Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy: All the Beautiful Angst of First Love

For the fourth installment of my series exploring the variety of romantic archetypes we find in literature (illustrating the variety of romantic experiences we find in life) using only Spider-Man comics, I’m considering the first great love of Peter Parker’s life – Gwen Stacy.  To write this, I went back and read the entirety of Gwen’s time with Peter, beginning with her first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #31 (from December 1965) through issue #120 (from May 1973).  Over the years, Gwen has taken on a hallowed significance in Peter’s life as his great, irreplaceable lost love.  But in reading these comics I realized she – and her relationship with Peter – illustrated something far more universal and far more interesting.  Gwen and Peter perfectly present our first love with all the awkward, emotional, angsty, and idealized moments that come with it.

Spider-Gwen: Portrait of an Isolated Vigilante

Like everyone else in the world, I fell in love with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse when I saw it.  Miles Morales’ story began when I wasn’t reading comic books and, when I returned, it was one of the things I couldn’t wait to explore.  In fact, for the first year of my return to comic reading, it was his Spider-Man exploits alone I followed, wary of jumping back into Peter Parker’s world after having missed out on so much.  To see Miles take center stage in this movie was exciting!  But it wasn’t just Miles in the film.  My excitement to see his story unfold on the big screen was matched by my intrigue at seeing Gwen Stacy’s Spider-Woman.  I wasn’t halfway through my first viewing of the film before I knew I had to start reading Spider-Gwen for myself.

Spider-Man at the Movies

Dear Readers (especially Sony Pictures),

I like to write about how much I love Spider-Man on this site.  I also like to write about how much I love reading Spider-Man comics.  But do you know what else I enjoy?  I love to watch Spider-Man movies.  Sony Pictures has been the steward of the web-slinger’s big screen adventures since 2002, giving us three movies with Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man, two with Andrew Garfield, and now Tom Holland has taken over the webs as Spidey’s swung over to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Yay!!!!  But Sony has made it clear there’s no set plans to keep Spider-Man in the MCU after the two Avengers movies and the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming.  They’re also insistent on building a Spidey-centered interconnected movie universe of their own…starring his villains (?) in solo films.  Don’t worry though, I’ve got this figured out. 

Miles + Gwen = One CLASSIC Team-Up!

For Lent this year I’ve given up making sassy/snarky comments while driving.  I’m a pretty positive guy…but I can be an impatient driver.  Now, when I feel I’m about to say something in that vein, I offer a prayer for the other driver instead.  It’s a prayerful effort to cultivate loving-kindness in my own thoughts and deeds and put more positive energy out into the world.  In that spirit, I can be cranky about needless crossovers (*cough* Civil War II *cough*) so I wanted to write about the recent six-part “Sitting In A Tree” crossover between Spider-Man and Spider-Gwen.  I really enjoyed it!  In addition to showcasing two amazing spider-people, it reminded me how much fun a good, old fashioned team-up can be.  For all my complaining (which I stand behind!) about crossovers forged in the service of Mammon, I’m giving a little love to one that was worth the cover price of admission.