"The Night Gwen Stacy Died", alternatively known as "The Green Goblin's Last Stand" and colloquially as "The Death of Gwen Stacy", is a story arc of the Marvel Comics comic book series The Amazing Spider-Man #121–122 (June–July 1973). The two-issue story was written by Gerry Conway, with pencil art by Gil Kane and inking by John Romita Sr. and Tony Mortellaro. The story features a confrontation between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin. Having discovered Spider-Man's identity, the Green Goblin abducts Spider-Man's girlfriend Gwen Stacy. Gwen is killed during the battle, and a subsequent fight results in the Goblin's death.
Prior to the release of the story arc, it was not considered common for major members of a superhero's supporting cast to be killed. As a result, "The Night Gwen Stacy Died" is widely regarded as the most pivotal Spider-Man story outside of his origin and one of the most important comics of all time; its release is widely said to have ended the Silver Age of Comic Books and jumpstarted the Bronze Age, which further increased the emphasis on more mature subject matter pioneered by the Silver Age. Gwen's death and the story at large had major impact on the Marvel brand, as they directly led to increased emphasis on Luke Cage and Mary Jane Watson, the creation of the Punisher, and Green Goblin's status as Spider-Man's archenemy in alternate media and, following his resurrection during the Clone Saga, the comics.
The arc's popularity has led it to be alluded to in various alternate media, most notably partial direct adaptations in the feature films Spider-Man (2002) and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014).
Plot
Prior to this arc, Norman Osborn had been the Green Goblin, but due to amnesia, he had suspended his identity as the supervillain and forgotten that Spider-Man is Peter Parker. Also, Harry Osborn, Parker's best friend and Norman's son, became addicted to drugs and was sequestered in the Osborn home for detoxification. Norman's parental grief, combined with financial pressure, triggered a breakdown resulting in Norman Osborn remembering his Goblin identity and again targeting Spider-Man and his loved ones for misery.
The Green Goblin abducts Peter's girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, and lures Spider-Man to a tower of either the Brooklyn Bridge (as depicted in the art) or the George Washington Bridge (as given in the text).Saffel, Steve. Spider-Man the Icon: The Life and Times of a Pop Culture Phenomenon (Titan Books, 2007) , p. 65, states, "In the battle that followed atop the Brooklyn Bridge (or was it the George Washington Bridge?)...." On page 66, Saffel reprints the panel of The Amazing Spider-Man #121, page 18, in which Spider-Man exclaims, "The George Washington Bridge! It figures Osborn would pick something named after his favorite president. He's got the same sort of hangup for dollar bills!" Saffel states "The span portrayed...is the GW's more famous cousin, the Brooklyn Bridge. ... To address the contradiction in future reprints of the tale, though, Spider-Man's dialogue was altered so that he's referring to the Brooklyn Bridge. But the original snafu remains as one of the more visible errors in the history of comics."Sanderson, Peter. Marvel Universe: The Complete Encyclopedia of Marvel's Greatest Characters (Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1998) , p. 84, notes, "[W]hile the script described the site of Gwen's demise as the George Washington Bridge, the art depicted the Brooklyn Bridge, and there is still no agreement as to where it actually took place." The Goblin and Spider-Man clash, and the Goblin hurls Gwen off the bridge. Spider-Man shoots a web strand at her legs and catches her. As he pulls her up, he thinks he has saved her, however he quickly realizes she is dead. Unsure whether her neck was broken by the whiplash from her sudden stop or had been already broken by the Goblin prior to her fall, he blames himself for her death. A note on the letters page of The Amazing Spider-Man #125 states: "It saddens us to say that the whiplash effect she underwent when Spidey's webbing stopped her so suddenly was, in fact, what killed her.", although later issues would reveal Gwen died from the fall itself.
The Green Goblin escapes, and Spider-Man cries over Gwen's corpse and swears revenge. The following issue, Spider-Man tracks the Green Goblin to a warehouse and beats him but cannot bring himself to kill him. The Goblin uses the opportunity to send his glider to impale Spider-Man from behind. Warned by his spider-sense, Spider-Man dodges, and the glider instead impales the Green Goblin, seemingly killing him. Later, a devastated Parker, back at home, encounters an equally shocked and saddened Mary Jane Watson, who has lost a close friend with Gwen's death, and the two attempt to comfort each other in the wake of their loss.
Significance The death of Gwen Stacy shocked the American comic book community. Previously, it had been unthinkable to kill off such an important character—the girlfriend of a protagonist with a large fanbase. Generally, a superhero did not fail so disastrously unless it was part of their origin story. This story arc has been proposed as a marker of beginning of the end of the Silver Age of Comic Books, and the beginning of the darker, grittier Bronze Age. The subsequent tendency for the wives and girlfriends of male superheroes to meet grim fates was referred to as "The Gwen Stacy Syndrome" by the Comics Buyer's Guide. A fan poll conducted by Marvel Comics, for their 2001 series The 100 Greatest Marvels of All Time, voted The Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 1) #121 and #122 to be the 6th and 19th greatest issues of all time, respectively. Writer Brian Michael Bendis paid tribute to the death of Gwen Stacy in his modernized reboot, Ultimate Spider-Man. In the Ultimate Marvel Universe of Earth-1610, The Green Goblin attempts to retaliate against Spider-Man for turning down his offer to join him by capturing his girlfriend Mary Jane Watson, throwing her off the George Washington Bridge in an homage to Stacy's death. Unlike Stacy in the main continuity, Watson survives, albeit with severe trauma.
Development Behind the scenes Inker John Romita Sr. recalled in a 2015 interview how the character to be killed off for what became The Night Gwen Stacy Died was selected. Romita and Amazing Spider-Man writer Gerry Conway were initially asked by the editors to kill off Aunt May. They organized a plot session at Conway's apartment and disagreed with killing Aunt May, opining that if she were to die, Peter would not have to worry about her anymore and be no longer treated as a child again, thus deciding to kill either Mary Jane Watson or Gwen Stacy. Romita advised against the former, because Mary Jane was a comic relief character at the time. Instead, recalling cartoonist Milton Caniff's decision to kill off a lead character's love interest in Terry and the Pirates, Romita proposed killing Gwen Stacy.
Writer Conway's memory of how Gwen was selected as the character to be killed off is more contradictory: in 2008 he told author Sean Howe that it was he and editor Roy Thomas who first discussed killing off Aunt May, but when Romita heard about this he suggested that Gwen was a more suitable candidate. Later, during a 2013 interview at the Emerald City Comic Con, Conway contradicted himself by claiming that it was initially Romita's idea to kill off Aunt May and that he disagreed and had to talk Romita out of that choice.
Stan Lee, co-creator of both Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy, was consulted by Conway, editor Roy Thomas and Romita about killing Gwen Stacy. When asked about how he accepted the decision, Lee said: "... I was just getting ready to go to Europe on some sort of a business trip... to meet somebody to discuss something about Marvel. And I think I wasn't thinking too clearly, because when they said, 'We'd like to kill Gwen Stacy,' I said, 'Well, if that's what you want to do, okay.' All I wanted to do was get them out of the office so I could finish packing and get out of there. ... and when I came back and found out that Gwen had been killed, I thought 'Why would they do that? Why would Gerry write anything like that?' And I had to be reminded later on that I had perhaps reluctantly or perhaps carelessly said 'Okay' when they asked me." Conversely, Romita recalls that Lee was already out of the country when the decision was made and that they took a time to talk him into it, yet Lee remained very upset.
In the comic book collection The 100 Greatest Marvels of All Time: #9-6 (Amazing Spider-Man #121 was the #6 comic), Conway explained that Gwen and Peter were a "perfect couple", but taking that relationship to the next level (i.e. marriage or at least Peter revealing his secret identity to her) would "betray everything that Spider-Man was about", i.e. personal tragedy and anguish as root of Peter's life as Spider-Man. Killing Gwen Stacy was a perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone: breaking up the "unfitting" relationship and reinforcing the element of personal tragedy which was, in his opinion, the essence of Spider-Man.The 100 Greatest Marvels of All Time #5. Marvel Comics.
Bridge The bridge in the original issue of Amazing Spider-Man #121 was stated in the text to be the George Washington Bridge. The Pulse #4 (Sept. 2004) also states the bridge to be the George Washington Bridge.
The art of The Amazing Spider-Man #121, however, depicts the Brooklyn Bridge. Some reprints of the issue have had the text amended and now state the bridge to be the Brooklyn Bridge rather than the George Washington Bridge. Titles supporting the Brooklyn Bridge include The Amazing Spider-Man #147–148 (1975), The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 (1987), Web of Spider-Man #118 (1994), and Daredevil v. 2 #8 (2000). In a television interview for the Travel Channel's Marvel Superheroes Guide to New York City (2004), Stan Lee said that the artist for the issue had drawn the Brooklyn Bridge, but that he (as editor) mistakenly labeled it the George Washington Bridge. This was corrected in newer prints of the issue.
Different bridges are depicted in subsequent adaptations of the storyline. Mary Jane Watson was thrown off the Queensboro Bridge in both Ultimate Spider-Man #25 and the Spider-Man movie, while in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Mary Jane is thrown off the George Washington Bridge.
Cause of death
The comic features a "snap" sound effect next to Gwen Stacy's head in the panel in which Spider-Man's webbing catches her. In The Amazing Spider-Man #125 (Oct. 1973), Marvel Comics editor Roy Thomas wrote in the letters column that "it saddens us to have to say that the whiplash effect she underwent when Spidey's webbing stopped her so suddenly was, in fact, what killed her. In short, it was impossible for Peter to save her. He couldn't have swung down in time; the action he did take resulted in her death; if he had done nothing, she still would certainly have perished. There was no way out."
In the History Channel special Spider-Man Tech, Stan Lee states that her neck was indeed snapped.
Physicist and comic collector James Kakalios, in his book The Physics of Superheroes, states that in the real world, the whiplash effect would have killed her.Kakalios, James (2005). The Physics of Superheroes Gotham Books: New York. . The comic book Civil War: Casualties of War: Captain America/Iron Man (2007) concurred that the proximate cause of death was the sudden stop during a high-speed fall. An issue of Peter Parker: Spider-Man revisits the issue, and further confirms Gwen died of a broken neck due to the use of the webbing.