Sunday, July 18, 2004
Spiderman vs Batman: Harry Osborn
There but for the grace of god; Bruce Wayne could have been Harry Osborn.Harry Osborn is Peter Parker’s best friend. Their friendship was tested in Spider-man by the fatherly affection which Harry’s father, Norman Osborn, showed towards Peter Parker. Their friendship was further strained by Harry’s eventual involvement with M.J., Peter’s longtime love. Two years later, Harry’s friendship with Peter is complicated by his bitterness over his father’s death and his growing vendetta against Spider-man.
This post originally started out as a wild comparison between Spiderman’s ultra-ego, Peter Parker and Batman’s ultra-ego, Bruce Wayne. Why, because I was watching the end of Spider-man 2, and thinking Peter Parker lives in a one room hovel. It’s a clean hovel, at least his room, but a hovel nonetheless. Then I thought of Batman with his millions and his mansion, all deep and dark, and I was going to compare the two heroes. But on the road to my comparison, my mind waylaid me with the thought, “There but for the grace of god.”
“There but for the grace of god, Bruce Wayne is Harry Osborn or Harry Osborn is Bruce Wayne.” Think for a moment you have Bruce Wayne, a very rich little boy who turns into a brooding, vengeful superhero. He uses his mind and his money to create Batman. Then we have Harry Osborn very rich young man, who turns brooding and vengeful, and who is well on his way to villain status. A single act separates them.
Bruce Wayne watched his beloved parents get killed right in front of him, himself but one moment away from joining them, when the Joker is distracted and leaves him alive. We don’t really know that much about Bruce Wayne’s parents, except that they seemed to love him and he them. He has moral guidance from the ever faithful Alfred, but the Joker haunts him. The deaths of his parents haunt him. He becomes brooding, tortured by an echoing refrain…
…ever dance with the Devil in the pale moonlight?”
Now we have Harry Osborn, a child who desperately craves his father’s affections. Harry discovers Spider-man delivering the dead body of his father, and blames Spider-man for his father death. We know Harry, though he loves Peter Parker like a brother, is more Cain then Abel due to his father’s open affection for Peter. Harry has/had no idea that his father was the Globin. Peter is his best moral compass, and let’s just say “that’s not working out.” Harry’s a child seeking approval from a dead, uninterested father. Norman Osborn’s death haunts Harry. He becomes brooding, and tortures us with that echoing refrain…
… killed my father”
Both characters are attractive, rich, brooding, and destined to be powerful. The primary difference between Bruce and Harry is who killed their parents. For Bruce the trauma of being helpless against villiany has marked and shaped his life. Doing good is his revenge. For Harry, well poor Harry, he’s destined to follow his father’s steps which will pit him against the hero, Spider-man. The brother’s Cain and Abel with a twist.
Is there a moral? Not really, just a statement, “Crossing the line is always easier than we believe it to be.”
Footnotes
I may add some more thoughts to this later
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