A Post from the Marvel Heroes Library Blog

Gwen Stacy: Classic Beauty

July 1, 2020
Post Main Image


Gwen Stacy, beauty queen of Standard High School, was Peter Parker's (alias Spider-Man) first great love. This blonde girl of perfect features and eyebrows only permanent makeup could reproduce in real life, graced the pages of Amazing Spider-Man in the late 60s and early 70s.

Introduced by artist Steve Ditko, Gil Kane portrayed Gwendolyn too, but she shined best when John Romita Sr. was at the helm.

Gwen took notice of Peter in college, but he was dating a friend of her, Mary Jane Watson. MJ, who later became Peter's wife, eventually lost Peter to Gwen.

Parker and Stacy fell in love deeply and lived a wonderful romance, sometimes spoiled by Spider-Man or Peter's jealousy of Flash Thompson.

Many decades later, a story by J. Michael Straczynski revealed that Norman Osborn, the original Green Goblin, had an affair with Gwen (!). As a result, she become pregnant with twins. While Peter was in Canada, she went to Paris to have her children, Gabriel and Sarah. Having Osborn genes, they grew up faster than regular humans, and fought Peter in the future, tricked by Osborn.

After Gwen returned from Paris, Norman, who was upset with her and Peter, hurt both. As the Green Goblin, he brought her to the George Washington bridge. When Spider-Man found her, she was unconscious. During their fight, Gwen fell from the bridge. Spider-Man caught her with his webbing, but her neck snapped. When Peter had her back in his arms, she was dead.

Marvel made a gigantic mistake killing Gwen Stacy. You just can't kill Lois Lane, right? And that story about Gwen cheating Peter over Osborn? Plain ridiculous. The ugly face of "cruel realism" that Marvel stains its characters with was at its stinking worst in Gwen's death.

Note: Killing Jarella, Hulk's green skin loved one, was another of such mistakes.

Fortunately, Gwen Stacy is alive and well on another Earth, but that's a story for another blog post.



Post Category: None

< Back to the Blog