story is also ultimately uplifting. The climax of the issue sees Harry and a poisoned Peter within an office building that Harry has rigged to explode. There, Harry prepares himself for death, resigned to the fact that with their death, his obligations to his father and the hurt that the Osborns inflict on the world will be brought to an end. What alters Harry's plans is that Mary Jane and Normie Osborn enter the building, blissfully unaware of their impending demise.
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Peter is in no shape to help them, and at first Harry doesn't even intend to try. He insists that he's no hero, and that his father used to say that he can't do anything right. It falls to a desperate Peter to talk Harry round. He exclaims that "I don't care about your father! I care about you! And right now... you're the only hero we've got!" Peter's words help Harry finally escape the shadow of his father, giving him the push he needs to save Mary Jane and Normie, and ultimately Peter himself.
This would have been a satisfying ending to Harry's tale in itself, the faith and belief of a good friend finally overcoming the poison of Norman Osborn. Instead, DeMatteis and Buscema took another path, one that was perhaps truer to Harry's tragic life. After saving Peter, Harry collapses, with the experimental Goblin formula he used finally taking its toll. As Harry lies on the floor convulsing, the panel focuses on Peter cradling him as they have one final conversation. When Peter asks why Harry came back for him, he replies as if it were the simplest thing in the world. "Hey... What else could I do? You're my best friend."
The final two pages see Peter in the ambulance with Harry, the two best friends reunited one last time before Harry passes away. Peter breaks the news of Harry's death to Mary Jane and is ultimately left alone and distraught, while a photo in a scrapbook shows Peter and Harry in happier, more carefree days. J.M. DeMatteis has previously explained how these two pages were initially scripted like any other, but after seeing the finished artwork from Sal Buscema he realized there was nothing that words could add to embellish what was already there on the page. It was the right choice. These two pages have an emotional honesty to them that is sometimes rare in superhero fiction, and it seems somehow respectful that Peter and Harry's last conversation should be kept private.
Harry's time in costume as the Green Goblin may have been relatively brief, but in many ways it was something he had been moving towards for his entire life. Unable to escape the shadow of his twisted father, both strengthened and brought low by his friendship with Peter Parker, his tale was a tragic one expertly told. In Harry's progression from College student to family man to tortured villain, the writers and artists who chronicled this journey helped turn Harry into Marvel's most tragic villain. While Harry may have returned to the land of the living since his original 'death', it takes nothing away from the power of his original demise. When a story is so expertly told, when it's grounded by such real emotion, then it's the rare breed of story that will endure forever.