I've made it no secret that I don't like Spider-Gwen. She looks cool, the concept is cool, but I don't want to see her story to continue. I don't want to see her in cartoons. I don't want to see her on backpacks or in movies or in video games. She was a cool one-off idea and that's were it should have stopped. I don't want to see Marvel Comics "Red Hood" the character of Gwen Stacy.
My main issue with Spider-Gwen is how manufactured she feels. I acknowledge Spider-Gwen has her own universe. I recognize how she has her own adventures and characteristics and how she is supposed to empower women, but Spider-Gwen is just one of those characters Marvel insists on pushing because of all the demographics they can impress with her. All the merchandise they can sell with her. All the appraisal and back-pats they get for "creating a strong female character". From a corpse.
Think of it from this perspective: "The Amazing Spider-Man" comes out in 2012 and is followed by a sequel in 2014, and in these films Emma Stone-an attractive and beloved actress-portrays Gwen Stacy who is the main love interest. So people are talking about Gwen Stacy because "hey, Emma Stone is Gwen Stacy and I like Emma Stone". Not like this is a very surprising strategy. What did Sony do to sell everyone on "Venom"? They casted another attractive actor that everyone likes, Tom Hardy, as Eddie Brock/Venom. Who cares how bad the movie is or how off the character might seem, he/she is being played by someone I know and like, therefore this movie must be great!
So Emma Stone = Gwen Stacy and everyone is talking about this characters, well wouldn't we here at Marvel just collect all the brownie points if we-I dunno-made Gwen Stacy a superhero!? Put her in the public eye!? We can use Dan Slott's big, stupid, cameo event "Spider-Verse" to create Gwen Stacy as Spider-Man. And we'll call her "Spider-Gwen" so people know who she is when they look at the cover! The costume? Ah, that'll be easy. You could make the shittiest Spider-Man costume in the world and people will love it! Look at the black costume. It's literally all black with a white spider!
So we got a cool costume, cool name, and timely appearance. People will be cosplaying and photoshopping Emma Stone as Spider-Gwen in no time. But what about Gwen herself? How do we warrant reviving her? Screw it! Alternate reality! We literally take Peter Parker's origin story and paste "Gwen" over "Peter". Replace The Parkers with George Stacy, give her a fun band of Peter's girlfriends, and done! Original character, do not steal.
And if Spider-Gwen continues to be progressive and fun and marketable and people still love her than maybe, just maybe, people will ignore all the fucked up shit Marvel did to Gwen Stacy. Oh, don't remember the "fucked up shit"? Well, we can start with how Miles Warren/The Jackal has been fucking and murdering Gwen Stacy for the past forty-five years! The Jackal clones Gwen Stacy so he can bang her and then the clone degenerates and he just does it again. And it's not like Spider-Man ever stopped him! No! He's rolling in so many brainwashed coed clones he's selling em' to guys like Deadpool! This cloning took place two years after she was killed, mind you!
Oh, or how about in 2004 when J. Michael Straczynski said "You guys remember how Gwen Stacy went to Europe in the 70's after her dad died? Well, while she was there she and The Green Goblin totally banged". Not bad enough? Norman Osborn was her first. Still not bad enough? She had his twins. Cherry on top? That's why he really killed her in "The Night Gwen Stacy Died" in 1973. JMS not only threw disgusting underaged cherry-popping into Gwen's story, he tarnished one of the most important Spider-Man stories off all time and created one of the worst Spider-Man stories of all time in the process.
And that brings us to the core of Spider-Gwen's "purpose". Being entertained by Spider-Gwen makes people forget she was murdered. This innocent, supporting character/love interest for Peter Parker was thrown off a bridge. How sexist, right? That's clearly what it is. I mean, we don't see Uncle Ben as Spider-Ben fighting crime in his alternate universe. We don't see George Stacy as Spider-George on backpacks or Ashley Kafla as Spider-Kafla in cartoons. Or how about Jean DeWolff. Jean was created three years after Gwen's death and was a police officer who had a love/hate relationship with Spider-Man. She was murdered by her ex-husband and Spider-Man discovered she actually saw him as a friend. Where's Spider-Wolf, Marvel Comics!? She was woman who was murdered by a man, so where's her Spider-revival!?
That basically narrows down on my problem with Spider-Gwen. Much like Uncle Ben with Spider-Man or Jason Todd with Batman or Bucky with Captain America, Gwen became synonymous with death and her hero's failure. And that's unfortunate. But we all have to realize her death wasn't sexist, it wasn't disrespectful, and was never meant to be seen as a mistake. Gwen Stacy died so that Peter Parker had trauma. Because losing your father figure may be enough motivation to become a superhero, but the death of someone else you love after already becoming a hero only pushes you harder. The death of Gwen Stacy weighs down on Spider-Man's heart all the time, and for as far as he moves on from it he will always be reminded of it. Yes, this character with a vagina died, but this other character who-yes, has a penis, but is also the main character, the hero, and the greatest Marvel Comics superhero ever created-learns a hard lesson we all have to except: people will always die, whether we try or not. That's what makes Marvel characters more than fiction.
Thank you for reading. And I'm not done with Spider-Gwen yet.
And by the way, the only reason Winter Soldier gets a pass is because Marvel didn't start pushing his ass till that movie came out.
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