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Who is the new Marvel villain Kindred from the Amazing Spider-Man? That's a question fans have been asking since his debut in September 2018's Amazing Spider-Man #5. Two years and over 40 issues later, the person behind the rotting mask hasn't been revealed - but with this week's big milestone issue Amazing Spider-Man #850 (a legacy renumbered #49 from the current volume), that question may finally be answered.
Before Amazing Spider-Man #850's release on October 7, Newsarama has rounded up the major suspects and put them in a proverbial line-up for you to speculate and suss out the mystery person on your own.
Harry Osborn
There's not much known about Kindred, but one thing is for certain – the character has some sort of connection to Norman Osborn. In Amazing Spider-Man #30, Kindred finds Norman in his Ravencroft prison. Kindred threatens that he could kill him now if he wanted to as he would find pleasure in the slow torture of the man he hates.
Does Kindred hate Norman Osborn because of his connection to Peter or does the antagonist have his own vendetta against the Green Goblin? It seems like it's the later as his monologue to Norman explains how terrified and helpless Norman made Kindred feel in the past.
Norman has a long list of people who hate him, but his son, Harry, is on the tippy top. Spencer's run has put a focus on Spidey's classic supporting characters – including the return of Mary Jane Watson. Why not continue with this thread and bring back one of Spidey's most classic supporting characters to the forefront, allowing a version of Harry Osborn to take on the identity of Kindred?
Plus, Harry did come back from the dead close to the timeframe of 'One More Day,' a storyline that has been a large focus in writer Nick Spencer's current run. His connection with death would fit the insect and rotting motif we've seen from Kindred thus far.
Playing devil advocate - Harry Osborn is probably the most obvious of the suspects, which most likely means Green Goblin's son is being used as a red herring.
Flash Thompson
Could Kindred be Flash Thompson, returning from the dead? It would be exactly 50 issues ago in Dan Slott's Amazing Spider-Man #800 where Flash Thompson died a heroic death as Venom, but just like any other comic book hero, there has to be a time when he makes his return.
Now, of course, Flash didn't start out as a hero – it took him decades to get to that point and truly become friends with Peter. But could his death revert him back to villain status? Did he go to hell to pay for all his wrongdoings as a high school bully? I'm sure an experience like that would change a person and maybe even cause him to become jaded once again towards Peter.
Earth-616 Gwen Stacy
Now let's dive into the many 'One More Day' references that Nick Spencer has scattered throughout his almost 50 issue run.
Kindred has been referenced to be a "he" throughout his appearances, but is that misdirection to who is actually under the suit? The bulky nature of the costume makes it plausible that it could be a woman under the mask. Is that woman Gwen Stacy?
Her character checks all the boxes – she died, has a personal vendetta against Norman Osborn, and she even has a tie to all of those 'One More Day' teases. Next to Uncle Ben, Earth-616 Gwen Stacy's death has been one of the few deaths in comics that has actually stuck.
Gwen Stacy regained popularity when being reintroduced as her own Spider person in the Edge of Spider-Verse #2 as Spider-Gwen of Earth-65. The character became a smash hit with multiple spin-off series that even led to an ongoing series starring Spider-Gwen, a.k.a. Ghost-Spider. Could this popularity lead to Gwen Stacy truly returning to the 616 universe?
Amazing Spider-Man has tried with 'The Clone Conspiracy' and the infamous 'Sins Past,' but with no real luck of bringing the original Gwen Stacy back into the regular universe. With the 'One More Day' connections, could this be the story where Nick Spencer finally pulls it off?
'One More Day' Peter Parker
Speaking of 'One More Day,' this is the most out of the box theory, but could Kindred be Peter Parker himself? This is a version of Peter who has lost everything, his wife, his life - and guess what... he remembers it all. Kindred has been a thread sewn throughout Spencer's run, but so has 'One More Day.' It took over a decade, but Mary Jane and Peter are finally back together.
Did reverting back to the status quo cause the deal Spider-Man and Mary Jane made with Mephisto to unravel? We are already seeing signs of it with Aunt May's cancer diagnosis in Tom Taylor's Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and Peter's plans to propose to Mary Jane when she returns from filming her movie with Mysterio. But come on, this is Peter Parker, he can't be happy – the old Parker luck has to hit at some point. Peter's past will continue to haunt him, and if 'One More Day' Peter Parker is Kindred that very classic Spidey trope will become literal.
