American Son Part 1

Peter Parker is spending time in Central Park with his friend Harry Osborn. Spotting two attractive women passing by, Harry decides to use his charm to convince to give their numbers. At first, it looks like Peter is going to blow the whole situation with his clumsy conversation, but Harry is slick-talking and charming enough to trick the women into giving them their numbers. Their victory, unfortunately, is soured when a Quinjet passes by on its way back to Avengers Tower, reminding them both that Harry’s father — Norman Osborn — is now the leader of the Avengers. Peter wonders if there is any getting away from Norman now he is America’s top cop, but Harry points out that they’ll do just fine in the real world.[1]

Later, at a bullpen meeting at the offices of the Front Line, Peter suggests that they work on taking down Norman Osborn. While all the other staff laughs at this, Ben Urich is interested and asks Peter what he has on Osborn. Peter points out that Norman went from running the Thunderbolts — a group of “reformed” villains that undermined people’s civil rights — to running HAMMER and the Avengers, also his past history as the Green Goblin.[2] While Urich is interested he points to Peter that people are willing to ignore Osborn’s past digressions if he lives up to his promise to protect them from alien invasion and that he needs some new evidence to prove that Osborn is abusing his power. This frustrates Peter and he storms out in a rage. However, this entire exchange has inspired Norah Winters to look into Norman Osborn a little more deeply.[3]

Later that day, Spider-Man meets with Wolverine on a rooftop and tries to convince him to assist on storming Avengers Tower to take down Norman Osborn.[4] Wolverine points out that they already attempted something like this with more people and failed and asks Spider-Man why he is so intent on taking down Osborn.[5] Spider-Man recounts all the times he could have stopped Norman Osborn once and for all and couldn’t take things that far. Wolverine points out that Spider-Man doesn’t operate like that and reminds the web-slinger that villains like Osborn — establishment guys — it’s a long game, not like the scraps they get with street-level criminals.[4] Before he leaves though, Wolverine suggests that when they do eventually take down Osborn, if Spider-Man has the opportunity to end his life to do it.

Later that evening, Peter brings Harry with him to Gracie Mansion where mayor J. Jonah Jameson is celebrating the recent engagement of his father, Jay Jameson, and Peter’s Aunt May. Although Jameson is outwardly celebratory, he secretly wants this courtship to stop and tries to convince Peter to agree with him, to no avail. That’s when Jameson’s butler informs them that the final guest has arrived. Everyone is shocked to discover that the last guest is Norman Osborn. However, May and Jay refuse to have dinner with Osborn, given his past history and insist upon leaving.[7] Osborn responds to this with veiled insults about Jay being dishonorably discharged from the military. That’s when Norman admits to Harry that he actually insisted on coming once he heard that his son Harry was going to be in attendance. He then offers Harry a position within his new team of Avengers. Harry laughs in his father’s face and tells him he’d be more explicit if a lady wasn’t present before kissing May on the cheek and wishing her a good night. This naturally angers Norman who silently fumes as his son leaves the room.

Later, once Harry returns to his home, he tries to not let his father to get to him. That’s when he is visited by Menace, his former girlfriend. When Menace begins having shifting moods. Harry tells her that it is the Goblin Formula messing with her sanity. However, Menace says it’s something else and when she reverts back to her human identity of Lily Hollister, she reveals something shocking to Harry. At that moment, Norman Osborn is in his limo back to Avengers Tower and getting a status update from Victoria Hand when Spider-Man rips the roof off his car.[8] Spider-Man yanks Norman out of the limo and begins beating on him while also telling Norman that Harry is off-limits to him from now on.[9] He continues to punding into Osborn who doesn’t resist and even has the audacity to ask Spider-Man to give him a moment when his cellphone starts to ring.[10] It turns out to be Harry, who informs his father that he is accepting his offer. Hearing this causes Spider-Man to angrily to storm off. After Harry hangs up the phone, he hugs Lily’s pregnant belly and tells her that he’ll do whatever it will take to support her and their unborn child.

Summary

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Norman Osborn, Harry Osborn, Ben Urich, Norah Winters, Wolverine, J. Jonah Jameson, Menace, Aunt May, Jay Jameson, Victoria Hand

Continuity Notes

1. Norman Osborn was given charge of SHIELD (which he renamed Hammer) and the Avengers after he killed Queen Veranke, the leader of a Skrull invasion of Earth in Secret Invasion #8. He formed his so-called Dark Avengers in Dark Avengers #1.

2. Norman Osborn had been the Green Goblin consistently since Amazing Spider-Man #14. Some facts that Peter drops here are:

   • His stint with the Thunderbolts which ran from Thunderbolts #110-122 when he capped the Skrull Queen.

   • Osborn' has been outed as the Green Goblin on a number of occasions in Spider-Man: Legacy of Evil #1, and The Pulse #5. However, Osborn has walked back these revelations in Spectacular Spider-Man #250 and Amazing Spider-Man #569 respectively.

3. Norah jokingly asks Peter out to lunch and suggests that they go out and later and punch politician Nancy Pelosi in the face. She then wonders if Peter is going to call Mother Theresa a slut as an encore to his diatribe against Norman Osborn. Both of these references should be considered topical.

4. Spider-Man references the movies Ocean’s Eleven and Back to the Future as well as actors George Clooney and Brad Bitt. All of these references are topical as well.

5. Wolverine is referring to when the New Avengers attempted to storm Avengers Tower in New Avengers #48-50.

6. Wolverine draws as a comparison between Norman Osborn and the last President of the United States. Quipping it took them 8 years to get rid of him. Given the year of publication, this is a reference to George W. Bush, who was President of the United States for two terms from 2001 to 2009, Barack Obama was elected President following that. While most people today like to think it’s cute that Dubya draws pictures, back in the 2000s he was reviled among left-leaning individuals over his response to 9/11, his stripping of civil liberties during the “War on Terror” and the fact that he was basically a war criminal for opening Guantanamo Bay. Basically, he was a piece of shit and this reference is topical.

7. Mention is made of May’s bad history with Norman Osborn. That’s putting it lightly. Norman kidnapped her from Amazing Spider-Man #392 to Spider-Man #97 and had her replaced with an imposter as part of a scheme to torment Spider-Man.

8. Victoria mentions that his Avengers have slipped in some popularity points after Hawkeye’s announcement. After Norman announced his Dark Avengers, the team’s formation was denounced by the real Hawkeye in Dark Avengers #4/New Avengers #50.

9. The scene of Spider-Man pulling Norman Osborn out of his limo is paying homage the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #39 which featured the Green Goblin pulling a partially uncostumed Peter Parker across the sky.

10. Spider-Man mentions “all of the things” that Norman has taken away from him in the past. Prime among these things was the murder of Gwen Stacy whom Norman killed in Amazing Spider-Man #121. Osborn also turned Spider-Man’s life upsidedown by manipulating him during the Clone Saga (to get the gist of it just check out Spider-Man: The Osborn Journal #1). Other hits on Norman Osborn’s parade was the aforementioned kidnapping of Aunt May, causing Mary Jane to have a miscarriage in Amazing Spider-Man #418, and the revelation that Norman had an affair with Gwen prior to her death which begat twin children as we saw in Amazing Spider-Man #509-514.