Background
Gwen Stacy is best known in the history of Spider-Man (and in the history of
comics) for her
death. The hero's girlfriend wasn't supposed to die - but Gwen did, and
somehow has
remained in the coffin. Although she's been cloned, the original Gwen Stacy
never returned.
For Peter Parker, the impact of her death was second only to the death of Uncle
Ben.
In the beginning, Gwen went to Standard High School in New York City (not Mid-
Town High where
Peter went) where she was described as the "beauty queen". She graduated and
went to Empire State University
as a biochemistry major where she met classmate Peter Parker. Her first
impression of Peter was a mixture of attraction with
disdain for his apparent disinterest in her (Peter was preoccupied by the
hospitalization of his Aunt May).
Once the misunderstanding was cleared up, Gwen and Peter grew closer together.
However,
Peter's famous introduction to the mysterious "girl-next-door" Mary Jane
Watson distracted him from
Gwen and led her to date Harry Osborn out of jealousy. MJ and Gwen both
competed for Peter's affections.
But eventually, Peter chose Gwen, and MJ ended up with Harry. Peter loved Gwen
more deeply than
he had ever loved any woman before.
Gwen lived with her father, police Capt. George Stacy. Spider-Man's
interactions with her father
helped dispel misconceptions she had towards the alter-ego of her boyfriend.
Though her father
had his suspicions of Peter, Gwen did not discover Peter's secret identity.
Once, Peter revealed his
identity to Gwen and his friends while suffering from a high fever (Amazing
Spider-Man #87). He later convinced everyone
that he wasn't in his right mind through the assistance of the Prowler
showing up wearing a Spider-Man
costume.
After a battle with Doctor Octopus (Death of Captain Stacy),
Gwen's father was accidentally killed by falling debris from the melee.
In Captain Stacy's last words, he called Spider-Man "Peter" and asked him to
take care of his daughter.
Gwen felt Spider-Man bore responsibility for her father's death. Desperate to
see Spider-Man punished, she put her support behind Sam Bullit, a hard
line "law and order" man that was running for District Attorney. He was
secretly a racist, and got caught by police after he arranged to have [[Robbie
Robertson]] silenced for knowing too much about him.
Gwen and Peter continued dating. Traveling to the Savage Land in
Gog! (Amazing #103-#104) with Peter, Gwen was captured
by Kraven the Hunter who intended to make her his queen. Spider-Man and
Ka-Zar rescued Gwen from Kraven and the monster Gog.
Gwen's final adventure took place when she was captured by Norman Osborn, the
Green Goblin. The Goblin
captured Gwen to use as a hostage against Spider-Man. In
Amazing Spider-Man #121, Spider-Man found the Green Goblin with Gwen atop
the George Washington Bridge (note: the artwork showed the Brooklyn Bridge).
Gwen lay unconscious in a
state of shock. During a battle between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, the
Goblin knocked Gwen
off the bridge. Though Spider-Man caught her with his webbing before hitting
the water below, Gwen died
in the fall. A "snap" by her neck implied that perhaps the jolt of the sudden
stop broke her neck.
(Note: The broken neck was confirmed in Amazing Spider-Man #207, though
this sound effect has
been taken out in some reprints of this story, leaving the matter rather
ambiguous.)
Gwen's death drove Spider-Man to nearly kill the Goblin. Though he stopped
himself from pummeling the Goblin to death,
the Goblin impaled himself on his own glider, killing himself (temporarily,
albeit.)
Gwen's teacher, Professor Miles Warren (a.k.a. the Jackal), was secretly in
love with Gwen.
Distraught over her death, Warren created a clone of Gwen using cell samples he
had kept of his beloved student.
Gwen Stacy's Clone is still alive to date, but mostly remains outside of
Peter Parker's life.
Recently, two children of Gwen Stacy have shown up. Sarah Stacy and
Gabriel Stacy were born to Gwen in Paris France, to keep them away from
their father, Norman Osborn. Gwen had been drawn to Norman's power and felt bad
for him when he seemed so distraught by his son Harry's drug addiction. Gwen
had an affair with him, something she soon regretted once she realized how
ruthless he was.
It had long been thought that Norman had come to Peter's apartment looking for
Spider-Man, but had really come for Gwen to force her to give him the children.
The twins were only at seven months gestation when they were born, but seemed
to have aged to full term infants. It was found that the Goblin serum in
Norman's DNA had accelerated their aging. Even though Gabriel and Sarah appear
to be in their twenties, they are really only children.
Thanks To:
Some of the above information is extracted from the various
versions of the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe and the more recent
Marvel Encyclopaedias.
The assistance of the
Marvel Chronology Project is gratefully acknowledged.
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