Marvel Comics Still Dead Set On Insulting Spider-Man And His Fans, Teases Potential Resurrection Of Gwen Stacy For Later This Year
In a move that feels as if it came about solely by the hero’s current editorial team asking themselves ‘Hey, how can we TRULY cement our reputation as some of the worst creators to ever handle his character?’, Marvel Comics has teased that the next character in their extensive roster to receive a surprise resurrection will apparently be none other than Spider-Man’s first love, Gwen Stacy.
At this point in history, most Spider-fans – even those who have primarily engaged with him through his non-comic book media appearances, like his cartoons, live-action films, and video games – know the importance of both Gwen Stacy’s character.
Created by the original wall-crawler creative duo of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and making her debut in 1965’s Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 #31, Gwen’s narrative history first began with her being a classmate of Peter Parker’s at Empire State University, their time studying together leading the optimistic, happy-go-lucky young woman to develop feelings for the aloof and often agitated (at the time, he was dealing with the first of Aunt May’s many, many, many, many ‘death scares’) book worm.
Despite this rocky start (which also saw Peter break up with his eventual wife, Mary-Jane Watson right beforehand), the two would soon find comfort in each other’s arms, going on to start what would end up becoming one of the most defining romantic relationships of the hero’s life.
(And no, we are not talking about Sins Past. If Marvel Comics can willingly ignore it since 2021, so can we.)
Unfortunately for Spidey, this bliss would not last. Thanks to a combination of the Green Goblin’s desire to hurt him, the whiplash effect of his webbing stopping her fall from the top of the George Washington Bridge, and the admission by Lee and his Amazing Spider-Man successor Gerry Conway that she was simply ‘less interesting‘ than her red-headed romantic rival, Gwen’s time among the living would come to an end just eight-years later in Amazing Spider-Man #121 – the story aptly named The Night Gwen Stacy Died.
And though the Earth-616 version of Gwen has come back in some way, shape, or form across the years – primarily as a clone, as seen with the ‘Sarah Gabriel’ clone made from her and Norman Osborn’s DNA made by Harry Osborn (Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 #509), the clone hybrid made from her, the Spider-Queen, and Scott Summers’ DNA by the Jackal, (Avenging Spider-Man Vol. 1 #16), and the many, many ‘standard’ clones of her made by the aforementioned Jackal, Miles Warren, (Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 #142, Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 #399, Superior Spider-Man Team-Up Vol. 1 #2, Spider-Island: Deadly Foes Vol. 1 #1) as well as his successor, Ben Reilly (Clone Conspiracy Vol. 1 #1), but also as an android (Ghost-Spider Annual #1) and a mental construct created by the Progenitor Celestial in order to deliver ‘judgement’ on Peter (Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 6 #10) – the true, original version of the blonde bombshell has remained resting in peace for the last fifty-two years.
At least, until now.
On February 11th, Marvel Comics provided a teaser image to various news outlets, as drawn by Paco Medina and Morry Hollowell, depicting an unknown figure standing above the recently-dug up grave of Gwen Stacy, the shovel used to do the deed still stuck in the torn-apart dirt.
However, outside of a brief bit of teaser text reading ‘NOTHING IS SACRED’, Marvel Comics has thus far provided no other information regarding the image, including whether or not this is a storyline set for the main Amazing Spider-Man book, a separate miniseries, or something to do with either Spider-Gwen or Gwenpoole (yes, the later has since been divorced from her ‘Gwen Stacy variant cover’ origin, but there still exists a non-zero chance that a writer would re-canonize it in order to tell a story).
Rather, they have instead invited readers to “Stay tuned next week for more information”.
After years under Zeb Wells’ direction suffering such narrative indignities as yet-another-break-up-with-Mary-Jane, his clone-brother Ben Reilly’s ‘Chasm’ heel turn, and Rek-Rap, Spider-Man must NOW deal with his first love being cheaply resurrected for shock value.
Buckle up, Spider-fans. It seems the web-slinger’s suffering is not only far from over, but about to get a whole lot worse.
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