In a multiverse, sometimes a fate changes hands, where once one person was the star, in another world, a different lead takes the spotlight. Most people never learn this about themselves. Gwen Stacy is one of the few to learn of the other paths not taken. So, who is Gwen Stacy and what is her fate? Let’s find out!
Gwendolyn Maxine Stacy was born to George and Helen Stacy and lived happily in New York City. She would meet Peter Parker in college and the two would eventually start a relationship. They were getting very serious but Peter’s life always seemed to be filled with so much drama. Gwen would be held hostage by the villainous Green Goblin and thrown from the Brooklyn Bridge. Spider-Man attempted to rescue her but it seemed she had reached maximum velocity by the time his webs could grab her, snapping her neck. Gwen died that day.
In another world, Gwendolyn Maxine Stacy was born to George and Helen Stacy and while her mother died when Gwen was young, she was able to lead a happy life with her father. She would attend Midtown High School where she and her best friend from childhood, Peter Parker would spend their time on science projects. When Gwen had any free time, she spent it with her band the Mary-Janes, as the band’s drummer. While out on a field trip, Gwen would get bitten by a radioactive spider, giving her powers like that of a spider.
At first, she tried using her powers for fame but hearing her father chastising this new celebrity, she realized she could use her powers for good. Gwen would go out and fight crime, being dubbed the Spider-Woman by the media. She would meet retired hero, Janet Van Dyne, who would gift her a costume and web-shooters to compliment her powers. Peter would use his scientific know-how to make a serum that turned him in the Lizard, causing Gwen to have to fight her friend, not knowing it was him until it was too late. Combining the damage the serum had done to his body along with the beating he had received, Peter Parker died in Gwen’s arms.
The public only saw Spider-Woman standing over the dead boy, believing she had killed him. A police task force was made to hunt Gwen’s costumed identity down for justice, lead by her own father. She would also gather the attention of Matt Murdock, who was in charge of the Hand and the Kingpin of New York. George would also capture Spider-Woman only to have Gwen reveal her identity to him which made him let her flee the scene. Gwen’s life was in complete upheaval and only got more complicated as she was recruited into an interdimensional battle.
Gwen would learn that there was a whole multiverse and that in many of them, people got bitten by spiders that granted them powers. This person was usually Peter Parker and that in many of those Peter’s worlds, Gwen had died instead. Regardless of origins or who they were, people who had been bitten by spiders and given powers were being hunted by the Inheritors, beings who fed on such people and it was up to the Spiders to team up and stop them.
Once Gwen had aided in that, she was returned home to the chaos she had left behind. Things only got more complicated as her bonds with family and friends alike were struggling with her dual life. Her father would lose leadership of the task force to Detective Frank Castle and the Vulture was being sent out to fight her by Matt Murdock. It seemed that Murdock wished to make Gwen his apprentice and was willing to use his forces to hurt her anyway he could if she didn’t comply. To make matters worse, Castle was able to remove her mask when she was knocked out in a fight with the Vulture.
When the universe was destroyed, due to cataclysmic cosmic events, Gwen along with other Spiders would be saved and work at making things right. Given interdimensional devices that allowed them to travel through the multiverse, the crew would dub themselves the Web Warriors and team up when needed to help the universes that had lost their Spiders during the war with the Inheritors.
Once more in her own universe, Gwen would deal with more and more wild adventures. She would eventually lose her spider powers, having to rely on spider-isotopes to fuel her powers. Her father would admit to aiding and abetting Spider-Woman, leading to him being arrested. Gwen would make a deal with Matt Murdock to do his bidding if meant he could save her father and get her back her full powers.
Murdock would connect her to scientists who could merge her isotopes with some of the old Lizard serum, making a symbiote that would grant her all her old powers back as well as healing abilities. Though she was meant to do more work for Murdock, she would betray him and the two would fight. Learning that Murdock had sent the Rhino to beat her father caused Gwen to give into the symbiote and beat the man and when she regained control of herself, she unmasked to the world to save her father. This would have Gwen sentenced to prison for one year and the whole world knowing who she was.
Once freed, Gwen would get recruited by the Spider-Army once more to stop another interdimensional threat. Realizing that her own dimension was too difficult to live in, she would use her dimensional device to bring her to Earth-616, where that Peter Parker helped her establish a life there, where no one knew who she was besides Gwen Stacy and was able to attend college when not out fighting crime. Gwen had been getting called Ghost Spider for some time before this but since this Earth already had a Spider-Woman the name now truly stuck when she was fighting alongside this Earth’s heroes.
There you have it! For far too long, Gwen remained a dead figure in the stories of Spider-Man. A tragic figure, but that all changed with the Spider-Verse opening up. Now Gwen is a staple in the Spider stories, a hero all her own. Alive and ready for new adventures. Where will she end up next? See you next time!
Suggested Reading
Edge of Spider-Verse #2
Spider-Verse
Spider-Gwen
Spider-Geddon
Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider
Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
