One of comics defining moments: The Night Gwen Stacy Died

[kevinroc]

With the upcoming release of The Amazing Spider-Man on DVD, and news of the sequel due out in 2014, let's take a look back at what might be the plot of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (or at least its sequel.)

Our story begins after the last one. Peter is pretty sick but still finds time to check in on Harry Osborn.



In a story where a major supporting character dies, we actually open on another supporting character in danger.


The stress of his son's deteriorating health and his business failings leads Norman to snap and he decides to take all his frustrations out on Spider-Man. But Spidey ain't home. Pete returns to find Gwen's bag left behind with a calling card from the Green Goblin. And during the fight that follows, Gwen gets knocked off the bridge.







Part 2 also gives us this page, the real end to the Peter/Gwen relationship. (Well, a continuation that just cements the end since Gwen was already dead. This is Peter saying goodbye.)





(People are gonna lose their minds if the movies pull this moment off effectively.)

So after some detective work, Spidey tracks the Goblin down and they fight. Norman makes a comment about how Gwen was just some "simpering, pointless girl" who was nothing more than "occupied space" and Spidey just loses it.





And Norman Osborn didn't plague Peter Parker again for a very long time after that.

But Norman's defeat brought no joy to Peter Parker. He was truly alone.



There's so much you could say about this last page with Mary Jane. But I won't because I think it says all that it needs to by itself.

Comments

[katya]

Green Goblin killed the woman he loved!!!

But... didn't Spidey effectively kill her himself? I mean, note the little "snap" sound effect when he webs her. Is that meant to be him snapping her neck? Because that is what makes sense to me in this scenario.

[sinisterlink]

It's basically one of those things where she was kind of screwed either way. Gwen falling from that height and then hitting the water would have been like slamming head first into a brick wall, which most likely would have killed her. But yeah, Peter did basically snap her neck when he caught her with his webbing. Although I do recall someone posting scans somewhere once of this issue being reprinted where they removed the "snap" sound effect, like they were trying to kind of redo it and say that Peter didn't kill her, and it was more like Goblin says, that she was already dead from the fall in general.

[katya]

Yeah, she definitely would have died either way. I'd have assumed the force of the webbing suddenly halting her fall would snap her neck even without the "snap" in there probably, but the word being there is a bit sinister.

[sinisterlink]

Yeah, I wish I could find the panel online, but there was a nice follow up moment in one of the Marvel Knights Spider-Man issues where Norman kidnaps MJ and takes her to the bridge planning to "reenact" the whole Gwen thing. Mary Jane turns the tables on Goblin by shooting him, but the kickback from the gun makes her fall off the bridge and Peter saves her by shooting multiple strands of webbing at like her ankles, head, arms, legs, etc. to catch her while thinking something like, "I can't afford to mess this up again".

[vitruvian23]

If people die just from falling in the MU, wouldn't that make skydiving impossible?

[horselover107]

I think the best analogy I've ever heard for it was it's kind of like pushing someone in front of a moving car. The driver does play a role, but it's not their fault, it's the vault the the person that did the pushing.

[darkknightjrk]

I interpreted it as the Goblin killed her by pushing her off the bridge, and Spider-Man failed to save her. It certainly wasn't his intention to kill her.

[katya]

It certainly wasn't his intention, but that doesn't mean he didn't do it. It's a matter of perspective I guess. Yeah, Goblin pushed her off the bridge, but you don't know for sure she's dead until the sudden halt of Spiderman's "save" snaps her neck.

[kevinroc]

One of the things that doesn't get discussed much is that Spidey was REALLY sick during this story. Like almost fainting from exhaustion when he gets back home only to find out that Norman had kidnapped Gwen. He wasn't of sound mind and body during this encounter.

[cainofdreaming]

Apparently, like the Goblin said on the page, in 616-verse it's the fall itself that kills you, not hitting the ground.

Bungee jumping must not be that popular there.

[vitruvian23]

Except we've seen characters parachuting. If this were true, all of those characters would be dead before they pulled the ripcord.

[sinisterlink]

Okay, I know this is gonna sound horrible, but I REALLY hope they do Gwen Stacy's death in an upcoming Spider-Man film. And this isn't a thing where I want to kick Gwen to the curb so we can get to MJ or anything like that. Heck, I never really liked Gwen from what I've seen of her in the comics, but I really, really liked her in the movie. She was spunky and smart and was running around getting stuff done. But strangely, I kind of want to see her death more BECAUSE I like her and I know that seeing her die will really effect me, while it didn't in the comic. For example, in the scans above, I really only feel bad for Peter. I never really was into comic Gwen, and yeah, she didn't deserve to die, but I'm just not emotionally invested in HER. I'm invested in Peter and how he's doing. Same as in the Dark Knight movie. I really could have cared less about Rachel, but I felt bad for Bruce and Harvey because they were sad about it. THAT ISN'T RIGHT. When a character dies, I shouldn't only feel sad for the people around them, I should feel sad that that person is dead.

I'd also like to see it in a movie because I have always found this death to be really powerful and just so unexpected. The whole thing is just so horrifying with how Peter is desperately trying to save Gwen and actually ends up killing her himself. We see superhero love interests die or have something horrible happen to them quite often, but not very often does something like this happen. And honestly, I will be very surprised if they don't go down the route in the next movie/movies since they kind of set it up perfectly.

Spoilers for anyone who hasn't watched it yet, but at the end of Amazing Spider-Man, Captain Stacy dies and makes Peter promise him to stay away from Gwen because he doesn't want her to get hurt or get involved in the stuff Peter/Spidey is doing. Peter breaks up with Gwen, Gwen is ticked and knows her dad said something to Pete, etc. Then at the end of the movie Peter's teacher says something to him about not making "promises you can't keep" and Peter whispers to Gwen, "but those are the best kind" and Gwen smiles. This is why I think Gwen's death would work perfectly. Because right at the end here we know that Peter is not going to stay away from Gwen. He is not going to keep his promise. He is not going to be responsible. And him breaking this promise with Captain Stacy and sticking around Gwen is going to end up leading to her death. It's just one of those insanely tragic set-ups that I think could work really well if they do it right.

[seisachtheia]

I didn't realize the first spider-man movie's goblin death was such a direct homage to the comics. Nifty.

I really have been wondering if the reboot is going to go with the comics canon and kill Gwen off. Because on the one hand, that'd definitely be a wham moment, but on the other... I just can't see them actually doing it. Especially as it would make their first movie retrospectively end on one hell of a downer.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I remember a whole series on Gwen Stacy here a while back, and I seem to recall there being something to that bit where Peter tells the cops that "Spider-man killed Gwen Stacy."

Was there any actual fallout from that, or was it just that it seems like there should have been?

[kevinroc]

Spidey was wanted for questioning over the deaths of Gwen and "Norman." Luke Cage was even hired by Jonah to bring Spidey in.

But it wasn't the biggest deal (the emergence of the Jackal, Harry turning into the Green Goblin and the beginning of the Peter/MJ romance pretty much took center stage as far as fallout over Gwen's death and Norman's pseudo-death.)

The "Spidey killed Gwen" thing occasionally gets brought up. Paul Jenkins brought it up a few times during his run on Peter Parker: Spider-Man.

[jcbaggee]

I fully expect ASM2 to end with the death of Gwen Stacy and Osborn/Goblin getting away so they can run a full movie with depressed, end of the rope Spidey chasing the Goblin and try to end the trilogy with some overwrought story about forgiving one's self.

[lalalei2001]

The only thing that kinda bugs me about this story is that Peter repeatedly refers to Gwen as "my woman" or "my lady", even in death. it just bugs me. :\

[kevinroc]

The only thing that kinda bugs me about this story is that Peter repeatedly refers to Gwen as "my woman" or "my lady", even in death. it just bugs me. :\

I attribute that to the context of 1970s comics.

Also, Gwen was originally unconscious after Norman kidnapped her, and remained as such until her death. Future depictions of that event show Gwen as conscious before she gets knocked off the bridge. (When they adapted this story into the 1990s animated series, MJ took Gwen's place and regained consciousness just before she falls off the bridge and into a portal.)

[espanolbot]

[shadowpsykie]

psst pssst.... wrong universe....

but very pretty... OH! Cliff Chiag!!!!!

[espanolbot]

Technically she's cameoed a couple of times, but yeah, I know that she's from the wrong universe. :p

[silverhammerman]

I don't think it's the intention, but this makes me laugh. I think it's because Spidey is all small and shaking his fist indignantly, he just looks so silly.

[eyz]

A classic scene if there is!
Back when I was younger I probably read it once in an old French "STRANGE" comic compilation, in a smaller "digest" Portuguese reprint, in a better 90s Spider-man classic collection in French and finally later in an US TPB reprint at the back of some storyarc.

[shadowpsykie]

There's so much you could say about this last page with Mary Jane. But I won't because I think it says all that it needs to by itself.

Motto sir... Motto....

[silverhammerman]

Truly a classic. I really hope they go through with this in the new movies, as much as I dislike the grim-n-gritty tone of them, this would be an absolutely kickass way to set up the final confrontation. Of course the current trend is to use the (painfully boring IMHO) Ultimate version of the Green Goblin, who's just a green dude, and I don't think this confrontation would work quite as well with that version of the character.
Also, curious; Does this count as Women in Refrigerators? What is it about this story that makes its (possible) use of the unpleasant trope palatable?

[big_daddy_d]

A great story that honestly still tugs at me..even if Sins Past makes me look at it a bit different...dammit Marvel. >_

[riddler13]

You know, I really love S_D, but I think sometimes most of us here take the classics for granted, and they are seldom featured in our posts. So it's very nice to see them here, if only for newer comic book readers to have some contact with them and begin to understand why they were important.

I'll try to rectify this with more DKR, DD: Born Again and Watchmen. When? Lord only knows! :)

[horselover107]

Yeah I'm taking a comics/graphic novels class right now and we're reading some amazing older works. If I can figure out the art of scanning in comics I may just have to post some of the stuff we've read so far (The Best of The Spirit, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Maus-Watchmen is on the list for later in the semester).

[horselover107]

I really do love this story, so much of it hits just the right emotional chord and unlike other characters, specifically female characters, to meet her fate Gwen if gone but NOT forgotten by the people that love her. And I've been waiting for a proper adaptation of it for ages (no stupid "shadow releams"), so I really want to see them do it in the next film (and yes I can see them doing it, the tone of the first had just the right amount of dark).