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

[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.