1960s Created by writer
Stan Lee and artist
Steve Ditko, Gwen Stacy first appeared in
The Amazing Spider-Man #31 (December
1965) as the primary
love interest of
Peter Parker. Beginning with issue #39,
John Romita Sr. became the primary artist and co-plotter of the series, replacing Ditko. Romita's background was in
romance comics, and he was partly chosen to depict the young female characters as "very sexy and flashy," in his words; he drew inspiration from magazines such as
Seventeen. According to Lee, the original intent was for Gwen Stacy to be Spider-Man's central love interest. However,
Mary Jane Watson, first depicted in
The Amazing Spider-Man #42 (November 1966), became increasingly popular with readers as an alternative girlfriend. This popularity changed the course of the plan, as fans demanded she be Peter Parker's main love interest instead, and that "no matter how we [i.e. Lee and his artist/co-plotter collaborators] wrote it, Mary Jane always seemed more interesting!" As Lee said, "Gwen was a sweet girl, everything about her was pure and wholesome and loyal and wonderful. I thought she'd be the perfect wife for Peter. On the other hand Mary Jane was a real party girl." Romita said that
Amazing Spider-Man #56 (January 1968) introduced Gwen's father, NYPD Captain
George Stacy; later issues portray her mother
Helen Stacy and her uncle Arthur Stacy. Her father is both fond of Peter and supportive of his alter-ego Spider-Man.
1970s In issue #90 (1970), George Stacy is killed by falling debris during a battle involving Spider-Man and
Doctor Octopus. Gwen blamed Spider-Man for his death, and left for Europe to cope with her loss. She wants Peter to ask her to marry him and convince her to stay, but his guilt stops him from proposing. Gwen's feelings for Peter eventually prompt her to return to New York, and their relationship is rekindled.
Gerry Conway and
Roy Thomas succeeded Stan Lee as writer and editor, respectively, of
The Amazing Spider-Man. Together with inker
John Romita, Sr., they came to the decision to have Gwen killed. Romita first suggested the idea, during a plotting session with Conway when Romita was still penciller on
The Amazing Spider-Man. Romita said that Thomas and Conway wanted to shock the readers with an unexpected death, initially considering
Aunt May, which Romita rejected. Romita recalled the death of a love interest in the comic strip
Terry and the Pirates which had significant cultural impact, and decided that "we would really shake up the fans if we killed Peter's girlfriend." Conway later said his contribution to the decision was motivated by a desire to bring Mary Jane Watson to the forefront, as he shared Lee's feeling that she was a more interesting character than Gwen Stacy: "[Mary Jane] hadn't lost the edge that made her an interesting character. Gwen didn't have an edge. She was just a nice person". In the story arc "
The Night Gwen Stacy Died" written by
Gerry Conway, published in
The Amazing Spider-Man #121–122 (June–July
1973), Gwen is
killed off, murdered by the
Green Goblin Norman Osborn. Both the decision to kill Gwen and the method in which Marvel implemented it remain controversial among fans and some writers. Conway claimed that Stan Lee endorsed the decision, but Lee contended that he was sorry that she had been killed off and that he "would have enjoyed keeping both Gwen and MJ and letting them play off against each other." In 2004, Romita recalled: In the story, Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin, has become aware of Spider-Man secret identity as Peter Parker, and seeks revenge because he blames Peter for a recent drug overdose experienced by his son,
Harry Osborn. The Green Goblin kidnaps Gwen. Although he is ill, Spider-Man searches for Gwen and eventually discovers her, unconscious on top of the
Brooklyn Bridge. During the ensuing battle the Goblin slams into Gwen and sends her hurtling toward the water. Spider-Man shoots a webline to catch her, but the sudden stop snaps her neck, killing her. The death became a pivotal point in both Spider-Man's history and in
American comic books in general. Many point to Gwen's death as the end of the
Silver Age of Comics. Before her death, except possibly as part of an origin story, superheroes did not fail so catastrophically, nor did the hero's loved ones die so suddenly and without warning. Conway said that he added the "SNAP" sound effect subconsciously without realizing its implications, but became fascinated by the effects of Spider-Man's complicity in Gwen's death on the possibilities of comic books. A note on the letters page of
The Amazing Spider-Man #125 states: "It saddens us to say that the whiplash effect she underwent when Spidey's webbing stopped her so suddenly was, in fact, what killed her". On the other hand, in the 1987 edition of the
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, Gwen's death is attributed to the fall, not to Spider-Man's webbing, though the listed cause of death is still technically true – if she had not fallen from the bridge, the event that caused her death could not have happened. In his book
The Physics of Superheroes, physicist
James Kakalios confirms that, consistent with
Newton's laws of motion, the sudden stop would have killed Gwen Stacy. The then-Mexican publisher of
Marvel Comics, La Prensa, did not think the Latin American readership would accept Gwen's death, and so diverged
El Sorprendente Hombre-Araña into its own continuity with brand new stories (written by Raul Martinez and drawn by José Luis González Durán) in which Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy were still a couple, and Stacy was still alive, for another 60 issues and 45 stories, ending in 1974 when another publisher picked up the Marvel rights. Stan Lee (who had since become Marvel's publisher) was frequently criticized by fans during his public appearances for killing off Gwen Stacy. a clone of Gwen is created, perfectly healthy but with no memory of the time since her death. At the end of the story, Gwen's clone, a creation of Spider-Man villain the
Jackal, leaves to find a new life for herself, accepting that she is not really the same person who had a relationship with Peter Parker.
1980s In the 1988 crossover "
The Evolutionary War", the
High Evolutionary, who had once been Miles Warren's teacher, captures Gwen's clone. He determines that Warren had actually not perfected the process, and instead injected a young woman with a genetic virus carrying Gwen's DNA, turning her into a copy of Gwen. After a subsequent altercation of Spider-Man and the Young Gods against the High Evolutionary's Purifiers, this woman is purged of the virus by the Young Goddess Daydreamer. This is later
retconned, with the High Evolutionary stating that Warren had in fact succeeded in perfecting his own cloning technique, and Daydreamer had accidentally given the Gwen clone a false new life under the name of Joyce Delaney.
1990s The death of Gwen Stacy is retold from another perspective in the fourth and final issue of the miniseries
Marvels (April 1994), by
Kurt Busiek and
Alex Ross. In the story, photographer Phil Sheldon befriends Gwen Stacy, who has absolved Spider-Man of any blame for her father's death. Gwen's simple faith in heroes convinces Sheldon of the purpose of superheroes—to protect innocents such as Gwen. He resolves to write a book to praise the heroes and what they should mean to humanity. When the Green Goblin kidnaps Gwen and holds her hostage to bait Spider-Man, Sheldon frantically follows the resulting chase in a taxi and witnesses her death. While it is reported that she died from the shock of the fall, Sheldon thinks it looks like something else, and Sheldon's faith in superheroes is shattered. Gerry Conway credits the story with revealing and exploring the cultural significance of Gwen Stacy's death. In the second "
Clone Saga" that began in 1994, Gwen's clone, Joyce, reappears. Now married to a clone of Professor Warren named Warren Miles, she sees a copy of Peter Parker's book of Spider-Man photos, and remembers (to an extent) her real history. She returns to New York City, but after helping Spider-Man and
Scarlet Spider fight the Jackal, she again disappears from Spider-Man's life. She makes herself a new life in London. Another Gwen clone, who believes she is the original Gwen, appears in
The Amazing Spider-Man #399 (March 1995). She dies from clone degeneration in
Spider-Man #56 (March 1995), the next issue of the story arc.
2000s The story of Gwen Stacy was revisited in
Spider-Man: Blue, by
Jeph Loeb (2002-2003). Beginning in 2000,
Brian Michael Bendis wrote an alternate continuity for Spider-Man, updated for contemporary culture. An alternate version of Gwen Stacy appeared as a recurring character in
Ultimate Spider-Man. She first appears in the
Ultimate Marvel universe in
Ultimate Spider-Man #15 (January 2002) as a teenage girl at Peter's high school. In this continuity, Gwen, whose rendition by artist
Mark Bagley was inspired by an early-career
Madonna, wears punk-style clothing, and harbors a rebellious personality. This version of Gwen dies in
Ultimate Spider-Man #62 (July 2004), killed by
Carnage. However, the Ultimate version of Gwen Stacy returns to life in
Ultimate Spider-Man #98 (October 2006). According to
Mark Bagley, "Gwen's return is integral to the Clone storyline and is basically a way to rock Peter's world...again". Gwen briefly transforms into a new version of Carnage, but she is restored to normal. The story arc "Sins Past" (2004-2005) by
J. Michael Straczynski apparently reveals that Gwen Stacy had an affair with
Norman Osborn and fell pregnant with twins, a girl and a boy, to whom she gave birth while in France, and named
Sarah and Gabriel Stacy, respectively. In this
retcon, Gwen vowed to raise the twins with Peter Parker and refused to allow Norman access––an event which precipitated Norman's decision to kill her. By the time that Peter and his (then-considered-to-be) wife,
Mary Jane Watson-Parker, discovered the twins' existence, they were grown to adult proportions, despite the relatively "short" time since Gwen's death, due to the genetic effects of their father's "goblin formula". Sarah and Gabriel revealed their existence to Peter after their father was publicly exposed as the Green Goblin, sending to Peter a page of an unsent letter from Gwen which revealed her pregnancy. When Peter as Spider-Man went to a genetics lab, where he intended to test Gwen's maternity of the twins, Sarah confronted him, and Spider-Man unmasked Sarah—finding her to be "a dead ringer for Gwen". Gwen Stacy herself, however, only appears in this story arc in flashback, as Mary Jane explained to Peter that she knew about Gwen's illegitimate offspring and Norman's paternity thereof because she overheard Gwen and Norman arguing over custody of the children, Sarah later signed up with
Interpol, while Gabriel later become the Gray Goblin. The story was highly controversial for its implausibility and inconsistency with previously established characterization, and was eventually dispelled in the narrative continuity as a hoax.
2010s The alternative version of Gwen Stacy remained a recurring character throughout the
Ultimate Spider-Man series, even following the death of Peter Parker in that continuity and the introduction of
Miles Morales as the new Spider-Man, in
Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man. The character disappeared with the end of the Ultimate universe in 2015. In 2013, a new Gwen clone appears in the "Sibling Rivalry" crossover storyline between
Superior Spider-Man Team-Up and
Scarlet Spider. She joins the Jackal (alongside
Carrion and a regular Miles Warren clone) in capturing
Superior Spider-Man and
Kaine. She is sympathetic towards "Peter" and Kaine, but at the same time utterly loyal to the Jackal. When the Spiders break free, Superior Spider-Man disarms and attempts to kill her, but is stopped by Kaine. When the Jackal's lab is engulfed in flames, Kaine offers to save her, but she refuses, and is seemingly consumed by the fire. In 2015,
Dan Slott and
Jason Latour introduced a new version of Gwen Stacy, in which she would take on the role of
Spider-Woman. 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. Slott had suggested "Gwen Stacy as a
Spider-Woman" to Spider-Man editor
Nick Lowe, who then approached Jason Latour to write a series based on that character. Latour was concerned about restoring Gwen Stacy to life in even an alternate-universe form, given the canonical consequences of her death more than 40 years earlier, but eventually conceded, and approached Robbi Rodriguez to design the character. Latour prompted Rodriguez to keep her mysterious and to avoid anything that would prematurely reveal her identity, saying that she "should feel like anyone could be under that mask." Slott previously had envisioned a costume based on her clothing in the two-part death story, "
The Night Gwen Stacy Died" (1973), except red and blue with web patterns and a half mask. She would also have had a trench coat that would have been red with webs. The character debuted in
Edge of Spider-Verse #2 on September 17, 2014 and is commonly referred to as Spider-Gwen. a flashback revealed that Gwen Stacy was conscious during Spider-Man and Green Goblin's battle on the bridge, and before she died, she overheard their conversation and realized Peter was Spider-Man. She was angry at Peter for keeping this secret and for his involvement in her father's death. This flashback introduces contradictions with the version of the story established by
Sins Past. The Green Goblin declares that Gwen "is just a pawn", contradicting the earlier motive of the 2004-2005 story, in which Osborn wanted to kill her to keep the twins with him and silence her forever. In the present, Gwen (her soul intact) is revived by
Ben Reilly (as the Jackal II) in a clone body. Ben offers Gwen the opportunity to be his business partner as he tries to change the world with his new technology. Gwen is hesitant about this new life at first but accepts it when Ben shows that he has reanimated her father, who is in much better health than he was before he died. When Spider-Man arrives at the incorporation and discovers Ben's experiments, he is surprised by Gwen's presence and notes that unlike the other people Ben revived, Gwen does not trigger his spider sense, making him wonder if she was the real one. He is attacked by the "reborn"
Doctor Octopus before he can question the issue further. Rhino and the second Electro are sent to retrieve Gwen after attacking the staff, but Gwen tells them to take Kaine with him too because his condition could help Ben's experiments.
Anna Maria Marconi also volunteers to come with because she has studied both Kaine and the drug. When Spider-Man is taken to Haven, he catches up with Gwen in the household in the facility, where she tries to convince him to support New U Technologies. Peter still has a hard time believing she is the real Gwen given his other experiences with clones. Gwen tries justifying her existence by telling Peter her memories, including how she overheard the Green Goblin talking to Spider-Man before her death. Peter thinks she died hating him, but Gwen said that she did not hate him, but rather died feeling betrayed. She tries kissing him, to no avail. Gwen witnesses Ben order his cloned villains to kill Spider-Man and decides to help Peter. Doctor Octopus pulls a switch that activates the Carrion virus in all of the revived, including Gwen and George, and causes them to start rapidly decaying. After Gwen's father deteriorates in her arms, she assists Spider-Man by helping him get to the lab. When the cloned villains get to the lab doors, Gwen locks Spider-Man inside the lab and sacrifices herself via an explosion to give him more time. Following the Carrion virus being thwarted, Spider-Man and Anna check the building and see that Gwen has been reduced to dust. In the sequel ongoing series
Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider,
Death confirms that all clones Ben created of deceased people had their souls intact on being brought back, while clones of living people (like Ben himself) had unique souls of their own, making Gwen's revival by him a legitimate resurrection.
2020s During the "
Last Remains" storyline (2020),
Kindred visits the cemetery where Gwen Stacy and George Stacy were buried. He exhumed their bodies and placed them around the table at his hideout while awaiting for Spider-Man to find him. When Spider-Man finally confronts Kindred, Gwen and George's corpses were sat around a dinner table alongside the exhumed bodies of
Ben Parker, Flash Thompson, J. Jonah Jameson Sr.,
Jean DeWolff, and Marla Jameson. A flashback solo miniseries following the character,
Gwen Stacy, written by Gage and illustrated by
Todd Nauck, was published in 2020, concluded with
Giant-Size Gwen Stacy in 2022, and collected as
Gwen Stacy: Beyond Amazing in 2024.
Nick Spencer retcons and erases the story of Gwen Stacy's affair with Norman Osborn, in his run on
Amazing Spider-Man, during the "
Sinister War" event (2021). Norman Osborn arrives at the safe house of Gabriel and Sarah in Paris, where an
artificial intelligence back-up copy of his son
Harry reveals to Norman that he never truly fathered the twins, and that he never had a sexual encounter with Gwen Stacy. The whole plan was to convince him he had the heirs he always wanted, so A.I. Harry hypnotized Norman and Mary Jane Watson with the help of
Mysterio and the
Chameleon, while
Mendel Stromm created the mutated twins in a lab (this explains their rapid aging, as it is not truly related to Osborn's Goblin serum). Thus, this was all an elaborate scheme of Harry's to torment both his father and Peter. In the
A.X.E.: Judgment Day crossover event (2022), the
Celestial known as the Progenitor is resurrected and gives humanity 24 hours to justify their existence and judges each human individually. The Progenitor appears to Peter in the form of Gwen, who watches him as he spends the day helping his friends and loved ones. The Progenitor deems Peter worthy and rewards him by briefly resurrecting the real Gwen to give them one last moment together. Norman Osborn witnesses their reunion, but brushes it aside as it is revealed the Progenitor also appeared to him as Gwen. Gwen Stacy made her next return to Marvel Comics in the
Gwenpool series by
Cavan Scott and Stefano Nesi beginning May 2025 (collected as
The All-New, All-Deadly Gwenpool in January 2026). When Gwen is resurrected by
Weapon X as the hyper-violent assassin
Weapon X-31 by "The Great Architect", she saves Peter Parker and
isekai protagonist
Gwen Poole from three escaped
Deathloks working for the Great Architect. After confronting Peter over her prior death and accidentally killing Poole, Poole's ghost possesses her roommate
Kate Bishop, their son
Jeff the Land Shark, and Peter in an attempt to avenge her own death, while Gwen apologizes to Peter and Kate for accidentally killing Poole. ==Fictional character biography==