So earlier I talked about how much I don't like Spider-Gwen. I don't like her invention, I don't like her purpose, and I don't like how Marvel Comics has basically been using her as a shield to hide all the messed up stuff they have done to the original Gwen Stacy since her death in 1973. Messed up stuff including underaged sex, a cycle of death and recreation for the sexual service of an old man, and the refusal to accept the death of a female character as character development for the main character of an ongoing story. So today I'm going to "fix" Spider-Gwen and make the character easier to understand and strengthen the purpose that Marvel Comics has given her.
Step one: kick Spider-Gwen out of Marvel Comics. Not joking. I'm not saying sell her or kill her or take her powers away or anything like that. Don't make her a villain or get her pregnant, just send her back to her own universe and don't bring her up again. If Miles Morales and his newest origin story are any indication, Marvel isn't very good at removing "from alternate universe" from a character's backstory. Readers may know Spider-Gwen is from another universe, but all the children and movie fans you're trying to sell her to don't know that. In fact, those people are confused because the only thing "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" got right was Gwen Stacy dying. So, you need a Spider-Gwen who can still be a superhero, but doesn't have to change or worry about people being confused by her origin.
Step two: Retcon "Clone Conspiracy: Dead No More". That mouthful was Dan Slott's swan-song event for "Amazing Spider-Man" and was all about Ben Reilly reviving all of the dead people in Spider-Man's life as clones, including Gwen Stacy. Now Dan Slott was really picky and choosy about which clones survived the event and which died. For example, Ben Reilly melted and died. But following the event, "Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider" was announced as a new series, implying he didn't really die even though we saw it. Gwen's clone apparently died, but with one simply retcon we can say she didn't. So, the clone of Gwen Stacy is still alive, now we use that to spearhead a new Spider-Gwen series.
Step three: pass the torch. Have the final story arc of "Spider-Gwen" or "Ghost Spider", whatever it's called now, and have Spider-Gwen meet the cloned Gwen Stacy. In an attempt to help Clone Gwen prevent her own cellular degeneration like the other clones, the two Gwen's investigate Miles Warren's original laboratory where the first Gwen clone was created. This is important because we need to acknowledge how The Jackal raped Gwen Stacy. Not literally, but he created clones of Gwen to have sex with and then the clones would die. That's fucked up and we need to address it. More importantly we need Gwen Stacy to address it. They discover Miles' secret project, one he'd been working on until his death. A new Gwen Stacy clone that would never degenerate, more so a clone that ages accurately. This makes Clone Gwen question if she should really cheat death and create yet another clone of herself, or if she should just die like destiny planned.
And this is where we get step four: Own your mistakes and give Gwen Stacy a real chance at life. Spider-Gwen tells Clone Gwen that destiny didn't just throw her over a bridge, it brought her here, it is giving her a chance to regain her life. Spider-Gwen knows all about the Gwen Stacy of this world, and she tells Clone Gwen not to let her life end with being tossed off a bridge or being used a sex puppet for an old man or dying in a puddle. She deserves to live her own life independent of her scars. "Peter Parker needed someone to die on his watch to become something more, but you don't need anyone but yourself, Gwen". And so, Clone Gwen downloads her mind into the new clone body. While the old clone body turns to mush, the new, complete, Gwen Stacy returns.
And she returns in her late-20's, with all her memories, with no sign of clone problems, and with spider-powers. Why? Well, Spider-Man's nifty healing factor keeps her from degenerating, which is why Warren mixed some of Peter's DNA into this clone. And with that, Spider-Gwen leaves Marvel 616 while Gwen Stacy starts somewhere new. Like Boston. Gwen Stacy tries to live a normal life, maybe she takes on another name, but between her superpowers and her memories of being a victim, Gwen can't just idle on the sidelines anymore. She takes a tip from Spider-Gwen and becomes the Marvel 616 equivalent of Spider-Gwen in her new series "Gwen Stacy: The Spectacular Spider-Woman".
She can have fights with The Green Goblin and Ben Reilly. She can have a heart-to-heart with Peter Parker. She can get a civilian job as a cop just like her father. And most importantly we can tell all the stories we wanted to tell with Spider-Gwen with this new, easy to understand version of Gwen Stacy. We can put her in relationships with other superheroes, we can give her cool covers and have people cosplay as her. We can hold her up as an example of female empowerment in comic books. Because while the old Spider-Gwen nearly made us forget Gwen's sullied past, the new Spider-Gwen makes us accept the past, confront it, and rise above it. And you can't get more "Marvel Rising" than that.
Thanks for reading.
And as for Gwenpool? Well, I can't do shit about that.
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