Gwen Stacy

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

In the alternate reality designated Earth-65, Gwen Stacy from Midtown High School is a drummer in a band called the Mary Janes, consisting of her and her friends Mary Jane Watson, Betty Brant, and Glory Grant. Bitten by a radioactive spider, Gwen becomes the hero Spider-Woman. Shortly afterward, her classmate and best friend Peter Parker attempts to become a superhero, inventing a serum that turns him into Earth-65's version of the Lizard. Unaware of the reptilian figure's true identity, Gwen fights Peter, eventually dealing him mortal injuries. Peter reverts to human form and dies in her arms; in his last words, he says he wanted to be like her. Spider-Woman is devastated by Peter's death and inspired to use her power to protect others as a way to atone for accidentally killing him. She is blamed for Parker's death publicly by J. Jonah Jameson. Her father, NYPD chief of police George Stacy, hunts for Spider-Woman, aided by his world's Captain Frank Castle and Detective Jean DeWolff. During a confrontation with her father, Gwen reveals her true identity to him. Shocked, he tells her to run. Later, the Carnage symbiote bonds with Mary Jane Watson, and Mary Jane is explicitly depicted as having romantic feelings for Gwen.

In Their Own Story

In the "Spider-Verse" storyline, Gwen of Earth-65 is one of many other Spider-Totems across the multiverse recruited to fight the vampiric Morlun and the Inheritors. Although she is one of several people called Spider-Women who appear, she seems to be the only Spider who is also Gwen Stacy, leading to the nickname "Spider-Gwen." Gwen realizes most of her counterparts in other universes are dead, including the Earth-616 Gwen Stacy who was the first love of Peter Parker, leader of the group fighting the Inheritors. Telling Peter she likewise failed to save her version of him, they both agree to look out for each other. Though Gwen deals with both criminals and enemies in the police department, she also makes allies such as her Earth's versions of Captain America (Samantha Wilson), Reed Richards, and Peggy Carter, the leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. Gwen meets Spider heroes of other worlds again on Battleworld in the Secret Wars storyline. During the crossover storyline Sitting in a Tree, she explores a possible romance with Miles Morales, but they stay as friends. Along with battling menaces on her own world, Gwen joins the Web Warriors, a group of Spiders with dimensional-travel devices who combat threats to other universes, particularly worlds that no longer have a Spider of its own to defend it.

Reader's Guide

The character debuted in Edge of Spider-Verse #2 on September 17, 2014 and is commonly referred to as Spider-Gwen. The first issue of Spider-Gwen experienced commercial success and was the third best-selling comic of February 2015 with sales of over 250,000 copies. The first volume ended after the fifth issue, with the character carrying over into the second volume of Spider-Verse as part of the Secret Wars event. After the conclusion of the event, a second volume by the same creative team began with the first issue as a part of Marvel's All-New, All-Different Marvel imprint entitled The Radioactive Spider-Gwen. Spider-Gwen was featured as a major character in a multi-part crossover entitled Spider-Women. It commenced with Spider-Women Alpha #1 and ended with Spider-Women Omega #1, with certain issues of Spider-Woman, Silk and Spider-Gwen partially depicting the storyline in between. Spider-Gwen begins college on Earth-616 at the start of a new series Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider written by Seanan McGuire with pencils by Rosi Kämpe and later Takeshi Miyazawa. After 10 issues, the series was relaunched as simply Ghost-Spider, which was cancelled after an additional 10 issues due to dropped sale from dropping of the Spider-Gwen title, and collected as Spider-Gwen: Into the Unknown. The titular Ghost Spider moniker was taken from Stacy's alias in the animated franchise Marvel Rising. In 2022, a new limited series titled Spider-Gwen – Gwen-Verse by Tim Seeley and Jodi Nishijima was published, featuring Stacy traveling through time alongside alternative versions of herself (modeled after other Marvel heroes) to correct a disruption in the timeline. In 2023, a new limited series titled Spider-Gwen – Shadow Clones by Emily Kim, Kei Zama, and G. Geoffo was published, featuring Stacy facing clones of herself combined with the powers of various Earth-616 supervillains invading Earth-65. From 2023 to 2024, a new limited series titled Spider-Gwen – Smash by Melissa Flores and Enid Balam was published, featuring Stacy on tour with her band on Earth-65 as the band's lesbian leader Mary Jane Watson once again becomes Carnage and confesses her love to Gwen.

Did You Know?

• The colors of her costume were chosen to homage the colors of the Charlotte Hornets as a nod to Latour's hometown.
• The concept of an alternate-universe, spider-powered Gwen Stacy was first conceptualized by longtime Spider-Man writer Dan Slott for the 'Spider-Verse' story arc.
• The first issue of Spider-Gwen was the third best-selling comic of February 2015 with sales of over 250,000 copies.
• The Ghost-Spider alias first appeared in the animated series Marvel Rising (2018) and was then retroactively used in the comics, starting with Spider-Gwen #34 (2018).
• Dove Cameron voices the character in the 2018–19 Marvel Rising media franchise as 'Ghost-Spider', an alias later integrated into the comics.