Kindred (Marvel)
Kindred is the name used by several characters in the Marvel Universe.
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Kindred (Harry Osborn)
- Main Article: Harry Osborn A.I.
Harry Osborn was the son of wealthy industrialist Norman Osborn. When he was still a child, Harry had his soul bargained by his father with the demon Mephisto in exchange for making his financial life more successful. With the deal closed as a result of this bargain, Harry was destined to suffer numerous personal tragedies when he reached adulthood, and when he died, he would have his soul sent to Hell. (Amazing Spider-Man v5 #72) By adulthood, he came to learn that his father had become the masked supervillain known as the Green Goblin. Norman Osborn later died in battle against the vigilante Spider-Man with Harry covering up his father's secret identity. In the aftermath, Harry came to learn that Spider-Man was secretly his friend Peter Parker and vowed to avenge his father. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #136) Falling into madness, Harry came to upload a copy of his mind onto an artificial intelligence that embodied himself, his father Norman and the Green Goblin personas where it was to enact schemes against Spider-Man whilst ensuring the Osborn legacy came to pass. (Spider-Man: Legacy of Evil v1 #1) The upload happened during a time in which Harry was being influenced by Mephisto, the Hell-Lord to who Norman had sold Harry's soul in exchange for achieving glory; thus creating a link between the A.I. and the demon. (Amazing Spider-Man v5 #74)
After Harry died, Liz Allan, his widowed wife and mother to his son Normie, activated the Osborn A.I. as she had been brainwashed to do. When the A.I. deployed a trio of feminine Green Goblin robots to abduct her son, Liz enabled them to take him and fled to the laboratory upon being discovered. The A.I. tried to expose Normie to the Goblin Formula in order to turn him into the next Green Goblin, but Spider-Man, Molten Man, and Ben Urich managed to rescue Normie before it could be done. The laboratory exploded soon afterwards, due to a chain reaction caused by the destruction of its weapon system. (Spider-Man: Legacy of Evil v1 #1)
Sometime later, the Osborn A.I. resurfaced in a secret laboratory inside Norman's mansion in Paris to watch over Gabriel and Sarah Stacy, twin children genetically-engineered from Norman and Gwen Stacy's DNA by Harry and Mendel Stromm. They were created to torture Peter, Norman, and Mary Jane Watson by making them believe Gwen had cheated on Peter with Norman and got impregnated by him as a result, with Harry going as far as to hiring Mysterio to hypnotize both Norman and Mary Jane to implant false memories which corroborated that narrative. The twins were raised by the A.I. to believe that lie as well. (Amazing Spider-Man v5 #73)
After Harry died, he came to leave his widowed wife Liz Allan who was mother to their son Normie Osborn. During these years, Osborn A.I. came to be activated where it was responsible for brainwashing Allan. When the A.I. deployed a trio of feminine Green Goblin robots to abduct her son, Liz enabled them to take him and fled to the laboratory upon being discovered. The A.I. tried to expose Normie to the Goblin Formula in order to turn him into the next Green Goblin, but Spider-Man, Molten Man, and Ben Urich managed to rescue Normie before it could be done. The laboratory exploded soon afterwards, due to a chain reaction caused by the destruction of its weapon system. (Spider-Man: Legacy of Evil v1 #1)
Kindred (Gabriel Stacy)
- Main Article: Gabriel Stacy
Gabriel Stacy was a genetically engineered clone human male created as part of a plot by Harry Osborn. Prior to his death, Harry Osborn had devised a cruel plan to torture both his father Norman and his former best friend Peter Parker. With the help of Mendel Stromm, he built a secret laboratory in the Parisian Osborn Manor and genetically-engineered two bodies spliced from Norman Osborn and Gwen Stacy's DNA: a boy named Gabriel and a girl named Sarah. They were created to torture Peter, Norman, and Mary Jane Watson by making them believe Gwen had cheated on Peter with Norman and got impregnated by him as a result, with Harry going as far as to hiring Mysterio to hypnotize both Norman and Mary Jane to implant false memories which corroborated that narrative. The twins were raised by an artificial intelligence designed from Harry and Norman's minds, who inherited Harry's revenge plots after he died, to believe that lie as well. (Amazing Spider-Man v5 #73) Due to a genetic flaw caused by Norman's enhanced blood, the Stacy twins aged at a rapid rate, resulting in their premature deaths. Taking advantage of that, Mephisto, the Hell-Lord to who Norman had sold Harry's soul in exchange for achieving glory, acted through the Osborn A.I. to bring them back to life again and again, forging them in the flames of Hell while they were in his realm. He planned to eventually use them as his pawns to claim Spider-Man's soul, thus averting a future he saw in which the hero's daughter with Mary Jane ended his reign of terror once and for all. (Amazing Spider-Man v5 #74)
Spider-Man met the twins atop George Washington Bridge to expose Norman's manipulations, as Sarah began to believe Spider-Man, while Gabriel was maddeningly convinced of the lie. Wrongly outraged that 'Spider-Man' had abandoned them, misbelieving he was attempting to pawn them off on Norman, Gabriel attacked a reticent Spider-Man who didn't want to hurt him. However, Police became involved and shot the twins, wounding Sarah. Meanwhile, Gabriel escaped and found a base Norman had told them about. Realizing Peter was telling the truth, he injected himself with Goblin Formula and donned a grey variant of the Green Goblin costume, becoming the Grey Goblin in an attempt to gain the strength to finally kill Spider-Man. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #513) Attacking at the hospital where Spider-Man was saving Sarah's life, Grey Goblin was ready to kill Spider-Man in his weakened state when Sarah intervened by shooting his Goblin Glider, causing it to blow up and Gabriel losing his memories. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #514) After Sarah had secretly taken him home to Paris and cared for him, a drug dealer from their youth came after the two for the theft of $1.5 million dollars of drugs Gabriel stole from him. When the pressure of nursing him and fending off the dealer became too much, Sarah attempted suicide and Gabriel escaped the Osborn estate in a crazed state while she was in the hospital. As he was on the loose, Sarah eventually joined Interpol in an effort to find Gabriel. (Spectacular Spider-Man v2 #26) Found again by Norman Osborn, Gabriel was injected with a Super-Soldier-Goblin Formula. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #598)
Kindred (Sarah Stacy)
- Main Article: Sarah Stacy
Sarah Stacy was a genetically engineered clone human male created as part of a plot by Harry Osborn. Prior to his death, Harry Osborn devised a cruel plan to torture both his father Norman and his former best friend Peter Parker. With the help of Mendel Stromm, he built a secret laboratory in the Parisian Osborn Manor and genetically-engineered two bodies spliced from Norman and Gwen Stacy's DNA: a boy named Gabriel and a girl named Sarah. They were created to torture Peter, Norman, and Mary Jane Watson by making them believe Gwen had cheated on Peter with Norman and got impregnated by him as a result, with Harry going as far as to hiring Mysterio to hypnotize both Norman and Mary Jane to implant false memories which corroborated that narrative. The twins were raised by an artificial intelligence designed from Harry and Norman's minds, who inherited Harry's revenge plots after he died, to believe that lie as well. (Amazing Spider-Man v5 #73) Due to a genetic flaw caused by Norman's enhanced blood, the Stacy twins aged at a rapid rate, resulting in their premature deaths. Taking advantage of that, Mephisto, the Hell-Lord to who Norman had sold Harry's soul in exchange for achieving glory, acted through the Osborn A.I. to bring them back to life again and again, forging them in the flames of Hell while they were in his realm. He planned to eventually use them as his pawns to claim Spider-Man's soul, thus averting a future he saw in which the hero's daughter with Mary Jane ended his reign of terror once and for all. (Amazing Spider-Man v5 #74)
In the meantime, Sarah and Gabriel were later released into the new world. Sarah's striking resemblance to Gwen caused confusion to Peter when he unmasked her after she tried to kill him. From the combination of clues on a letter they used to draw him out, and the implanted memories Mary Jane had of Gwen's arguing with Norman while Harry was hospitalized, Peter attempted to convince the twins of Norman's lies. While Gabriel refused, Sarah remembered that Peter had dug up Gwen's grave to get a DNA sample, and realized that Norman never even bothered to run his own DNA against theirs, and concluded Norman 'knew' that they couldn't be Peter's children. Unfortunately, the police intervened and opened fire on all of them before Spider-Man could deescalate things, and Sarah was shot while her brother fell into the river. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #513) Taken to the hospital, Sarah's body refused all blood transfusions until Spider-Man offered his in speculation that his own unusual blood samples would help to stabilize the Goblin serum in her bloodstream. After Sarah regained consciousness, her brother crashed through the hospital window having taken a new Goblin serum to become the Grey Goblin, and dragged Peter out to kill him. In his weakened state, Sarah was able to save Spider-Man by shooting her newly insane brother's Goblin Glider, causing him to crash and lose his memory. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #514)
Overview
In appearance, Kindred was the collective identity taken on by an artificial intelligence that had taken on the memory imprints of an insane Harry and Norman Osborn. (Amazing Spider-Man v5 #73) Harry Osborn mind by this time had descended into madness after his soul had been sold to the demon Mephisto. (Amazing Spider-Man v5 #74)
To interact with the world, Kindred operated primarily through the Gabriel and Sarah Stacy twins. The pair were actually genetically engineered clones developed by Mendel Stromm. They faced accelerated aging whose entire genetic make-up was fatally flawed that quickly led to their decay. Many were grown and died where they were noted to had suffered. The Stacy twins were raised on a lie believing themselves to be the product of an affair between Norman Osborn and Gwen Stacy. All the memories relating to this were simply false memories and illusions. Only one batch of the clones survived till adulthood where they were to serve as vessels for the A.I. to occupy at a certain point. It was at that point that their respective personalities died and they took on the shared identity of Kindred. (Amazing Spider-Man v5 #73) The clones were said to be forged within the fires of Hell. Due to inhabiting the Stacy clones, there were actually two people who operated in the Kindred guise who wore altering colours of the same uniform. Ultimately, they were deemed to be puppets for the version of Harry Osborn prior to his first death. (Amazing Spider-Man v5 #74)
Kindred was an imprint of the insane Harry Osborn who considered himself to be the sins of his friends and family staring back at them to remind them of everyone they let down. (Amazing Spider-Man v5 #73) It was said that this aspect of Harry had become the reflection of his father and all his evils. Thus, the sins of the father had become the sins of the son. (Amazing Spider-Man v5 #50.LR) Kindred claimed that he could not stand hypocrites, even from those that he had created for his schemes. (Amazing Spider-Man v5 #50) The Stacy clones believed themselves to had been created as weapons ultimately made by Norman Osborn and sent after his enemies. (Amazing Spider-Man v5 #74)
The centipedes were shown to be capable of digging through graves and raising the caskets of the dead bodies. (Amazing Spider-Man v5 #50)
It was shown that Kindred was capable of resurrecting the dead to serve them. (Amazing Spider-Man v5 #37) Kindred was also able to use the centipedes to take control of other people who were forced to serve them. (Amazing Spider-Man v5 #50)
The laboratory containing the A.I. allowed Kindred to also create a new clone of Harry Osborn with no memories of the actions conducted by the true version of himself. (Amazing Spider-Man v5 #73)
Notes
- The concept of the Kindred was created by Nick Spencer and Ryan Ottley where it made its first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man v5 #5 (September, 2018).
- The Stacy Twins were created by J. Michael Straczynski and Mike Deodato who made their first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man v1 #509 (August, 2004).
- The true identity of Kindred appeared in Amazing Spider-Man v1 #802 (September, 2018).
In other media
Video games
- In Marvel: Contest of Champions, Kindred was introduced as a playable champion in the setting of the mobile video game. The champion spotlight highlighted that Kindred was result of a cruel plot to torment Peter Parker with the sins of his past. Gabriel and Stacy Osborne were spliced from the DNA of Harry Osborne and Gwen Stacy, and raised by an artificial intelligence designed by Norman and Harry. The twins rapidly aged and then died due to a genetic instability, but were resurrected and given demonic powers by Mephisto to carry out the twisted revenge plot they had inherited. As Kindred, they wielded demonic strength, immortality, control over pestilence, and dream manipulation to break Peter Parker’s spirit and exact Harry’s revenge.
Appearances
- Amazing Spider-Man v5: (2018)
External Links
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