“'The Night Gwen Stacy Died:' The End of Innocence & the Birth of the Bronze Age

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The current Gwen has blue eyes, not amber. In this issue "Gwen" appears to have no memory of her "death" and believes she was in a hospital, from which she has escaped. In issue #100, after a raft of revelations, the stress of the situation enrages "Gwen" and she transforms into what appears to be Ultimate Carnage before leaping out the window. (On a side note, it is revealed as far back as the thoughts page in issue #50 of Ultimate Spider-Man that Gwen would become Carnage.)

In the next issue, "Richard Parker" claims that "Gwen" should not have met Peter at all, and was merely an experiment in stem cell research. This Gwen/Carnage fights with the Fantastic Four, Nick Fury, and the Spider-Slayer drones, until she is knocked unconscious by a beam of light, and taken into custody. Later it is revealed that she was taken into custody by Nick Fury, along with the Scorpion, and it's unknown what's going to happen to her. Fury told his leading scientist to "get to work..."

In issue #113, Norman Osborn as the Green Goblin causes a massive prison break from the Triskelion. An inmate appearing to be 'Gwen' walks out amidst the chaos, disappearing in the shadows.

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The return of Gwen Stacy in issue #98 of Ultimate Spider-Man as part of the Ultimate Clone Saga. Art by Mark Bagley.

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It has been revealed that the creature posing as Gwen Stacy is still the original Ultimate Carnage that Spider-man faced earlier in its run. When Carnage was first introduced he was a monster of instinct, with no intelligence or self awareness, with his only aim to devour the DNA of others to sustain himself. After "devouring" Gwen, this incarnation of Carnage has gone on to mimic her "essense" and now believes itself to be Gwen Stacy.[15]

During War of the Symbiotes, Gwen/Carnage's backstory in the Triskelion is revealed. It is shown that Gwen has been taking some form of therapy with Tony Stark and a team of doctors in the compound. However, when the Green Goblin broke out of the Triskelion, Gwen escaped and went to Peter Parker's house in a confused and terrified state, with Carnage's face on her body. During an exchange between Peter and Gwen, Eddie Brock comes and tries to attack Aunt May to get into the house, and retake his Symbiote. In a rage, Spider-Man engages Venom on a nearby rooftop, and Gwen follow behinds. During the fight, Gwen is shown to be able to use her Symbiote to fight off Eddie, but Eddie reabsorbs his symbiote along with the Carnage symbiote, rendering Gwen Stacy an average girl. After SHIELD intervines, and has her checked, Peter questions Iron Man about how Gwen isn't the real article. Iron Man reassures him that if she is biologically 100% Gwen Stacy, and has her mind, then who are they to say she's anything but Gwen Stacy. Following this, however, SHIELD Director Danvers states that Gwen will remain in SHIELD custody, Peter and May argue for her to come back to live with them,with Tony Stark supporting the Parkers. It is unknown how long she'll be with Spider-Man and his friends, but it was revealed in Ultimatum solicts that she has joined her old friends again. In Ultimate Spider-Man #129, the Parkers are now helping to rebuild Gwen's life.

Early in the series, Ultimate Spider-Man #25 (October 2002) paid homage to Gwen Stacy's death in the Earth-616 continuity, although Gwen herself was not involved. The Green Goblin tossed Mary Jane off the Queensboro Bridge, and Spider-Man caught her leg with his webbing, just as with Gwen. The issue ended with a cliffhanger: when Spider-Man pulled Mary Jane up, she appeared to be either unconscious or dead. The cliffhanger was resolved in the next issue when Mary Jane awoke in #26, uninjured.

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What If...?

    * In an earlier What If...? story, Peter manages to save Gwen by jumping after her rather than catching her with a web-line, allowing him to cushion her from the impact as they hit the water and subsequently give her CPR. In the aftermath of this rescue, he proposes to Gwen after revealing his secret identity to her and, in a subsequent confrontation with the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn finally fights off his evil side when Harry moves to protect him regardless of what he's become. However, their life is not destined to be a happy one; to ensure his victory, the Goblin has sent J. Jonah Jameson proof of Spider-Man's real identity before Norman was able to fight off his evil side, which Jonah has subsequently published and used to acquire a warrant for Peter's arrest, thus forcing Peter to escape from the police mere moments after his wedding to Gwen. As the issue ends, Gwen departs with Joe 'Robbie' Robertson, who promises Gwen that they will do whatever they can to help Peter.

    * In "What If Spider-Man Had Kept His Six Arms?," Spider-Man (whose six-arms mutation was permanent here) was able to prevent Gwen Stacy's death.

    * At the very end of Peter David's "What If: The Other" one-shot, Peter Parker, now calling himself "Poison", uses part of the Venom symbiote attached to him in a resurrection of Gwen Stacy. She takes the appearance of Carnage.

    * In "What If Spider-man Had Never Gotten His Powers," after years of abuse and ridicule Peter Parker ends up being a well paid scientist working for Oscorp and married to Gwen Stacy, who has become a doctor. They have two children and live in the house that May willed to them (May died unassumingly of old age.)

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In other media

Television

Spider-Man: The Animated Series

Gwen was deliberately excluded from the 1990s animated series, as the creators felt they could neither allow her to live nor deliberately include a character who was going to die. As in the later movie, a variant of the bridge scene occurs with Gwen replaced by Mary Jane. Both Mary Jane and the Goblin are cast into a dimensional void in the forty-first episode of the series, because they could not get killed, due to the show's censorship

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In the series finale, Spider-Man visits a parallel universe, in which Peter Parker (Armored Spider-Man) is a wealthy industrialist (similar to Iron Man). Gwen Stacy is his fiancée, and a person the mainstream Spider-Man does not know. Spider-Carnage teams up with this dimension's Wilson Fisk in a plan to destroy every parallel reality (Spider-Carnage lied to Fisk, saying that they were going to take over all reality).

Gwen, unconvinced by Spider-Carnage's masquerading as her fiancée, and able to realise that the mainstream Spider-Man is not her beau either, helps Spider-Man to stop Spider-Carnage, by using a sonic gun to weaken him. However. Fisk foils the plan by removing the gun and Spider-Carnage kidnaps her, threatening to everyone present if one of them follows him, she'll die first.

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Spider-Carnage tells Gwen how he will destroy all reality - he is mixed up his dimension's Time Dilation Accelerator inner workings, thus creating an imbalance. A portal created by the altered device will not lead to anywhere - it will vaporize anything that enters. Spider-Man and this reality's Uncle Ben then arrive and Ben convinces Spider-Carnage to reform while Spider-Man frees Gwen. Gwen then witnesses as Spider-Carnage, unable to separate from the symbiote, jumps into the unbalanced portal, killing himself. Gwen was voiced by Mary Kay Bergman.

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Gwen Stacy in Spider-Man: The Animated Series.

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The Spectacular Spider-Man

Gwen Stacy appears in the animated television series, The Spectacular Spider-Man, voiced by Lacey Chabert. Gwen is portrayed as Peter's best friend, though she would like to be his girlfriend, and intellectual equal, as well as a friend of Harry Osborn.

She gains an internship at Dr. Curt Connors's laboratory at Empire State University with Peter and Eddie Brock. After Peter seemingly runs out of the Connors's Lab, where Gwen, Eddie and Martha Connors are attempting a serum which will restore Curt's human side after he transformed into the lizard, to take pictures for the Bugle (in reality, he disappeared to stop the Lizard as Spider-Man) Gwen becomes angry with him.

She forgives Peter by the episode "Competition", when on a bus ride home from Peter's football try-outs she nervously tries to ask him to the Fall Formal. He remarks that he would not go anywhere near the dance before Gwen can ask him to be her date. Days later, Gwen is seen working in the ESU lab when Eddie mentions the dance and inquires if Peter asked her to go with him yet. Gwen tells Eddie that Peter isn't going, so he suggests that he'll take her himself. Gwen is not aware that Peter is in fact going to the Formal, with Mary Jane Watson.

In the episode "Catalysts", she is silently hurt for thinking Peter lied to her.

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In the episode "Reaction", Peter (as Spider-Man) ends up saving both MJ and Gwen. She then decides to talk to Peter about Harry's condition, as he is taking the Globulin Green formula.

In the episode "Intervention", after a symbiote-controlled Peter blows her off, Mary Jane gets Gwen to admit to her her true feelings for Peter, and urges her to "step up".

This version of Gwen Stacy is much more sensible, compassionate and peaceful than all the other versions. Gwen is often seen as Peter's psychological support and is known by him (and possibly more, including her father) for her infamous "look" by which her glasses lower and she stares at the "victim." To date, this is the only version of Gwen who wears glasses. Her appearance and personality appears to be partially influenced by Debra Whitman's character.

In "Nature vs. Nurture", the finale of the first season, Eddie Brock becomes Venom, ties up and gags Gwen, and then suspends her from a large balloon during the Thanksgiving day parade, hoping that she will fall to her death, thus mentally torturing Peter. While Spider-Man battles Venom, the webs holding Gwen to the float eventually snap and she is sent hurtling to the street, but she is saved when Mary Jane Watson, Flash Thompson, Liz Allan, Randy Robertson, and her other classmates using the now-deflated balloon to catch her. In the final moments of the episode, Gwen kisses Peter for the first time after she and her father have Thanksgiving dinner with him and his Aunt May.

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However, Liz Allen's own growing affections for Peter leads him to start going out with her instead, much to Gwen's dismay. Gwen is later kidnapped by Electro and used as a hostage by the Master Planner, who forces her father to do as he says. Gwen is saved by Spider-Man however. She soon finds herself the center of the returned Harry Osborn's attention, and winds up his girl, despite her interest in Peter.

When Venom outs Peter's identity, she finds the entire concept hilarious. Peter and Gwen are soon mobbed by a gang of reporters, several of whom believe her to be "Spider-Man's Girl". They hide underneath a statue to escape them, and almost kiss, before Gwen's cell phone interrupts the moment.

Later in "Gangland" she got a facial makeover with Mary Jane's help and has stopped wearing her glasses since.

When the Green Goblin took control of New York, Peter and Gwen finally talked, and agreed to end their respective relationships so they could be together. However, when Harry's father appeared to die, Gwen stayed with Harry out of guilt.

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Gwen Stacy as seen in the opening credits of The Spectacular Spider-Man (TV series) Season 1.

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Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy in Spider-Man 3.

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Film

Spider-Man 3

Gwen Stacy is portrayed by Bryce Dallas Howard in Spider-Man 3. She is a potential new love interest for Peter Parker, serving as a rival to Mary Jane Watson. Gwen is a classmate and lab partner of Peter, who (as Spider-Man) rescues her early in the film from a construction crane accident. She kisses an upside-down Spider-Man (the same way MJ kissed Spider-Man in the rain in the first film) which causes MJ to become angry and hurt. As Peter is at the top of Dr. Connors's quantum mechanics class, he tutors her; Peter told MJ science was not Gwen's strongest subject. She considers Peter a genius and is very fond of him.

She is also in a relationship with Eddie Brock, who (as a friend) took pictures of her so Gwen could be a model. Eddie mistakes her casual friendship for the same kind of romantic attraction he feels for her. This relationship is short-lived, as Peter Parker, under the influence of the symbiote, steals her from Eddie (fueling his hatred for Parker) and goes out on a date with her. He dances with her at the same jazz club where MJ works, but Gwen realizes that Peter is doing this to make MJ jealous and as if Peter has moved on and does not care about her, she apologizes to Mary Jane, and leaves. After the events at the jazz club, Peter rejects the symbiote and it takes hold of Eddie, transforming him into Venom. Venom then kidnaps Mary Jane and tells Peter, "You made me lose my girl. Now I'm gonna make you lose yours." Gwen is later present at Harry Osborn's funeral.

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