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For alternate versions of Gwen Stacy, see Gwen Stacy's Character Hub

"My wish for you, is to become hope, people need that, and even if we fail, what better way is there to live? As we look around here today, and all the people who helped make us who we are, I know it feels like we're saying goodbye, but we will carry a piece of each other, into everything we do next, to remind us of who we are, and if we're meant to be. I've had a great four years with you, I'll miss you very much."
―Gwen[src]

Gwendolyne Maxine "Gwen" Stacy was the classmate and girlfriend of Peter Parker and the daughter of the chief police officer, George Stacy. Eventually, she died at the hands of the Green Goblin.

Biography

Early Life

Gwen Stacy was born the oldest child to New York police captain George Stacy and Helen Stacy. Intelligent, hot, sexy and beautiful, Gwen was one of Midtown High School's star students, alongside fellow star student Peter Parker. She was also friends with the lead quarterback/school bully Flash Thompson, one of his few friends, and helped him with his homework. She later applied for internship at Oscorp Industries, gaining a position as lab assistant to Dr. Curt Connors, the head scientist of the Cross-Species Genetics research division.

Peter Parker's Crush

Talking to Peter Parker

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Stacy watching Peter Parker getting bullied by Flash

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One day while studying during lunch, Gwen angrily admonished Flash for bullying Gordon and Peter, talking him down with threatening to quit helping him study. She later comforted Peter in class, commending him for standing up for Gordon and advising him to go to the nurse, seeming to take an instant liking to him.

Peter Parker's Transformation

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The Amazing Spider-Man Wallpaper 2

Stacy talks to Peter in Oscorp

Peter and Gwen would once again encounter each other when Peter snuck into Oscorp Tower where she worked, under the pretense of an intern for the Oscorp Bio-Lab tour. Instantly recognizing him, following Dr. Connor's introductions, she confronted Peter over using someone else's ID badge to sneak in, although he denied stalking her, actually interested in learning more about the Cross-Species research. Despite telling him to stay with the group, Peter snuck into a hidden lab that housed several modified spider specimens (replications of his father's own work), as well as discovering a prototype bio-cable woven from strengthened spider-webs from them. Accidentally letting loose several of the spiders, Peter managed to escape from the lab, only to run into an angry Gwen, who demanded he give the badge back and leave for breaking the rules. As Peter left, he was bitten by one of the spiders, unknown to them both.

In the following week, the spider-bite's modified venom ended up mutating Peter's genome, inexplicably granting him spider-esque attributes, actually making him a successful cross-species subject. Upon realizing this, Peter began to test his new abilities. One of these times included getting back at Flash in the gym by humiliating him in a basketball game, using his powers to perform a perfect slam dunk (which accidentally broke the backboard). After talking with his uncle Ben before leaving school, Ben noticed Gwen watching and pointed out Peter had the graduation photo she was in zoomed in as his computer desktop, playfully embarrassing him, while Peter tried awkwardly clearing this up.

Comforting Peter

The following day, a forlorn Gwen watched a grieving Peter approached by Flash, and mistaking it for another round of bullying, slammed him against the lockers, only for Flash to express his condolences for Peter's loss, to which Peter let him go. As he walked away, Gwen approached him and gave him a heartfelt hug to comfort him, also feeling sad for his loss.

Unbeknownst to Gwen, Peter resolved to use his new powers to track down and apprehend his uncle's murderer. He spent several weeks stopping many crimes, checking the wrists of each thug he caught (as the killer was reported to have a star tattooed on his wrist). To better protect himself and those he knew, Gwen included, from vengeful crooks, Peter crafted a red-and-blue full-body masked spandex uniform and replicated Oscorp's bio-cable into creating small "Web-Shooters" to use to swing across the city in pursuit of crime, becoming a costumed vigilante.

Family Dinner with Peter

Peter with Stacies (ASM1)

Stacy eating with Peter and her family

"You like branzino? Like grilled fish?"
"...Mhm...Yeah, I, uh, I knew that!"
"Oh, well, uh, if you want, you can come to, this uh, this address at 8 o'clock tonight. My mom makes some of the best branzino. Figured you might be hungry. Oh, and it's Apartment 20-16, I didn't... I didn't write that part down, I dunno why I didn't...heh heh..."
"I'll remember it."
"20-16! Don't forget!"
―Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker[src]
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In the following months, Gwen approaches Peter, noticing the bruise on his eye and telling him his B-Track attendance was supposed to be on Thursday. With Peter fumbling over what to say, Gwen equally as awkward invites him to dinner, telling him her mother was making grilled branzino. Peter later arrives at her apartment with a crushed bouquet of flowers, explaining her building's doorman was "intimidating". He briefly seized up when she mentions "his suit", scared she meant his vigilante costume.

Spider-Man's "Guy in the Chair"

Finding out Peter's Secret

Peter and Gwen kiss

Gwen kisses Peter


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After the awkward dinner and debate with her father, Peter impulsively revealed himself as the vigilante to Gwen and confessed that he was in love with her before her father responded to a 911 call about a "dinosaur" attacking the Brooklyn Bridge, with Peter swinging off to respond as well, Gwen grimly noting "I'm in trouble" over this.

Discussing about Lizard

At school the next day, Peter and Gwen talk about his abilities and the mysterious "Lizard", and tells her about his vendetta hunting down Ben's killer. Peter states he feels he should be responsible for stopping the Lizard from doing further harm, to Gwen responded "it isn't his job", although Peter affirms it is. Having a free-track from his classes, Peter remembers his experiment with Connors and sneaks into the doctor's lab at Oscorp Tower, with Connors admonishing him for snooping and warning him of a "radical new species" roaming New York, stating it could be "aggressive if threatened". After asking him to leave, Peter discovers a mutated Fred, one of the three-legged mice he and Connors tested the serum on, now a half-lizard hybrid and devouring his mate Wilma, realizing Connors is in fact the described Lizard.

Learning about the Lizard

Peter and Gwen share an intimate moment

Gwen learns about the Lizard

Peter goes to the NYPD precinct to warn Captain Stacy over Connors' condition, only for the police captain to dismiss his claims over the sheer absurdity over it, despite Peter noting his work in Cross-Species Genetics. Peter discovers that Connors has set up base in the sewers and travels down into them to confront him as Spider-Man, shooting several weblines into the various drains to detect ibrations in a full web. The Lizard then ambushes Spider-Man and they fight, the reptilian villain raking several gashes into the hero's chest with his claws before Peter manages to escape through the drainage stream. Peter returns to Gwen's apartment and To be added.

Lizard Defeated

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When the Lizard planned to use reptilian DNA to turn the entirety of New York into lizard-human hybrids, Gwen helped Peter stop his plan by getting an antidote to replace the reptilian serum. Peter called Gwen while she was at Oscorp saying that she was in danger. She evacuated everyone out of Oscorp and waited for the antidote to finish. When the Lizard came, Gwen hid where she was later found but unharmed who took what Gwen had with her. After the Lizard leaves and the antidote finishes, she runs out to her father, George Stacy and told him to give it to Spider-Man as she then went into the police car. 

Breaking Up

After her father was impaled by the Lizard, Captain Stacy's last words were a promise for Peter to keep Gwen out of the action he has to face. Peter ended up not showing up to her father's funeral saying that he couldn't see her anymore, because she could get hurt. Later at school, he said that he wouldn't keep to that promise so he and Gwen were able to see each other.

Helping "Spider-Man"

To be added

Graduation Day

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Stacy and Peter kiss in the graduation

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"Good morning, esteemed faculty and families of my fellow graduates. It's an honor to be standing up here today. "
―Gwen Stacy[src]

One year later, Gwen and Peter are graduating high school, with her having helped him craft a new costume for crime-fighting. However, on Graduation Day, Peter is pursuing a robbery of plutonium by Russian convict Aleksei Sytsevich as Spider-Man while on the way, to which she calls Peter on the phone to remind him he's running late. Gwen then makes a speech to her fellow class-mates and their families. Afterwards, Peter meets Gwen at their high school graduation ceremony where the two share a kiss.

Breaking up again

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Stacy breaks up with Peter

"Wow... You have done this to me again and again, Peter Parker... I can't live like this! You're so terrified of me getting hurt, you wanna push me away? Lemme be the adult here. I break up with you. I break up with you. There. That work for you?"
―Gwen Stacy to Peter Parker[src]

Gwen and Peter talk where she invites him to dinner before she is called by her mother for a family photo. Later in the evening, Peter tells Gwen about the visions he's been having and insists that he needs to keep his promise which as a result, Gwen breaks up with Peter.

Meeting Max Dillon

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Friendship with Peter Parker

To be added

Duel at Times Square

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Before the two can discuss it, Max accidentally shuts off the power to Times Square whilst looking for electricity to power himself. As Electro reveals himself as Max, Gwen recognizes him.

Later, she tries to find his file at Oscorp, but the file has been erased. Gwen is then chased by security for trying to find his file and runs into Peter who says he was with Harry. As Gwen goes to the elevator, Peter distracts the security guards and Gwen then meets Harry who tells her that Peter is always complicated, but that is why he needs her.

Accepted from Oxford

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Stacy talks to Parker while getting accepted by Oxford

Peter then receives a voicemail message from Gwen, telling him that she got into Oxford University and was heading to the airport to fly there earlier than expected because of an earlier class. Peter manages to catch her and professes his love for her, and the two agree to go to England together.

Battle at Oscorp's Power Grid

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Stacy accidentally saying Spider-Man's real name in front of the public

They are interrupted by a blackout caused by Electro. Peter takes Gwen down where the police are and Gwen helps him with his web-shooters to go against Electro. Peter heads off to fight with Electro having the upper-hand. As Electro has Spider-Man in the air and is electrocuting him, Gwen comes in a police car and hits Electro, against Peter's demands. The two plan to defeat Electro by overloading his electricity supply.

Death

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Stacy watching Spider-Man fighting Green Goblin

Just after they do so, Harry Osborn arrives, now as the Green Goblin, and figures out Spider-Man’s identity and that he wants revenge for being refused the life-saving blood transfusion. Goblin takes Gwen and drops her where Spider-Man catches her. The two fight at the top of a clock tower and Spider-Man manages to subdue the Goblin.

Gwen death

Gwen falls, causing her neck to snap

However, during the fight, Gwen falls and is supported by a web connected to one of the gears. The gears turn, cutting the web, and Gwen again falls. Goblin is then defeated and Peter tries to save Gwen by diving after her and using his web. Before Gwen hits the ground Peter's web reaches her and stops the fall, the sudden stop causing her neck to snap, which causes her to die instantly.

Legacy

Spider-Man vs. Rhino

5 months pass and Spider-Man is nowhere to be seen in New York, as Peter spends every day at Gwen's grave. Peter is inspired by a recording of Gwen's graduation speech and makes his return as Spider-Man to fight Rhino to keep her memory and beliefs, including her love for him, alive.

Peter's Continued Despair

Gwen is mentioned by Peter several times. It is revealed that following her death, he never found someone else, and later became more violent and bitter during his crime fighting career. A decade on following her death, he is teleported to another reality where he meets two other versions of himself and speaks about Gwen to them. Peter rescues the girlfriend of that world's Peter Parker, Michelle Jones (MJ); when he falls from a large height.

Potential Survival in an Alternate Reality

Peter's experience in an alternate reality, in which he helps cure a few villains from his universe and other universes, creates two branched timelines in his universe. It is possible that Gwen survives in at least one of these branched timelines, which could give at least one version of Peter a chance to be with Gwen, though the original Gwen from the original timeline is still dead.

In other media

Video games

The Amazing Spider-Man (video game)

After the Lizard's defeat and Gwen's father's death, she refused to forgive Connors. Instead, she buried herself in work, moving Oscorp's robotics division under the tutelage of the chivalrous and intelligent Alistaire Smythe. Still, she suspected something was up at Oscorp and snuck Peter in one evening to help her check things out. Little did she realize that Peter's arrival would spark a riot among Oscorp's remaining cross-species specimens and her infection with the cross-species virus.

Though sequestered to quarantine within Oscorp Tower, Gwen fought off her illness as best she could, as she did what she could from her position to help Spider-Man save the day. Whether updating Spidey on the level of contamination, hacking into computers, or reprogramming Smythe's robots to do her bidding, Gwen was on it. As the dust settled and the city was cured, Gwen remembered how much she loved the guy behind Spider-Man's mask. She now visits Peter almost every day at his aunt's friend's apartment.

Spider-Verse

Main article: Spider-Woman

Personality

Gwen Stacy
"You're Spider-Man and I love that, but I love Peter Parker more."
―Gwen Stacy to Peter Parker[src]

Gwen is a smart, direct, inquisitive and independent individual who had a ball of fiery attitude to her whenever she felt she was being treated unfairly. Her actress, Emma Stone, described her character as a "daddy's girl" who is very responsible and protective of her family and has a love for science. Her character offered Peter a world of stability and the two forged an intellectual connection over their shared love for science. She is stuck between her father, Peter Parker, and Spider-Man, who all have different ways of going to find justice in their lives. There are moments where she saves him more than he saves her and is incredibly helpful towards Spider-Man, being the brains to his brawn and provided a feeling of partnership in her relationship with Peter and is more than willing to aid him in his battles, even at the cost of her own life, as shown when she helps him against Electro and was subsequently targeted and led to her death by the Green Goblin.

Trivia

  • Gwen is one of the few people to know Spider-Man's true identity; the others being George StacyCurt Connors and Green Goblin. Ironically, in the comics; until her death, Gwen never learned this and died blaming Spider-Man for her father's death.
  • Gwen's death was inspired by the comic, The Night Gwen Stacy Died.
    • The differences from the comic is that besides on the Brooklyn Bridge, her death takes place in a clock tower next to the bridge.
    • When the clock started spinning, it landed on 1:21 which was the comic issue "The Night Gwen Stacy Died".
    • Instead of Norman Osborn killing her, the identity of the Green Goblin who does so is Harry Osborn, his son.
    • Instead of breaking her neck, she hits her head on the ground which causes her death.
  • Gwen is absent from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (video game) adaption of the movie, although she is mentioned. She doesn't appear during Spider-Man's fight with Electro or is killed due to the Green Goblin.
  • In the junior novelization of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Gwen does not die, as it ends halfway through the movie's plot.
  • Despite her death, Emma Stone would have continued portraying Gwen as a ghostly figure throughout the future movies, as her father had throughout The Amazing Spider-Man 2, to represent Peter's immense guilt over her death, namely throughout The Amazing Spider-Man 3.
  • In addition, Sony had considered a spin-off film continuing on a plot point from the cancelled The Sinister Six movie that would involve an alternate dimension where Gwen had instead been bitten by the super-spider, becoming Spider-Woman of that dimension. Doctor Octopus and Mr. Negative would have been behind the interdimensional circumstances that brought her into the Amazing Spider-Man dimension, in which she would team up with rookie superhero Silver Sable and two other heroes to rescue a captive Spider-Man and Sable's team the Wild Pack from Doc Ock and Negative. The idea of an alternate Gwen becoming Spider-Woman would later be incorporated into Marvel's Spider-Gwen comic book series, which would go on to become a fan favorite.
  • Following the 2014 Sony Pictures hack, Emma Stone was revealed to have been in early talks to return as a resurrected Gwen Stacy in future The Amazing Spider-Man films, derived from Sony's considered alternate-dimension Gwen storyline, with the character becoming Carnage after being rendered amnesiac by her resurrection, before falling under the thrall of a similarly resurrected Norman Osborn. These plans were cancelled upon the cancellation of the franchise.

Gallery

External links

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