This article contains spoilers for Gwen Stacy #1.
Marvel Comics has given Gwen Stacy a new origin story - and it makes her Spider-Man’s equal. The character of Gwen Stacy may have been killed off in 1973, but there’s a strange sense in which she’s never been bigger. As a result, Marvel has decided it’s time to give Gwen her own origin story.
Featuring the all-star creative team of writer Christos Gage and artist Todd Nauck, Gwen Stacy presents the secret history of Spider-Man’s ill-fated girlfriend. The story is set before Gwen ever became friends with Peter Parker, and reveals the teenager had been on the fringes of superhero society all her life. Her father was a police captain, after all, and an incorruptible one at that - at a time when the Crime Master and the Green Goblin were vying for control of the city’s crime scene. What’s more, the cover of Gwen Stacy #4 even teased an X-Men team-up.
The story begins in this week’s Gwen Stacy #1, in which Gage draws fascinating parallels between the lives of Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker. It’s set back when Gwen and her friend Harry Osborn are studying at Stamford High, and Gwen is seeking to become class president in order to boost her chances of a scholarship. She may consider herself popular enough to have a shot, but in truth, Gwen is an academic whose favorite place is the library. It’s there readers learn her path first came close to crossing Peter Parker’s; he’s shown reading books on “advanced adhesives,” no doubt fine-tuning the formula for his webbing.
That’s not the only fascinating parallel between Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy, either. As the issue continues, Gwen’s father is shot and injured, then framed as a corrupt cop by the Green Goblin and the Crime Master. He’s actually in hospital on the same fateful night the news reports the death of Peter’s Uncle Ben. This is clearly intended as a key moment in Gwen’s life, because she decides she won’t just be a spectator to all the chaos; instead, she will stand up for what is right, and clear her father’s name. She may not have great power, but Gwen has embraced the idea she has responsibility just the same.
There’s a sense in which Gwen Stacy #1 has just made Gwen’s tragic fate - her ultimate death at the hands of the Green Goblin - all the more heartbreaking. The book presents her as a smart, analytical girl with a strong sense of morality and her father’s intuitive detective skills. It’s fascinating to imagine how good a team Peter and Gwen would have been; with Gwen’s help, Spider-Man wouldn’t be just a reactive hero, but would instead be more of a detective in his own right. The world would have been very different had Gwen Stacy lived.
Gwen Stacy #1 is on sale now from Marvel Comics.
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