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After reinventing the Green Goblin, Marvel’s Ultimate Universe reinvented their Harry Osborn as a radically different incarnation of the Hobgoblin.
The Ultimate Comics universe of Earth-1610 allowed various classic characters to be reinvented in unexpected and unique ways — even taking on roles they might not have in the core-Marvel Universe. This extends to Harry Osborn, the best friend of Peter Parker and son of Norman Osborn aka the Green Goblin — who across multiple realities has gone on to become a villain in his own right.
The Harry Osborn of Ultimate Spider-Man may not have become the same caliber of the villain as his Earth-616 incarnation, but his role as the Ultimate Hobgoblin still gave him a monstrous transformation and an ultimately tragic ending.
Much like in the core-Marvel Universe, the Harry Osborn of Earth-1610 was the neglected son of Norman Osborn. Developing a close friendship with Peter Parker, Harry’s life was radically transformed when his father utilized the Oz Formula on himself — morphing him into the monstrous Green Goblin. Harry survived Norman’s murder of his mother and was left traumatized by the event. A later confrontation between Norman and the Ultimates resulted in Harry deciding that it was their fault that terrible things had happened to his father and his family — setting him up to vow vengeance against the assorted heroes. This came to fruition when it was revealed a post-hypnotic series of suggestions left in Harry led him to reserves of the Oz Formula, allowing him to imbue it and gain a Goblin form of his own.
Dubbed the Hobgoblin (an unrelated villain in the originals Marvel Universe), Harry battled Spider-Man and SHIELD — switching between trying to kill his former friend and begging Spider-Man to kill him. In many ways, this is similar to the Earth-616 Harry Osborn, who also begun as a friend of Peter Parker. But after learning of his father’s identity as the Green Goblin and his death (seemingly at the hands of the Wall-Crawler), Harry took up the Goblin mantle and tried to bring about the end of Spider-Man. Harry’s attempts to control that aspect of his life became one of his most consistent attributes, building to recent events when the corrupted and vengeful Harry has been revealed to be the true identity of the seemingly demonically empowered Kindred.
Although his prominence in Ultimate Spider-Man was comparatively much smaller than in the original Amazing Spider-Man storylines that inspired it, Harry’s transformation was another cog in the never-ending conflict between Peter Parker and Norman Osborn. Like his Earth-616 counterpart, his vendetta against Spider-Man only threw him into the chaotic life of Peter Parker further and got him targeted by agents of SHIELD. Eventually, Harry even ended up as a pawn in their games against Norman Osborn — with the then-acting head of SHIELD Carol Danvers using him as bait to draw out Norman into a trap. But the ensuing fight saw Harry assume his Hobgoblin form as well, only for the transformation to wear off.
This meant Harry was defenseless as Norman beat him to death with his bare hands — leaving both Peter and Norman shocked and horrified by what had transpired. The Ultimate Hobgoblin may have been Harry Osborn’s ultimate form, and the hulking transformation it introduced in him was a major physical upgrade over how his Green Goblin incarnation Earth-616 relied on technology and theatrics. But he also ended up with a far shorter shelf-life, as his death at the hands of his father continued to haunt Norman and Peter while the Harry of Earth-616’s transformation into the Green Goblin — and then Kindred — has been steadily revealed to make him into one of Spider-Man’s greatest foes.
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