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Background
It all began when Aunt May handed Peter a letter from Gwen Stacy years after
she had died. In the letter, she tried to tell Peter about something horrible,
but there was only one page to the letter and the terrible secret wasn't part of
it. His suspicions were aroused when he saw that the stamp was current and the
post mark was from New York City, despite the fact that the return address was
from France. Peter went to Gwen's grave to think things out, but was attacked
by two strong, agile assailants dressed all in black. Peter was able to escape,
but his agility gave away his ID as Spider-Man.
Peter put two and two together and realized that the strange letter and the
attack were connected, and decided to give the back of the letter to the police
to get any extra clues. He was called on his cell phone to an abandoned factory
after the caller alluded to Aunt May being kidnapped. The factory blew up
and the male figure pummeled Spider-Man. He was stopped by the female, who
called the male "Gabriel" and he responded to her as "Sarah." Gabriel then
promised Spider-Man that after all of this was done, he would understand why
this was happening and why he deserved to die. Getting back to the police,
Spider-Man finds that the police have found imprints of writing on the back of
the letter. It was fragmented, but it revealed that Gwen was had been pregnant
and named the children Gabriel and Sarah.
Peter was in shock over this revelation and needed to confirm it in his mind.
He took a sample of DNA from Gwen's grave and the DNA from the saliva on the
back of the stamp on the letter to a lab, but was stopped by Sarah. She wanted
to be merciful and kill Peter right then and there, without getting the rest of
his family involved. A quick battle ensued and Sarah was unmasked. The shock of
seeing a Gwen look alike made Spider-Man freeze, giving Sarah time to escape.
Turning to the computer, Spidey saw that the kids were indeed Gwen Stacy's.
Outside, Sarah and Gabriel Stacy met and said that they now knew for sure
that he was
their father and that he killed their mother and abandoned them.
Returning home, Peter told what he learned to MJ, who had a surprise of her own
for him. She told him that while she and Gwen were visiting Harry while he was
going through his drug withdrawal, Gwen stopped to speak to Norman. MJ went to
check on them after Harry calmed down, and she overheard Gwen and Norman
arguing. Norman demanded custody of the children, but was refused by Gwen who
planned to ask Peter to marry her and help her raise the kids. Norman demanded
to adopt the two to make up for Harry Osborn, whom Norman considered a
weakling and unfit to carry on his legacy.
Gwen promised that she would die before she allowed Norman to have custody of
her children, a statement that cost her her life. On that awful day, Norman
became the Green Goblin and kidnapped Gwen, pushing her off the George
Washington Bridge in front of Spider-Man, killing her. After the Goblin was
impaled in the following battle with Spider-Man, Norman came to and traveled to
Paris to look after the twins. He raised them to think that Peter was their
father and that he had killed Gwen. He intended to use them against Spider-Man
in case he should ever die in battle.
The kids grew fast, a side effect of the Goblin Formula that they inherited
from Norman's DNA. He was rarely around to play with them. In fact, when he was
around, he made them repeat their life purpose back to him: "Kill Peter Parker.
Kill Spider-Man." Much of the time, the kids wanted to play but were ignored by
the servants. Even though they looked like teenagers, they were still children
mentally. They would sneak out of the mansion in Paris at night to see the
city, which is how they met a man named Bruce. Bruce was into smuggling,
gambling and drug dealing. He soon saw how useful two young, naive and super
humanly strong and agile gang members could be. He soon had them delivering
drugs. When Bruce was removed from the criminal scene by Monsieur Dupres, he
made them work for him. Gabriel soon got the idea to steal the drugs and sell
them by themselves. Sarah didn't like the idea, so Gabe did it alone.
After Norman Osborn was captured by Luke Cage and Spider-Man, Sarah and Gabe
traveled to New York to finish off Parker. After realizing the circumstances of
their birth and how they were rapidly aging to death, he set out to help them.
He set up a meeting with a TV crew and told Gabe and Sarah to meet him at the
bridge. He tried to tell them the truth, but Gabriel lost control of himself
and attacked Spider-Man. The police ordered everyone to surrender, but when no
one complied, they opened fire and hit Sarah. Gabriel fell into the river but
Spider-Man saved Sarah.
Gabe made his way to a safe house in the sewer that Norman had told them about,
and there he found two Goblin costumes. A video of Osborn told him that it was
time to accept his destiny. The Goblin Formula lay waiting for Gabriel and
Norman's video told him that it would cure the aging factor and give him even
more strength, even if it may damage his sanity. As Gabriel was taking the
Goblin Formula, Spider-Man was giving Sarah a blood transfusion at the
hospital. Her condition began to improve, just as the Grey Goblin smashed
through the window. He grabbed Spider-Man, ranting and raving that he wouldn't
make Sarah weak like him. Spidey, weak from the blood transfusion, barely
managed to escape from the Goblin despite his increased strength. He was saved
by Sarah, who refused to take the Goblin serum and told Gabriel that he was
innocent with Gwen's death.
The Grey Goblin tried to kill Sarah, who shot out the glider's engine and
caused him to crash into the river. He washed up on shore and was brought to a
hospital by a family, his memory gone. Meanwhile, Sarah left Peter alone, who
passed out from the battle.
The twins were gone for several months, until Peter got a call from a French
hospital saying that Sarah had tried to commit suicide. He was listed as her
emergency contact and went to see her. It was there that he learned her back
story, and also discovered the plot by Monsieur Dupres to have her killed
unless she gave back the $1.5 million that Gabriel stole from him. She claimed
that she didn't know where her brother was, but he had been staying with her in
Osborn's Paris mansion. His sanity was still fragile, and managed to escape
after MJ showed up to check on Peter. Gabriel thought Mary Jane was Sarah and
tried to protect her when Spider-Man showed up. He flew away on a glider, still
thinking that MJ was his sister. Sarah, with the help of Interpol, managed to
capture Monsieur Dupres and she joined the organization in order to find her
brother.
Thanks To:
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.
The assistance of the
Marvel Chronology Project is gratefully acknowledged.
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