Now that we’ve all had a chance to play/watch Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, I’m here to show you all the Harry Osborn details and easter eggs from the game. Ready for a bit of a deep dive into the Osborn-based comics?

Coney Island

Harry has the time of his life at Coney Island in Spider-Man 2. It’s tempered with a couple of sad moments you have to watch out for, though. While running around from ride to ride, MJ asks Harry if he wants some snack food and he says no, he has to watch his diet for the sake of his health. And when the group stops near the dunk tanks, MJ points them out and Harry says, “It’s going to be a hard pass from me.” Because, of course, he’s spent too much time in a tank already.

MJ asks, “Really? You used to be really into swimming. Didn’t you win state?” but Pete quickly interjects with a “People can change.” It looks like Harry’s swimming skills are another thing he lost to his illness.

…But Harry lost more than that in the comics. Thanks to Norman, his soul was handed over to the devil Mephisto. At Coney Island.

Harry talks in the game about wanting to spend his birthday at Coney Island, and guess what? Mephisto’s interest in buying Harry’s soul starts on his birthday as well. Harry’s dad sold him on his birthday, at his favorite theme park, while he was enjoying himself. Screw you, Norman.

Basketball

The Harry of the Insomniac Spider-Man games is an athletic guy. As well as that swimming championship mentioned earlier, he plays basketball too.

Harry’s love of basketball follows him from adaption to comic and back again. I think the first glimpse of basketball-playing Harry was Spider-Man 3, and then he plays it to cement his friendship with Peter in the J.M. DeMatteis comic A Matter of Trust (we learn that he picked it up in a psych ward). Now it forms a part of the Peter-Harry friendship in the game series as well.

Whenever Peter and Harry play basketball, one of them always has to wear a blue jacket and the other a green jacket! Apparently it’s the rule!

“Kill me”

Harry’s arc as Venom in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 seems to borrow a few things from his stint as a monstrous Hobgoblin in Ultimate Spider-Man. (Comics, not cartoon.) It uses the same tropes of a horrible transformation and a plea for a mercy killing. Don’t these panels here from USM #77 sound familiar?

Popping pills

After Peter’s personality changes thanks to the symbiote, he turns into the biggest jerk of all time and snaps at the terminally ill Harry who is taking medicine to survive, “Why don’t you pop some more pills and tell us what you’re really thinking?” Yikes. But this doubles as a reference (intentional or not) to a very famous Harry Osborn story.

In the comics Harry struggled a lot with pill addiction, because Stan Lee and co. wanted to tell a story about the dangers of drugs. Peter’s angry statement to Harry in the game is unfathomably cruel, but it would have been quite cruel to say to addict Harry as well.

Liz Allan

Harry has a “meet cute” (as Peter and MJ describe it) with a blonde woman at Coney Island. She so happens to look a bit like Harry’s wife in the comics, Liz Allan.

She’s linked with Harry right away. He gives her a unicorn plushy, sits next to her on the rollercoaster, and helps save her life when the Hunters attack Coney Island. So I like to think she’s Liz, even though she doesn’t seem to have much in common personality-wise with 616 Liz. (She seems rather shy and nervous.) Harry doesn’t pursue her but hey, maybe she took an interest in him and that’s why they ended up on the rollercoaster at the same time!

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If you spotted any other references in the game, lemme know in the comments! Even if they’re not Harry-related I’d love to hear them!