Gwen Stacy Appreciation Thread 2022

[PanicPixieDreamGirl]

I realised there isn't one of these for Gwen (there is one for Spider-Gwen, but not original Gwen) so I thought I'd make one? Hopefully that's not stepping on anyone's toes.

Here, have a picture of Gwen chilling out on a pier after a night of drinking.

gwenstacy.jpg

[Ozymandias]

If there was no previous thread, I wonder whose toe you'd be stepping on.

PS: nice pic, reminds me of Zulli, but can't recall him drawing the character.

[Matt Rat]

Bleeding Cool are covering the Amazon listing for the trade collection of the short-lived mini-series, now known as Who's That Girl, and can confirm the listing is indeed genuine and that solicits will be coming soon.

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/gwen...tion-mia-list/

[Spiderfan001]

Ngl I was hoping this mini would stay dead

Gwen isn't written anything like Gwen, Gwen and Norman interactions are sick in the worst way(I did ask the writer and he said this mini wasn't going to deal w/ Sins Past before it was retconned, I hope he was being honest), no work on Peter and Gwen's relationship, a random bf no one cares about

Hopefully they can develop her and her fathers relationship more

[Lukmendes]

I realised there isn't one of these for Gwen (there is one for Spider-Gwen, but not original Gwen) so I thought I'd make one? Hopefully that's not stepping on anyone's toes.

Here, have a picture of Gwen chilling out on a pier after a night of drinking.

gwenstacy.jpg

They had to show the bridge huh? Lol.

Ngl I was hoping this mini would stay dead

Gwen isn't written anything like Gwen, Gwen and Norman interactions are sick in the worst way(I did ask the writer and he said this mini wasn't going to deal w/ Sins Past before it was retconned, I hope he was being honest), no work on Peter and Gwen's relationship, a random bf no one cares about

Hopefully they can develop her and her fathers relationship more

Well, the comic itself talks about her story not starting when she met Peter, so not interacting with Peter at all makes sense.

I just find it funny she has the headband, since she didn't have it when she was in college, meaning she randomly stopped using it, and then put it back lol.

Also her hair style was explicitly something that was new in college too, characters even comment it looks like MJ's hair style.

I've read the comic here and, man, it's so weird that Gwen is brainstorming with her father how to bust criminals, even suggesting to give one of 'em a lighter sentence to backstab the others, Gwen never showed any interest in cop ****, this kind of **** would be far more fitting with Carlie, which makes this hilarious to me, 'cause I see Carlie as Gwen's second coming.

It's also funny that one of the questions they say readers may not have like whether or not Peter is Gwen's first boyfriend, when the way she acted in Ditko's run may indicate it wasn't the case at all, since she seemed just fine with just playing around with men and her annoyance is how Peter doesn't care about her, though maybe you can say she only had flings and no boyfriends.

Either way, yeah, the way Gwen is characterized here is questionable, even though her personality isn't exactly consistent, she was never this proactive, much less mature, 'cause the way she acted in Ditko's run had her acting more like a spoiled princess than anything.

Gage can be pretty good with characterizations, but Gwen here is weird.

I can understand to a certain extent why she's this involved in the crimes though, 'cause if that's not being done, then she'd just have typical high school drama, which I doubt Marvel would want to do, but it's still odd how proactive she is.

Was interesting that the Goblin's glider was being made for military use, was that said before? ASM#40 says where the Goblin Serum came from, but not the glider, I know Raimi's movies had it being tested for military use, but I'm not sure if 616 itself mentioned that.

[Spiderfan001]

Well, the comic itself talks about her story not starting when she met Peter, so not interacting with Peter at all makes sense.

I understand that, showing her relationship w/ her dad and friendship w/ Harry is great.But they should have used this to flesh out her relationship w/ Peter from HER perspective instead of just telling a tale that no one would care about.

Gage can be pretty good with characterizations, but Gwen here is weird.

Agree w/ most of what you said as well, it's just NOT Gwen and very clearly an attempt to modernize her character... and a bad one at that.Just stick to 65 Gwen and let 616 Gwen stay dead, if anything go the Spider-blue route for 616 Gwen.

Add onto continuity, don't create stuff no one cares about

[Lukmendes]

I understand that, showing her relationship w/ her dad and friendship w/ Harry is great.But they should have used this to flesh out her relationship w/ Peter from HER perspective instead of just telling a tale that no one would care about.

Yeah, the way she met Harry is alright, even if they never actually looked that close, even in Ditko's run lol.

Agree w/ most of what you said as well, it's just NOT Gwen and very clearly an attempt to modernize her character... and a bad one at that.Just stick to 65 Gwen and let 616 Gwen stay dead, if anything go the Spider-blue route for 616 Gwen.

Add onto continuity, don't create stuff no one cares about

The problem is how half assed this attempt at modernization is, a proper modernization would pick up what was there and adapt to modern times, and about the closest thing to modernizing Gwen they'd done is her inconsistent personality, so now she gets a more "modern" female character personality (Being so proactive and wanting to be part of the action), which has very little to do with how she acted back then, because the only scene that actually made me think she was more like her Ditko-era version was when she smushed a cupcake into some jock's face, which is a bitchy thing to do, and Ditko Gwen was a bitch, even then that can be considered going slightly too far (Most aggressive thing I remember her doing was stepping on a book she dropped to prevent Peter from getting it), but regardless, that's the only time she has any semblance with Ditko Gwen, or any other Gwen for that matter.

But yeah, if the story just needs the investigation to happen, it could be better to actually use Carlie for it, since a forgotten detail is that she and Gwen were meant to be friends:







(The many loves of the Amazing Spider-Man)

Marvel just forgot about this afterwards, since there are two moments where Carlie could mention she's Gwen's friend (Superior#31, where MJ talks about Gwen, and Carlie talks like she didn't know Gwen, and ASM#45 vol 5, which she doesn't mention Gwen when retelling her life), and she just doesn't.

But anyways, point is, if the story needs to have an investigation, it could have Carlie being the one doing the investigation on the background after George gets shot, and make Gwen learn what's going on with her father via Carlie (I don't see Jean or Yuri telling Gwen about the investigations), obviously Carlie shouldn't be shown doing as much as Gwen is shown doing here, otherwise she'd be stealing the story from Gwen (Was dumb enough Gwen didn't get her own story in Many loves of Spidey, she shared the spot with Carlie, and Carlie is quite clearly the protagonist), but at least, if the story needs the investigation that badly, have Carlie be the one who does it, maybe Gwen helps a bit, but otherwise the story is about Gwen's regular life, until an issue or two has a super villain annoying her.

Seriously, so many ways this wouldn't look so questionable and allow Gwen to not be Carlie 2.0 even if the overall plot of the investigation has to be kept, otherwise, the story would be better off as a mundane mini with maybe a super villain attack in one issue, but still should actually do what ASM never did and develop Gwen, not throw a fourth incompatible personality in her direction lol.

Another thing they could do is have the first two issues before she meets Peter (To have her develop without his presence), and the rest happen after she does so, I know the comic is cancelled, but the plan was to cover ASM#23~#30, so at most we'd get Peter making random cameos (Like he does in the first issue), but she wouldn't actually meet him (At best, they'd talk briefly but it'd have to be unremarkable since Gwen doesn't know him when she debuts), though maybe she'd meet Spider-Man.

[Tabs]

Ngl I was hoping this mini would stay dead

Gwen isn't written anything like Gwen, Gwen and Norman interactions are sick in the worst way(I did ask the writer and he said this mini wasn't going to deal w/ Sins Past before it was retconned, I hope he was being honest), no work on Peter and Gwen's relationship, a random bf no one cares about

Hopefully they can develop her and her fathers relationship more

I liked her having a love life outside Peter. What was wrong with Osborn and Gwen's conversations? From what I remember, it was:

Osborn: *plots out a clever ruse to frame Gwen's dad*
Gwen: Bet your tech is useless junk!
Osborn: *chucks goals out window* Have I mentioned Oscorp tech is superior?

Gwen: I know about the glider.
Osborn: Where shall I ditch this child's corpse?

Gwen: Lol. Old people ain't shi*t.
Osborn: I never thought I'd be grateful for casual ageism.

[Matt Rat]

What was wrong with Osborn and Gwen's conversations?.

They were flirting.

I liked her having a love life outside Peter

If you're going to give Gwen an interest we've never seen before, make him interesting. They didn't do that. He's just another generic jock.

You could easily have just had Gwen date Harry.

[Spiderfan001]

Agree w/ what Lukmendes said, just don't wanna quote the post

I liked her having a love life outside Peter.

It's boring af, the new bf is a generic character who no one knows or cares for.I don't have a problem w/ her having a bf, but it takes panel time away from characters and relationships such a mini should be fleshing out.

What was wrong with Osborn and Gwen's conversations?

This was written before Sins Past was retconned or planned to be retconned.Sins Past was disgusting af

And not to mention Gwen's character is nothing like what 616 Gwen was, and it's not a good modernization of her either.It's just a new(and frankly cookie cutter and boring) personality

Lukmendes breaks this down well in his post

[Tabs]

They were flirting.




If you're going to give Gwen an interest we've never seen before, make him interesting. They didn't do that. He's just another generic jock.

You could easily have just had Gwen date Harry.

I know the Sins' past concern is strong, but she talked like an ordinary teenager, and he spoke like an adult with a secret to hide.

Teenagers should be allowed to be platonic friends. Peter dated before Gwen, and giving her a partner the audience doesn't have a connection with keeps things uncomplicated. I'm glad Gage didn't go the Harry route after Spencer's retcon.

[Spiderfan001]

I know the Sins' past concern is strong, but she talked like an ordinary teenager, and he spoke like an adult with a secret to hide.

You're ignoring the fact it's completely diff. personality and nothing like 616 Gwen

Teenagers should be allowed to be platonic friends. Peter dated before Gwen, and giving her a partner the audience doesn't have a connection with keeps things uncomplicated. I'm glad Gage didn't go the Harry route after Spencer's retcon.

Yeah, they should be platonic friends but giving her a bf only takes panel time and doesn't add anything.They can just mention she has a bf in dialogue, it serves your purpose of wanting a bf for Gwen and yet saves the panel time for actually fleshing out

[federicodettofred]

Ngl I was hoping this mini would stay dead

Gwen isn't written anything like Gwen, Gwen and Norman interactions are sick in the worst way(I did ask the writer and he said this mini wasn't going to deal w/ Sins Past before it was retconned, I hope he was being honest), no work on Peter and Gwen's relationship, a random bf no one cares about

Hopefully they can develop her and her fathers relationship more

I hear you, man. That mini was horrendous and I was happy when I discovered it had basically been thrown in the darkness. Gwen acted like a discount Kim Possible and the "flirting" with Norman was vomit inducing (she said to him "The Green Goblin is muscled and young" and then she blushed basically saying "You're muscled too for your age" )

[Tabs]

To answer Lukmendes' question, Osborn was mentioned to have done the whole military contract thing in Marvel Knights.
Screenshot 2022-04-07 091321.jpg

You're ignoring the fact it's completely diff. personality and nothing like 616 Gwen

Yeah, they should be platonic friends but giving her a bf only takes panel time and doesn't add anything. They can just mention she has a bf in dialogue, it serves your purpose of wanting a bf for Gwen and yet saves the panel time for actually fleshing out

Early Gwen is intelligent, a bit spoiled, kinda manipulative, and a little nasty, and this adaption doesn't wholly disregard these traits. It's unneeded to soften edges for modern audiences, but I prefer this over Romita's rewrite for the 1960s readership. It'd be a lie if I said the burden of being St. Gwen, Spider-man's deceased love interest ain't stifling her character.

True. Your observation has me suspecting something might happen with him. I'm not holding my breath, but it might be interesting if this mini is what changes her to the Gwen Peter remembers?

(she said to him "The Green Goblin is muscled and young" and then she blushed basically saying "You're muscled too for your age" )

There was no blushing. The idea a friend's father could be a suspect was silly to her, so Gwen laughed at Osborn for getting worked up for nothing. As her romantic relationship did with Peter and Spidey, her platonic association with Harry blinded her to the truth before her. Like a typical teenager, she assumed "an Olympic-level athlete" would be "Young and strong, not..." Gwen apologizes because she tried explaining why she felt the concept was absurd and realized she was seconds away from insulting her friend's father's physique to his face. Osborn fills in the silence by agreeing a "middle-aged desk jockey" doesn't fit her account.

[Matt Rat]

True. Your observation has me suspecting something might happen with him. I'm not holding my breath, but it might be interesting if this mini is what changes her to the Gwen Peter remembers?

She's already acting like the Gwen Peter remembers in this series, I think the point of it might be to show Gwen becomes the person Peter initially MEETS, who was an icy b*tch.