When Peter Parker’s secret identity was re-set by Brand New Day, Mephisto also brought Harry Osborn back from the dead. Or so I had assumed. Now, many months later, that resurrection is explained–and it’s not magic.
Harry goes to visit his ex-wife, Liz Allan, but Liz’s brother Molten Man is there and their kid, little Normie Osborn, gets burned. I lose a lot of points for reading retention here, as I had completely forgotten that Liz and Molten Man were siblings–and barely recall her being the mother of Harry’s child.
Anyway, the burning was an accident–Molten Man is losing control over his powers. He blames Harry Osborn and wants to kill him. Spidey fights MM, prevents the killing, and in the end Harry gives the dude a job(?!). Anyhow, the action piece at the center of these issues is a pretty good, albeit standard, Molten Man fight.
What matters, though, is not the fight. Over the course of the story, Harry relates that when he seemingly died from taking Goblin Serum back in PPTSS #200, he actually only seemed to be dead but woke up in the morgue where his daddy–also then thought dead–arranged for Harry to disappear, with the help of Mysterio…
…who apparently can craft death certificates as part of his illusion powers. We’ve never seen him have a knack for bureaucratic forgery before, but it totally makes sense. I love that he’s used that way here.
During his “dead time,” Harry went to rehab and was brainwashed by his dad into forgetting that the Green Goblin ever existed. But recently he saw Norman put on the garb again, and that brought it all back to Harry.
Okay, as far as “he wasn’t really dead” stories go, this is a pretty solid one. At least it’s much more satisfying than “because Mephisto said so,” right?