Comic Book Legends Revealed: The Night Gwen Stacy Died

[CBR News]

CBLR takes a look at three Spider-man themed legends surrounding "The Night That Gwen Stacy Died," including whether she was originally intended to die at all!


Full article here.

[John Ossie]

Nice little article.

[usually]

Should have went with MJ...

[Mister Mets]

Interesting. All of the reprints of Amazing Spider-Man #121-122 that I read don't include the Washington quip.

[oldschool]

Interesting. All of the reprints of Amazing Spider-Man #121-122 that I read don't include the Washington quip.

Likely because it was the Brooklyn Bridge that was clearly illustrated; that was a scripting flub that should not have made it past the editor though it was a funny quip.

EDIT: Never mind, this is all discussed in the third page of the linked article. I did not realize that when I first posted; my point is now extraneous.

[Scott Taylor]

I'm content to believe that the George Washington bridge looks like the Brooklyn Bridge in Spidey's version of earth.

[Mister Mets]

Likely because it was the Brooklyn Bridge that was clearly illustrated; that was a scripting flub that should not have made it past the editor though it was a funny quip.

EDIT: Never mind, this is all discussed in the third page of the linked article. I did not realize that when I first posted; my point is now extraneous.

Looking at it again, it's in my Essential Spider-Man Volume 6, but not in my Spider-Man VS Green Goblin TPB.

I'm so used to seeing the comic without the quip. It seems kinda odd to have a standard joke there given what's happening in the next few pages.

[oldschool]

Looking at it again, it's in my Essential Spider-Man Volume 6, but not in my Spider-Man VS Green Goblin TPB.

I'm so used to seeing the comic without the quip. It seems kinda odd to have a standard joke there given what's happening in the next few pages.

In hindsight, sure. At the time, though, Spidey was confident he was going to just swoop in and save the day, same as he always had before that fateful night. One of the things I liked about how Conway structured the story, and it doesn't get referenced often at all, is how Spidey was ill at the time of that fight. It made his efforts that much more appreciable and often makes me wonder if he would have been able to defeat the Goblin and save Gwen had he not been sick.

[Sardorim]

Should have killed Aunt May...

[Spider-Man]

Should have killed Aunt May...

No they shouldn't...

[dddaaavvv]

Should have killed Aunt May...

Amen, brother...

Y'know in #125 in the letters section SUPPOSEDLY there was an 50/50 split between people accepting Gwen's death and those protesting it. In the CBLR article it gives the impression that there was a lot more outrage about Gwen's death than Marvel was willing to admit. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that the readers WERE a lot more outraged than Marvel was willing to let on, but they had to present the illusion of equality just to cover their butts. If it were revealed that the majority of readers WERE against her death, there probably would have been a crapstorm of protests and possible boycotts of the comic until Marvel made it right. But I guess we'll never know...

[Mister Mets]

In hindsight, sure. At the time, though, Spidey was confident he was going to just swoop in and save the day, same as he always had before that fateful night. One of the things I liked about how Conway structured the story, and it doesn't get referenced often at all, is how Spidey was ill at the time of that fight. It made his efforts that much more appreciable and often makes me wonder if he would have been able to defeat the Goblin and save Gwen had he not been sick.

I'm conflicted on the quip.

Peter Parker doesn't know how bad things are going to get, so it can lull readers into a false sense of security.

But a maniac did kidnap his girlfriend. That's not the time to make jokes.

[oldschool]

I'm conflicted on the quip.

Peter Parker doesn't know how bad things are going to get, so it can lull readers into a false sense of security.

But a maniac did kidnap his girlfriend. That's not the time to make jokes.

That's an interesting point; thinking back, he reacted differently the multiple times Aunt May had been kidnapped including the fairly recent (at the time) ASM #94 when he went up against The Beetle. So he could have been falsely confident or perhaps this sort of thing was sadly becoming more the norm for him by this point in his career. A good question for Gerry Conway to field.

[dddaaavvv]

Likely because it was the Brooklyn Bridge that was clearly illustrated; that was a scripting flub that should not have made it past the editor though it was a funny quip.

EDIT: Never mind, this is all discussed in the third page of the linked article. I did not realize that when I first posted; my point is now extraneous.

There are a lot of things that get past the editor. One inconsistency that sticks in my brain is that #121 takes place at night, but #122 supposedly picks up immediately where #121 left off, is in the day time. I guess after a month, certain details can slip anybody's mind!

[Qrx2]

Should have killed Aunt May...

They have killed Aunt May so many times it's lost all meaning. Honestly Aunt May Spider-man deaths and Gwen's are the right way and wrong to make someone's death meaningful in comics. Gwen's means so much and is so powerful because she has stayed dead longer than anyone else killed in a Marvel comic than maybe Uncle Ben. Had she come back to life so many times like Aunt May has no one would remember "The Night Gwen Stacy died" and it wouldn't be so powerful.

Honestly, I wish they would stop killing May because they will never leave her dead because if one thing is clear to me about how they write Spider-man is that the one thing they protect above all else is making sure they don't age the Peter Parker character too much and they view May as a too important piece of the puzzle that keeps Peter "young".

I don't know if they had to kill anyone at that point. Frankly, I think Gwen's death was a lot like Uncle Ben's death in that it knocked some of cockiness out of Peter as Spider-man and reinforced the whole with Great Power comes Great Responsibility narrative. Still, rather they needed to kill her or not the reason it's such a major part in the Spider-man story to this day is because she has stayed dead. Had the real Gwen Stacy popped back up rather than her clone two years later then Gwen's death wouldn't have been such a major moment. Had they killed May it would have only been a matter of time till she came back just all the other times they have killed her and we wouldn't remember Amazing Spider-man 121.