As if Gwen Stacy’s death weren’t Spider-Man‘s biggest tragedy, the Green Goblin kills Peter Parker’s late girlfriend a second time half a century after the first. Gwen Stacy’s death is a defining event in Spider-Man’s journey as a hero. Gwen’s tragic fall from the George Washington Bridge marks the end of Peter Parker’s innocence and the point of no return in his feud with the Green Goblin.
While the original Gwen Stacy is permanently dead, her legacy endures through alternate-universe versions of herself. Earth-65’s Gwen became the heroic Ghost-Spider. Now active on Earth-616 alongside Peter, Ghost-Spider is one of the world’s many Spider-People fighting street-level criminals and supervillains on a daily basis.
Sadly, it was only a matter of time until Earth-65’s Gwen Stacy found herself in a similar situation to her Earth-616 counterpart.
Green Goblin Kills Gwen Stacy A Second Time
Strange Tales #2; Written by Jeremy Whitley; Art by Jim Campbell & Bayleigh Underwood
On Halloween night, the Green Goblin outsmarts Doctor Strange at the door of the Sanctum Sanctorum by putting him to sleep with a special pumpkin device. Before he wreaks havoc inside the Sanctum’s library, Ghost-Spider arrives to help Strange. However, after a brief fight, Green Goblin grabs a spell book from Doctor Strange’s library and casts a spell that turns Gwen Stacy into a ghost.
Gwen Stacy’s disastrous encounter with the Green Goblin is nothing but an ironic coincidence. Gwen doesn’t intend to exact revenge on Norman Osborn for the original Gwen Stacy’s death, and Green Goblin doesn’t set out to add Gwen to his long list of murders. Yet, Green Goblin can now pride himself on the fact that he recreated Spider-Man’s biggest tragedy on a superpowered version of Gwen.
Gwen Stacy’s Ghost Raises A Funny Question About Marvel’s Dead Characters
Ghosts And The Afterlife Are Remarkably Inconsistent In Marvel Comics
In Strange Tales #2, Gwen struggles to communicate with Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch, and Nico Minoru as a ghost until she realizes Nico Minoru understands Morse code. Problem is, it has been established that both Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch possess the ability to perceive all kinds of ethereal entities, including ghosts. The only reason why three of Marvel’s most skilled magic users can’t see Gwen might be that the spell Green Goblin casts turns her into a different kind of ghost.
Regardless of why Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch, and Nico Minoru are puzzled by the presence of a ghost, Gwen’s pseudo-death calls attention to Marvel’s inconsistent afterlife. Ghosts and spirits exist simultaneously with resurrections and afterlife in different dimensions. If souls can linger as ghosts, then many should continue to be active players in the Marvel Universe by communicating with characters who are sensitive to the paranormal, especially those deceased characters with unfinished business, like the original Gwen Stacy.
- First Appearance
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Amazing Fantasy
- Alias
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Peter Parker, Ben Reilly, Otto Octavius, Yu Komori, Kaine Parker, Pavitr Prabhakar, William Braddock, Miles Morales, Kurt Wagner
- Alliance
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Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Secret Defenders, Future Foundation, Heroes for Hire, Mighty Avengers, New Avengers, Web-Warriors
- Race
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Human