Amazing Spider-Man #646
Origin of the Species Part Five
The Lizard has taken the baby Osborn to his underground lab. He stumbles to make formula for the newborn, because it requires him to use the brain of his alter-ego, Curt Connors.[1] He decides that the baby will make a good bargaining chip to make sure that Osborn never interferes with him agian.[2] However, he also considers that maybe he won’t need the baby after all and grabs a needle off his work table.
At that same time, Doctor Octopus is hunting for the Lizard after learning that the creature stole the Osborn baby. He finds a homeless man who saw where the Lizard went, and after being directed to a nearby subway tunnel, he is joined by Spider-Man who asks Otto to help him find the baby. Octavius questions why Spider-Man would want to his help. The web-slinger points out that the baby is useless to either of them if it dies, and this is enough for the Doctor to grudgingly accept the web-slinger’s help. Otto warns Spider-Man that once they find the baby he will kill both him and the Lizard.
As they travel the tunnel, Spider-Man reveals that he figured out that Otto had planted a tracking device on him. That’s when the Lizard’s pheromones begin affecting the r-complex in Otto’s brain. He reverts to savagery and begins attacking Spider-Man. Although it falls on deaf ears, Spider-Man explains how the Lizard’s new powers work and uses his enemies reduced mental capacity to easily tangle up his mechanical arms and then slams Doctor Octopus into the side of a wall, knocking him out.[3]
That’s when the Lizard come crashing through a wall. The creature orders Spider-Man to get out of his domain. Spider-Man threatens to spray the Lizard with webbing that he has treated with the antidote for his condition. However, the Lizard doesn’t want to put up a fight and offers to give the Osborn baby back to him, telling the web-slinger that his senses have determined that the baby is useless to him and Doctor Octopus. The Lizard takes Spider-Man back to his lab and explains that the baby doesn’t smell right, but can’t utilize Curt Connor’s scientific skills full enough to run a test. Spider-Man finishes the test and determines that the baby Osborn is completely human, unaltered by the Goblin Formula.
That’s when Doctor Octopus comes crashing into the room. His mind still governed by his r-complex, he refuses to believe the baby is of no use to him. Doc Ock still needs to get away from the Lizard to get his intelligence back but Spider-Man entices him to fight the Lizard instead by playing into his superiority complex.[4] Spider-Man then leaves Doctor Octopus and the Lizard to fight it out.
Meanwhile, at the home of Shelly Hatton, the police are carting away Tombstone. Mary Jane gets a text message from Peter Parker and tells Carlie Cooper that Peter and the baby are safe. Once the police are gone, Lily Hollister comes out of hiding. Hearing that her baby is safe, she decides that she can’t stay as long as Osborn’s people are hunting for her. As she leaves on her Goblin Glider, Harry returns and calls for Lily to stay, but she ignores his pleas and flies off. Mary Jane tells him that there are other concerns. Given instructions to go to Avengers Tower, Harry meets with Spider-Man in the lab. The web-slinger takes a sample of Harry’s blood and runs a quick DNA test and confirms what he suspected all along, that the baby is actually his, and not his father’s.[5]
Harry is overjoyed to hear this because he always hoped that the baby was his. Recalling how he almost ingested the Goblin Formula again earlier that day, he tells the web-slinger that he doesn’t know what he would have done to get him back. As Harry leaves Avengers Tower with his son, Spider-Man warns him that there might be other villains out there that might not have gotten the news that the baby is useless to them and asks him to be careful. Watching Harry walk away, Peter thinks that this new responsibility will bring out a new side to Harry Osborn. Catching the news that he has been exonerated of any wrong doing in the kidnapping of the baby Osborn, Spider-Man is thankful that Steve Rogers put the call in for him. Although he still has to figure out how to get a job and be able to support himself, Spider-Man considers that turn out of this latest developments in his life have been amazing.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Doctor Octopus, the Lizard, Stanley Osborn (unnamed), Harry Osborn, Mary Jane Watson, Lily Hollister
Continuity Notes
At the time of this story, the Lizard has taken full control of Curt Connor’s body as seen in Amazing Spider-Man #630-633.
Not entirely sure why the Lizard fears Norman Osborn here. The only possible thing I can think of is that Osborn interfered in Curt Connor’s attempts to cure the Freak by stealing his body in Amazing Spider-Man #554.
The Lizard’s new powers were gained in the aforementioned Amazing Spider-Man #630-633. Spider-Man is immune to this ability because he has taken the antidote.
Spider-Man mentions how Doctor Octopus used to call himself the Master Planner and how he formed the Sinister Six. Otto went by the “Master Planner” name from Amazing Spider-Man #32-33. He formed the Sinister Six in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1.
Harry was led to believe that his father, Norman Osborn, was the baby’s father in Amazing Spider-Man #595-599.
