History

Years ago, there was a brilliant scientist and businessman named Norman Osborn. However, Norman was overshadowed by his partner Mendell Stromm, in addition to being in debt and about to lose his position in their company. Salvation, of a sort, arrived in the form of a strange man offering Norman a deal. The man revealed himself to be the demon Mephisto, lord of hell, and the deal was simple. Mephisto would help Norman expose Stromm’s embezzlement, and in return, Norman would give the demon the soul of his son Harry Osborn.

Now in control of their company, Norman conducted an experiment with a formula from Stromm’s notes that resulted in him becoming the Green Goblin. While his son became best friends with Peter Parker, Norman became the arch-enemy of Peter’s superhero alter ego, Spider-Man. This in turn, caused a series of events that led Harry to becoming the Green Goblin and paving his own road to hell, fulfilling Norman’s part of the deal. After taking an experimental version of the formula that turned his father into the Green Goblin, Harry realized he was slowly dying, and decided to enact a plan to destroy Spider-Man after his death.

With the help of Stromm, now the Robot Master, and Mysterio, he created two clones, Gabriel and Sarah, with the DNA of Norman and Gwen Stacy. He then had Mysterio use hypnotism to implant false memories in Norman and Mary Jane Watson to make them think the clones were Norman and Gwen’s children. With this, Harry planned to gaslight Spider-Man while giving his father the children he had always wanted. Finally, Harry uploaded his mind into a computer to create an AI version of himself that would raise the clones and carry out other revenge schemes against Spider-Man. Harry then went to have one last battle with Spider-Man before he died. After a long fight, Harry was on the verge of killing him, but at last recognized his insanity, and saved Peter from a bomb he had planted. Finally succumbing to the effects of the experimental formula, Harry was able to reconcile with his best friend, but was unable to tell him about the plot he had set in motion, resulting in him ending up in hell.

To keep Norman and Spider-Man from learning about his plans, he even had Mysterio create a clone of himself and use hypnotism again to make Norman think it was the original Harry, having secretly survived his battle. Not long afterwards, Mysterio would commit suicide after contracting cancer and failing to pyschologically break Daredevil. However, Harry’s plan soon ran into some problems. The cloning process for Gabriel and Sarah was flawed and caused them to age rapidly and die, with the AI Harry repeating the tortuous process over and over again. Because of Norman’s deal and Harry’s actions, the AI was under Mephisto’s influence, and as result, Gabriel and Sarah’s souls ended up in hell each time. Mephisto was slowly turning them into demons, through which he hoped to crush Spider-Man.

However this process was interrupted, when one iteration of Gabriel and Sarah managed to survive long enough to go after Spider-Man, thinking he was the one who killed Gwen Stacy. Fortunately, Peter was able to convince Sarah that she had been deceived, but Gabriel refused to accept the truth and attempted to become Norman Osborn’s heir. Thanks to their encounter with Peter and Mary Jane, Sarah and Gabriel’s lives were prolonged, though Sarah would die some time before the superhero civil war. Gabriel would survive a little longer, donning armor Norman had designed for the clone of Harry Osborn and adopting the identity of American Son.

After Sarah’s latest death, she finally became a demon, and was used as a vessel by AI Harry, with memories of Harry’s after he uploaded his mind provided by Mephisto. Her first move was to resurrect Mysterio to act as her agent. After Gabriel died, he too became a demon, and he and Sarah decided to go by the shared name and identity of Kindred. After killing Stromm to cover their tracks and unnerving Spider-Man with the murder and their telepathy, Kindred initiated their plan to break Spider-Man. Using Mysterio, Kindred separated Mary Jane from Peter by having her go to Hollywood to work on a film created by him. They then resurrected Spider-Man’s old villain the Sin-Eater to absorb the sins of the Green Goblin and several of Spider-Man’s other enemies.

With the sins, Kindred possessed Spider-Man’s allies and forced him to confront Kindred at long last. Using a serum provided by the Chameleon, Kindred made their face look like Harry’s and tormented Peter by revealing it. Their goal was to get Peter to admit he had forgotten about Gabriel and Sarah, as well as to selling his marriage with Mary Jane to Mephisto to save his Aunt May. Fortunately, Norman, now free of sin, was able to capture the Kindred confronting Spider-Man. However, this left the other Kindred free to operate behind the scenes. Meanwhile, all these events attracted the attention of Dr. Strange, who went to Mephisto to try and figure out his plan.

Having failed to completely break Spider-Man, Kindred began recruiting dozens of his villains to try and kill him once and for all. At the same time, Mephisto decided to make a bet with Strange over Kindred’s plan, offering to give up the souls of the villains Kindred recruited, who normally would’ve ended up in hell, if he lost, and taking Strange’s soul if he won. Against all odds, Peter was able to defeat the villains with the help of Boomerang and Doctor Octopus, and went to face Kindred with Norman Osborn and Mary Jane one last time. As the two Kindreds were about to kill Spider-Man, help arrived from an unexpected source. The clone of Harry, who had been imprisoned by Kindred, uncovered repressed memories of his predecessor’s plans, and was able to free himself to save Peter.

This played into Kindred’s plan however, as they killed clone Harry in front of the sinless Norman, to the latter’s despair. Now making one last ditch effort against Kindred, Mephisto and Dr. Strange made a final bet on whether they would be able to break Spider-Man’s spirit, with Mephisto freeing Harry’s soul if he lost. Trapped under some rubble by their battle, it seemed like Mephisto and Kindred might win, but Mary Jane was able to help Peter and provide him the hope he needed. With Mephisto’s defeat, he abandoned the clones, who soon began to die from their rapid aging. In their final moments Spider-Man was able to comfort them as his and their nightmare ended.