1. Will Harry Osborn become Venom?
Harry Osborn has been lots of things in the comics: Peter’s best friend, a hyperintelligent AI, a dead guy, and, of course, Green Goblin, just to name a few. He’s never been Venom in the comics, though he did don the suit to become Venom in 2012’s Ultimate Spider-Man animated series. Insomniac showed a willingness to mess with some tried-and-true aspects of Spider-Man lore in the first game, such as making Otto Octavius one of Peter’s closest friends and mentors to tell the story of his tragic downfall. So might we finally see Harry become Venom once again?
The clues are certainly there. Harry has been “away” for some time as the first game starts due to what we later learn is a debilitating chronic illness called Oshtoran Syndrome. He told his friends that he was going to Europe, but we learn in a mid-credits stinger that Harry isn’t across the sea, the East River, or even across town. In fact, Mary Jane stood just a few feet away from him at one point. The ominous steel tank in Norman’s hidden laboratory contains Harry himself, suspended in a clear green fluid, with black tendrils moving around him.
It’s all but given that the black tendrils are the Venom Symbiote. We assumed as much at the end of the first game, and the introduction of Venom as a major character in Spider-Man 2 guarantees it. But whether Harry will be the one to wear the Symbiote is much more difficult to tell. On the one hand, it seems likely that this Symbiote would’ve bonded with Harry and could act as a sort of life-saving suit. In the comics, Venom bonds with Flash Thompson former bully of Peter Parker, turned war veteran and amputee. Flash becomes Agent Venom, a heroic character wearing the Symbiote suit.
On the other hand, Harry has absolutely no beef with Peter or Spider-Man. He seems to know that Peter is Spider-Man based on the fact that he left him all kinds of notes to do work in inaccessible rooftop labs, but he still considers Peter his best friend. Further, we know from the footage that we’ve seen that Peter wears the Symbiote suit for at least part of the game. Historically when the Symbiote splits off, it forms separate personalities like Carnage and Riot. So it seems unlikely that Peter and Harry would be wearing the Symbiote at the same time, and even less likely that Peter would take on the Symbiote knowing what it is.
We’re open to possibilities–just about every tweak Insomniac made to known Spidey villains in the original game made it more interesting in the long run. But right now, we don’t think Harry is Venom–someone else will take that on.
