After nearly 50 issues (plus a few spin-offs), the mystery identity of Kindred has been revealed in this week's Amazing Spider-Man #50. Earlier this month Newsarama speculated on who Kindred would ultimately be revealed to be, and well...
We were right (for the most part).
Following the milestone Amazing Spider-Man #850, Amazing Spider-Man #50 launches into a new arc by revealing, after two years, that Kindred is Harry Osborn.
That's right - Peter Parker's long-time friend, and the son of Green Goblin.
Kindred has been looming in the background of writer Nick Spencer's run since September 2018's Amazing Spider-Man #5. Ever since his first appearance, Spencer has been dropping clues to who the mysterious character could be. The biggest clue being the villain's heated conversation with Norman Osborn in Amazing Spider-Man #30 where Kindred expresses just how much pain Norman had caused him.
Flash forward to this week's Amazing Spider-Man #50, the issue opens up with a darker palette courtesy of artist Patrick Gleason and colorist Edgar Delgado. Kindred uses one of his centipede-like creatures to dig George Stacy's body out of his grave. This is overlayed with a monologue about how long it's taken Peter and Kindred to come face-to-face - a metatextual statement for just how long the readers have also had to wait to see who is under Kindred's rotting mask.
The rest of the issue deals with the aftermath of Norman Osborn and Spider-Man's team-up from recent issues. Norman remains at Ravencoft Institute and comes face-to-face with Sin Eater, who offers to take away his sins and "kill" the Green Goblin. Sin Eater says he did this for Kindred, but gets double-crossed as he must bear the sins of one of the nastiest villains of the Marvel Universe. Now the question is - who is Norman Osborn without the Green Goblin?
In the meantime, Spider-Man is on the search to get to the bottom of his mysterious Kindred visions, which leads him to Doctor Strange's doorstep. It's then revealed that he's also looking to help his Spider allies as they're being controlled by Kindred's dark entity.
We then transition to a creepy visual of Kindred eating dinner with George and Gwen Stacy's corpses. He wants Peter to be surrounded by the people he loves when they finally come face-to-face with each other.
The issue concludes with Ravencroft seconds away from collapsing as the security guards find Norman Osborn in the rubble. For once Norman responds unselfishly telling the guards to not worry about him but to save themselves. Doctor Kafka joins the rescue team telling Norman he'll have to answer for all the secrets he's been hiding in Ravencroft.
Norman says he's a changed man. He warns Doctor Kafka about the dangers of Kindred. He wants to find Kindred as he fears for the villain's madness, revealing that the monster is his son.
There still isn't much information about Harry's motivation as his identity is revealed at the very end of the issue, but this could lead to a very intriguing father vs. son battle between Norman and Harry. It seems that this version of Harry has inherited much of Norman's madness and the villain's twisted moral compass, but now with Norman's sins taken away by Sin Eater can he be a trustworthy ally to Spider-Man?
'Last Remains' continues with October 21's Amazing Spider-Man #50.LR, then Amazing Spider-Man #51 on October 28.
Secret identities are no joke in Spider-Man comic books - check out all the times Spider-Man's secret identity has been revealed.
