Background

Gwen Stacy is best known in the history of Spider-Man (and in the history of comics) for her death. The hero's girlfriend wasn't supposed to die - but Gwen did, and somehow has remained in the coffin. Although she's been cloned, the original Gwen Stacy never returned. For Peter Parker, the impact of her death was second only to the death of Uncle Ben. It would be an understatement to say that Peter is haunted by Gwen's murder.

In the beginning, Gwen went to Standard High School in New York City (not Mid- Town High where Peter went) where she was described as the "beauty queen". She graduated and went to Empire State University as a biochemistry major where she met classmate Peter Parker. Her first impression of Peter was a mixture of attraction with disdain for his apparent disinterest in her (Peter was preoccupied by the hospitalization of his Aunt May). Even after Peter tried to repair the damage to his reputation, things still went wrong. He declined to go to a party hosted by a friend of Gwen's because he didn't want to be always seen as the egghead, which is why the friend invited him in the first place. Later that day, Gwen perceived Peter as a coward when the Looter arrived at the museum they were at. Naturally, he was just running to change into Spider-Man.

Once the misunderstanding was cleared up, Gwen and Peter grew closer together. However, Peter's famous introduction to the mysterious "girl-next-door" Mary Jane Watson distracted him from Gwen and led her to date Harry Osborn out of jealousy. MJ and Gwen both competed for Peter's affections. But eventually, Peter chose Gwen, and MJ ended up with Harry. Peter loved Gwen more deeply than he had ever loved any woman before.

Gwen lived with her father, police Capt. George Stacy. Spider-Man's interactions with her father helped dispel misconceptions she had towards the alter-ego of her boyfriend. Though her father had his suspicions of Peter, Gwen did not discover Peter's secret identity. Once, Peter revealed his identity to Gwen and his friends while suffering from a high fever (Amazing Spider-Man #87). He later convinced everyone that he wasn't in his right mind through the assistance of the Prowler showing up wearing a Spider-Man costume.

Gwen had many suspicions of why Peter would disappear for days at a time or seem to have been in a fight. She was often indignant with him and would later be thrilled when he gave her some excuse as to why he had been gone. Communication was not the couple's strong suit. Peter once believed that their relationship was over, as he saw Gwen and Flash Thompson having coffee together. They were really discussing why Peter would disappear without warning.

After a battle with Doctor Octopus (Death of Captain Stacy), Gwen's father was accidentally killed by falling debris from the melee. In Captain Stacy's last words, he called Spider-Man "Peter" and asked him to take care of his daughter. Gwen felt Spider-Man bore responsibility for her father's death. Desperate to see Spider-Man punished, she put her support behind Sam Bullit, a hard line "law and order" man that was running for District Attorney. He was secretly a racist, and got caught by police after he arranged to have Robbie Robertson silenced for knowing too much about him.

Gwen and Peter continued dating. Traveling to the Savage Land in Gog! (Amazing #103-#104) with Peter, Gwen was captured by Kraven the Hunter who intended to make her his queen. Spider-Man and Ka-Zar rescued Gwen from Kraven and the monster Gog.

Gwen's final adventure took place when she was captured by Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin. The Goblin captured Gwen to use as a hostage against Spider-Man. In Amazing Spider-Man #121, Spider-Man found the Green Goblin with Gwen atop the George Washington Bridge (note: the artwork showed the Brooklyn Bridge). Gwen lay unconscious in a state of shock. During a battle between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, the Goblin knocked Gwen off the bridge. Though Spider-Man caught her with his webbing before hitting the water below, Gwen died in the fall. A "snap" by her neck implied that perhaps the jolt of the sudden stop broke her neck. (Note: The broken neck was confirmed in Amazing Spider-Man #207, though this sound effect has been taken out in some reprints of this story, leaving the matter rather ambiguous.)

Gwen's death drove Spider-Man to nearly kill the Goblin. Though he stopped himself from pummeling the Goblin to death, the Goblin impaled himself on his own glider, killing himself (temporarily, albeit.)

Gwen's teacher, Professor Miles Warren (a.k.a. the Jackal), was secretly in love with Gwen. Distraught over her death, Warren created a clone of Gwen using cell samples he had kept of his beloved student. Gwen Stacy's Clone is still alive to date, but mostly remains outside of Peter Parker's life.

Recently, two children of Gwen Stacy have shown up. Sarah Stacy and Gabriel Stacy were born to Gwen in Paris France, to keep them away from their father, Norman Osborn. Gwen had been drawn to Norman's power and felt bad for him when he seemed so distraught by his son Harry's drug addiction. Gwen had an affair with him, something she soon regretted once she realized how ruthless he was.

It had long been thought that Norman had come to Peter's apartment looking for Spider-Man, but had really come for Gwen to force her to give him the children. The twins were only at seven months gestation when they were born, but seemed to have aged to full term infants. It was found that the Goblin serum in Norman's DNA had accelerated their aging. Even though Gabriel and Sarah appear to be in their twenties, they are really only children.

While it has been many years since Gwen's death, Peter keeps her close to his heart. After saving a gangster named Forelli from the creature known as Digger, Spidey was paid $10,000 for his services. Not liking to take money from a murderer, Peter anonymously donated the money to build the Gwen Stacy Memorial Library. He has also visited her grave when he needs to think. Quiz: Quiz on Gwen Stacy.

Thanks To:

The assistance of the Marvel Chronology Project is gratefully acknowledged.

Some of the above information is extracted from the various versions of the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe and the more recent Marvel Encyclopaedias.