Comic Book / Spider-Gwen

"You gotta face it tiger, face it tiger! It's your last shot!"

The Night Gwen Stacy Died is easily one of the best-known Comic Book stories of all time, infamous for killing off Gwen Stacy, then-girlfriend of Spider-Man. Though she's continued to live on in the Marvel Universe since dying — usually through clones and alternate universes — she's almost always been defined by her death being used as a means for Peter's character development.

But what happens when the script is flipped and their places are reversed? In the Alternate Universe known as Earth-65, it was Gwen who got bitten by the radioactive spider and Peter who died on her watch. Here she's known as Spider-Woman, Ghost-Spider, or "Spider-Gwen".^note "Spider-Gwen", while a cool name, completely defeats the point of having a secret identity, so Gwen obviously never used it. It briefly caught on in-universe after she revealed her identity, but she considered it an Atrocious Alias. However, the Fan Nickname caught on with the publishers and was adopted as the title for her solo series, making this a recursive, enforced case of I Am Not Shazam.

Making her debut in Edge of Spider-Verse #2, a tie-in to the 2014-2015 Spider-Verse event, Spider-Gwen struck a tremendous note with fans, prompting Marvel to announce her own ongoing book just weeks after the one-off issue was published. Written by Jason Latour, illustrated by Robbi Rodriguez, and colored by Rico Renzi (the same creative team behind Edge #2), Spider-Gwen made its official debut in February 2015, following the publication of two other ongoing titles headlined by Spider-Women^note Jessica Drew's Spider-Woman and Cindy Moon's Silk.

The first issue of her initial solo run sold 254k after a month, making it one of the highest-selling launches of any comic book in 2015. Spider-Gwen came to a close after five issues, due to being a last-minute addition to Marvel's publication schedule prior to Secret Wars, but she did appear in the second volume of Spider-Verse as a tie-in to that event.

As part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel initiative that resulted in the aftermath of Secret Wars, Gwen returned with a new ongoing title —Radioactive Spider-Gwen— while also featuring in the multiversal Web Warriors, as a member of the team. This run had Latour et al. return, and ran for 34 issues. Upon Marvel's Fresh Start, Gwen gained a new ongoing comic series entitled Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider, with Latour's team leaving for a new creative team consisting of Seanan McGuire as writer, Takeshi Miyazawa as penciller^note Rosi Kämpe during the Spider-Geddon arc, and Ian Herring as colorist.

After 10 issues, Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider would end and be replaced with a Sequel Series: Ghost-Spider (2019). This series provides the biggest change to her status quo yet: Gwen will now immigrate to the mainstream 616 universe. Splitting time as a college student and a superhero, now one of many and not the only one, Gwen finds all new challenges. See the relevant page for tropes pertaining to that series.

Spider-Gwen quickly found her way outside comic books, with a variant of the character who hails from the same universe as Miles Morales making an appearance in the final season of Ultimate Spider-Man (2012), just two years after her debut. Marvel's Spider-Man's incarnation of Gwen Stacy would go on to develop spider powers herself later in that show's run. Versions of the character more reflective of the Earth-65 Gwen Stacy's backstory and persona would later appear in the Marvel Rising franchise (the first instance of the character using the alias "Ghost Spider") and Sony Pictures Animation's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Tropes associated with Spider-Gwen:

• Abhorrent Admirer: Rhino flirts with her while trying to kill her father in Edge #2. She does not return the feelings.
• Adaptational Protagonist: In the main Spider-Man continuity, Gwen Stacy was the hero's Love Interest infamously killed off in The Night Gwen Stacy Died back in 1973. Spider-Gwen, who first appeared in the Spider-Verse in 2014, got her own Role Swap AU comic line in 2015 centering around Gwen being the one who got bit by the radioactive spider instead of Peter, becoming Spider-Woman/Ghost Spider.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Mary Jane Watson is bisexual and in a relationship with Glory Grant, who is a lesbian.
• Adaptational Villainy: Many notable heroic figures are villains or much more immoral on Earth-65
  • Matt Murdock of Earth-65 is a corrupt lawyer and a murderous crime boss.
  • Frank Castle of Earth-65 is just as murderous as his Earth-616 counterpart, but lacks his sympathetic backstory.
  • Cindy Moon of Earth-65 was never bitten by the spider that gave her superpowers and her life took a downturn until S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited her and she started researching spiders, eventually making her a supervillain terrorist.
  • Peter Parker of Earth-65 never gains Spider-Powers or learns to become a hero, and turns himself into the Lizard to take revenge against his tormentors.
  • Tony Stark of Earth-65 is a billionaire warmonger with his own Private Military Contractor to spread his weapons enterprise worldwide.
• A Day in the Limelight: Edge of Spider-Verse #2 was meant to be this for Gwen, but her unprecedented popularity with fans prompted Marvel to announce an ongoing title just weeks after its publication. Intentional backdoor pilot or not? Anybody's guess on that one.
• Alliance of Alternates: Turns out that the Gwen from Earth-65 isn't the only Spider-Gwen in the multiverse, and all the others banded together during Spider-Verse to empower and protect each other and keep out of the conflict. They're also the reason why Gwen's first dimensional watch would occasionally take on a mind of its own.
• Alternate Company Equivalent:
  • A costumed vigilante and daughter of a police captain — not unlike DC's Batgirl. The parallels also go a little bit deeper: Spider-Gwen's initial buzz revolved mainly around her costume, which is both classic Spidey and strikingly unlike anything Peter or the other 616 Spider-People have ever worn before — again, not unlike the 2014 redesign of Batgirl. There seems to be a fair amount of fanart of Babs and Gwen hanging out and being hip and cool.
  • The Black Canary title at DC is also strikingly similar to Spider-Gwen, in terms of character (blonde, crime-fighting musicians) and tone (frenetic and brightly-colored).
  • The Earth 617 version of Gwen describes herself as her world’s greatest detective.”
• Alternate Self:
  • Interestingly enough, Earth-65 bucks the trend of having "uniform" alternate versions of the main 616-Universe characters. Some characters, like Cindy Moon and Frank Castle, are the usual doppelganger example of this trope. Others are re-imagined, like Reed Richards being an African-American Child Prodigy, Jessica Drew getting gender flipped, and Captain America being a female Composite Character of Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson.
  • The "Gwenom" arc of Radioactive Spider-Gwen has Earth-65 Gwen interact with Earth-616 Gwen Stacy... before its revealed that the very act of meeting that version created an entirely new universe (Earth-617) where that Gwen is inspired to become a detective, and later becomes a superhero herself, bonded to her universe's Venom symbiote.
  • The first arc of Ghost Spider has Gwen stuck on Earth-3109, where she and Harry Osborn were a superhero duo (the Green Goblin and Spider-Man, respectively), with Peter and Mary Jane as their mission control. Harry died during a fight against Sandman, in which Gwen had also accidentally killed her father; the stressful combination of both events plus a suit malfunction caused that world's Gwen to go mad.
• Alternate Universe: Earth-65 is naturally this to the main Earth-616 Marvel universe. Of the many changes, a few of them include Matt Murdock never becoming Daredevil and instead working as a lawyer for The Kingpin; Ben Grimm becoming an NYPD officer instead of a pilot, with his beat just happening to be his home neighborhood of Yancy Street; Frank Castle is still working for the NYPD, with his family leaving him due to divorce rather than their deaths; Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, and Isaiah Bradley were injured before any of them could become Captain America, leaving a young woman named Samantha Wilson to take on the identity; Peggy Carter has control of SHIELD and the Eyepatch; the Avengers team was never formed; and, of course, Captain Stacy is still alive (not for the lack of villains trying, of course). There are also a number of small but significant differences in society and culture — during one team-up, Miles Morales notes with surprise that all the soda in Earth-65 uses real sugar, and the concept of artificial sugar genuinely confuses Gwen.
• Amoral Attorney: Matthew Murdock, who serves as the lawyer of Wilson Fisk and is in charge of The Hand.
• Animal-Themed Superbeing: Just as the title of her book implies, Gwen's are spiders, after the radioactive one that was the source of her powers. This becomes even more apt after the "Gwenom" arc, from which point her costume and abilities come from a symbiote that presents as an enormous clutter of gooey spiders she can control.
  Peter Parker-3109: That is too many spiders. Do you sweat spiders?
• Applied Phlebotinum: The backstory blurb at the end of Radioactive #1 reveals that Gwen's web shooters don't use the same technology as the more familiar ones wielded by Spider-Man. Instead, hers take moisture from the air and transform it into an adhesive substance.
• Arachnid Appearance and Attire: Much like other Spider-related beings.
• Archnemesis Dad: Captain Stacy serves as this in Edge #2. By the start of the actual series, he has allowed her to keep her vigilantism after coming clean about it to him, and attempts to dissuade work on the Spider-Woman case.
• Art Shift: Earth-617 is drawn in the style of the 1960s Spider-Man comics, as it's set when Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy were in college.
• The Atoner: She inadvertently caused Peter Parker's death, and her actions as Spider-Woman are meant to atone for that. It takes a while before she feels as though she's actually made up for it.
• Attention Whore: Mary Jane Watson. She even named the group's band "The Mary Janes". Gloria regularly calls her out on this behavior, and the character slowly improves over the course of the series.
  Gloria: [to MJ] You don't want Gwen. You don't want anyone. All you want is the attention.
• Babies Ever After: In one alternate reality (Earth-8), not only do Gwen and Miles get married, they even have children named Charlotte and Max Morales Stacy. The Watchers denote this as being one of the best possible outcomes, with the events of the Gwenom arc having the Watcher of that dimension worried that the dark turn of the storyline would undo that future, much to the bemusement of Earth-65's Watcher.
• Badass Normal: Frank Castle. While we don't known if this world's Rhino shares the same invulnerability traits of Earth-616's, he's strong enough to overpower Gwen, which makes his beatdown at the hands of Frank pretty impressive. Emphasized in issue # 4, when Castle returns from his fight with Spider-Gwen and the Vulture, bandaged, battered, bruised, and his arm in a cast, but still giving orders, while his subordinates can only wonder how it is that he's even standing at all.
• Bat Family Crossover: The character originated as a result of a tie-in to Spider-Verse, in which she also participated. Beyond that crossover and the sequel a few years later, there's the 8-issue Spider-Women crossover, affecting Gwen, Jessica Drew, and Cindy Moon.
• Bearer of Bad News: Gwen serves as this in the aftermath of Spider-Geddon, visiting the loved ones of Spider-Heroes who died to explain what happened; in particular, Spider-Man Noir. The reactions she receives range from Black Cat's relief that someone was able to give her this information to Aunt May's outrage that this random woman would even try to lessen the blow by saying her nephew died a hero.
• Big "NO!": Harry Osborn lets one out after unmasking Spider-Woman and finding out she's his high-school friend Gwen.
• Breakout Character: As stated in her introduction caption in Amazing Spider-Man #9:
  Gwen Stacy, Spider-Woman of Earth-65, your new favorite.
• Buffy Speak: Gwen favors some of this while in costume.
  Gwen: Way to ruin everything, you rando dork.
• Bully Hunter: She protected Peter Parker from schoolyard thugs, but this had the unintended side effect of making Peter feel even more inadequate and desire to gain superpowers like Spider-Woman's, leading to his Lizard transformation.
• Call-Back:
  • Gwen notes the difference between a nervous cop and her father when held at gunpoint by both in Edge #2. The nameless cop's hands are shaky while Captain Stacy's aren't.
  • When Earth-616 Peter sees Gwen grappling with a feral version of the Green Goblin, he immediately orders for her to be extracted from the fight while he takes on Osborn himself. Gwen tells him she can handle herself, and takes out the Goblin on her own.
• The Conscience: The bump to the head she took when she plowed into a garbage barge following her near-death experience at the hands of the Vulture in the first two issues of Volume 1 caused Gwen's subconscious to briefly develop one of these... in the form of Spider-Ham.
  Spider-Ham: Can I help it if I'm the only Peter whose mug doesn't make you sadder than The Smiths?
• Composite Character: The Earth-65 Venom symbiote has a mix of its outer space origin from the main universe and the science experiment introduced in the Ultimate Universe.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Hobie mentions Gwen's "Death From a Butt" graffiti from a few issues earlier when she accuses him and his friend of vandalism.
  • Gwen occasionally used the dimensional watch device from Web Warriors to visit Jessica Drew in the 616 universe, among other things.
  • After having met Wolverine (Laura Kinney) in her annual, Gwen uses the nickname "Wolverine" to refer to her world's version of Logan.
• Could Say It, But...: Aunt May and Gwen have a conversation in issue #4 where May all but says that she knows Gwen is Spider-Woman, and that she doesn't blame her for Peter Parker's death.
• Cowboy Cop:
  • As the daughter of the chief of police, Gwen's activities as a vigilante come across as this, especially in her use of police slang.
  • Officer Frank Castle is a straight example, not being afraid to brutalize criminals.
• Deadpan Snarker: Like any Spider-themed hero, Gwen taunts her enemies and keeps up a barrage of witty quips.
• Deal with the Devil: Not a literal one, but pretty damn close. Gwen is forced to work with her world's Matt Murdock in order to save her father from prison.
• Declaration of Protection: When Earth-616 Peter tells her about his failure to save his Gwen Stacy, and she tells him about her failure to save her Peter Parker, they make a deal to watch each other's backs during the events of Spider-Verse.
• Depending on the Artist: Gwen's design suffers from this. The exact proportions of the black markings on her costume are inconsistent; the color of the web patterns are either cyan, white, or black; and even her hair randomly changes from neck length to mid-back length (mirroring the classic look of her 616 counterpart) depending on who's drawing her.
• Dimensional Traveller: Spider-Gwen had a watch that she used to freely travel across dimensions, received as part of her position on the Web Warriors team. Her travels within her own book are usually restricted to Earth-616, to hang out with and receive advice from Jessica Drew, but she's no stranger to other parts of the multiverse (be it intentionally going there or otherwise). After it was destroyed early in Spider-Geddon, the Gwen Stacy of Earth-3109 made her a necklace with the same properties. The destruction of the Web of Life and Destiny also makes her the only Spider capable of this.
• Dressing Down: Gwen Stacy was known, in her original Earth-616 incarnation to be a very stylish girl. And her Earth-65 counterpart had her own style, too. Which is why in the second issue of her solo title, the rest of her bandmates are shocked to see her passed out on a sofa, barefoot, wearing the leggings of her costume and a sweater she fished out of the trash.
  Glory Grant: Just look at her, Em Jay... She's dressed like a homeless person!
  Mary Jane: I knooow. She looks awesome. I hate her so much.
• For Want of a Nail: In Gwen's home universe, one of the key differences was that she was the one bitten by the spider. Peter Parker, inspired by Spider-Woman, became the Lizard in an attempt to feel special himself. Peter's death at the hands of Gwen led to Harry Osborn feeling guilt for not being able to prevent it, spending the next few years working to become the Green Goblin to get revenge.
• From Shame, Heroism: Gwen used her powers as Spider-Woman to promote herself. But then The Lizard attacks her school, and she battles him until he dies, only to transform back into her friend and neighbor, Peter Parker. From that point on, she was wanted by the police for Peter's death, and turned to heroics to prevent more of the same thing from happening to others.
• Fun with Acronyms: S.I.L.K could mean Secret International Lady Killer, Super Intelligent and Lovable Kittens, and/or Santa Is Looking, Kids. The motto is "The veil that covers the world".
• Gender Flip: Captain America is a woman in this continuity. Since her real name is Samantha T. Wilson, she is most likely a gender flip of the then-current Captain America in the 616 verse, Sam Wilson, but her backstory is more similar to that of Steve Rogers, as she got her powers through Project Rebirth during World War II and went missing for 75 years after the war (though, unlike Steve, she wasn't frozen, but rather trapped in the space-time highway between parallel dimensions during that time). This continuity's versions of Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, and Isaiah Bradley were also candidates for Project Rebirth.
• Genre Throwback: To Spider-Man back when it was under Steve Ditko. Peter's characterization in flashbacks especially bring to mind the spiteful and angry attitude that Ditko's version had prior to gaining his powers.
• Girl Group: Gwen's the drummer of a Garage Band called The Mary Janes, with—you guessed it— Mary Jane Watson as the lead singer. Their most popular song is "Face It, Tiger."
• Greek Chorus: Utau, the Watcher of Earth-65, occasionally shows up to play this role, with Utaa — Earth-8's Watcher — joining in sometimes.
  • The justification for volume 2, issue #23 being a breather episode is the Watcher hating just how depressing things had gotten for Gwen and wanting to watch something else without risking the other Watchers yelling at him for shirking off.
  • Volume 2, Issue #29 has Utaa show up to make sure Utau is doing his job and to see how things are going, since the events of Earth-65 form the foundation for Earth-8. The duo spends the issue observing the events, before getting dragged into the plot themselves when suddenly Gwen disappears from observable reality.
    Earth-8 Watcher: "Did I just see your Uncle Ben tell your Gwen to... to... to kill Matt Murdock? (...) He's an Uncle Ben, 65! He can't just— 'Great Responsibility'? Doesn't ring a #&$% bell?!"
• Green-Eyed Monster: MJ may have a big dose of it when she says "Oh poor, poor pitiful Gwen with her golden corn-silk hair and sparkling lagoon blue eyes... and her stupid-awesome sweatshirt". This is after MJ and Gloria found Gwen half-passed out and hallucinating in a bar, wearing clothes that she took from a garbage scow, with the two of them having been unable to contact her for weeks.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Wouldn't be a Spider-Person story without them being seen as a public menace, would it?
• Hypocrite: Gwen gets called on this by Izzy and Hobie Brown when she chastises them for tagging a construction site.
  Hobie Brown: Whatever. "Death from a Butt" ring a bell, you hypocrite?
• I Just Want to Be Special:
  • Peter's dying words to Gwen, almost said verbatim:
    Peter: I just... just... wanted to be special... like you ...
  • This is also why Toomes became the Vulture in this universe.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die:
  • The series is set in a reality where Gwen was the person bitten by the spider and Peter Parker died on her watch. His death heavily plagues her with guilt.
  • Happens again when she couldn't save a Peter who suffered Sanity Slippage after his Gwen's death; he killed his Goblin and then took his place, but ultimately ended up dying in Spider-Gwen's arms.
  • In Spider-Verse, Gwen learns that the reason why Earth-616 Spider-Man is so protective of her was because her 616 counterpart, who was his girlfriend during their college years, was killed by the Green Goblin as Revenge by Proxy. Gwen occasionally finds herself wondering if she's just as doomed as other Gwens, jokes about how she needs to avoid bridges when the topic comes up, and is incredulous when she finds out that the only way she can escape Earth-617 is by throwing herself off the George Washington Bridge, where her mainstream counterpart died.
    Silk: Best not to think about it. Alt-Universes are screwy.
    Gwen: I know, right? Somehow in yours I'm Peter Parker's dead girlfriend. Fridged off a bridge.
• Injured Self-Drag: After the Vulture drops officer Ben Grimm into a dumpster, breaking most of his limbs, he managed to crawl out of the alleyway to the main street to find help. When next seen, he's in a full body cast.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite the changes that deviate this universe from the 616-reality, certain events have remained the same.
  • Adrian Toomes was still an employee at Oscorp before his spiral into madness that led to his becoming the Vulture.
  • As Issue #2 shows, Matt Murdock still possesses his radar sense. However, he uses these skills for criminal purposes in this world, being a part of the Kingpin's cabal.
• In the Hood: Her costume has one.
• It's All About Me: Gloria Grant accuses MJ of having this mentality when she refuses to swallow her pride and ask Gwen to rejoin the band.
  Mary Jane: No way. She quit the band. What's happening now happened in spite of her.
  Gloria: And because of you, right Em Jay? You don't want Gwen. You don't want anyone. All you want is the attention.
• I Want to Be a Real Man: Peter's motivation for becoming The Lizard, which ultimately becomes his downfall.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique:
  • NYPD Captain Frank Castle uses this on The Rhino to get the Kingpin's name out of him after the attempted hit on Gwen's father. Not surprising though, given who it is we're talking about.
  • In Issue #2, Matt Murdock and a couple of the Kingpin's hired goons give one to the Vulture to find out whether or not he killed Spider-Woman after dropping her into the Hudson. It was also to let him know that he crossed a line in trying to kill her, as that "honor" belongs solely to the Kingpin.
• Kill the Ones You Love: Regardless of the extent to which the injuries she gave led to the outcome, Peter Parker died following Gwen's fight with him. The Daily Bugle and the police will never let her forget it, and Gwen herself fully accepts the blame for what happened as well.
• Light Is Good: Her costume is primarily white.
• Love Triangle: May have played a part in Peter's decision to become the Lizard, as he took the serum after Harry Osborne asked Gwen out to a high school dance.
• Lower-Deck Episode: Mixed with Breather Episode. While Gwen is in Madripoor near the end of the Predator arc, Earth-65's Watcher becomes put off by how grim the story as gotten, choosing to devote the issue to the Mary Janes dealing with life and putting on a show in her absence.
• Meta Twist: The Gwenom arc. Every Spidey fan knows how the first Venom story generally goes; Spidey bonds with the symbiote and grows fond of the new abilities, he gets Drunk on the Dark Side for a while, eventually realizes what has happened, and removes the creature after a bit of fighting. You'd think Gwen would go through the same. Not so. The symbiote's first target isn't Gwen, but Earth-65's Wolverine. After separating him from the creature, Gwen tries to use music to control it, using the knowledge gained from working with the other Spider-Heroes, only for Murdock to reveal that this universe's symbiote doesn't have sound as a weakness. So the symbiote grafts onto Gwen and... she can fully control it. Gwen remains in an actual symbiotic relationship with the creature from that point on, with the black suit only manifesting when Gwen is particularly upset or wants to intimidate her foes. The only thing that's arguably the same is the power trip after bonding, but that is justified as Gwen finally being done with Matt Murdock playing chessmaster after her father is put into a coma and the symbiote just working off those negative emotions to fuel their host's Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
• Mood Whiplash: In Radioactive Spider-Gwen #1, Gwen is trying to question the Bodega Bandit about a lizard-man sighting. She throws open the dumpster he's hiding in while starting to rant about how he's the worst supervillain ever, but stops in mid-sentence when she sees him sobbing and clutching the collar of his dog, Bandito, who was last seen when the lizard-man appeared.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Spider-Gwen's universe is Earth-65, a reference to Gwen Stacy's first appearance being in 1965.
  • In issue 1 of Gwen's own title, Gwen returns a stolen cash register and tells the bodega owner Spider-Woman gave it to her. When she asks for a reward, the Bodega owner brushes her off with "You met Spider-Woman. It was an adventure. Action is your reward."
  • Issue #2 reveals there's a band called Felicia Hardy and the Black Cats.
  • One named member of the Yancy Street Gang is Hobie Brown, Earth-616's Prowler.
  • In the first issue Ben Grimm takes on the Yancy Street Gang. Also, after his run in with The Vulture, he ends up in a rock hard full body cast mirroring his 616 counterpart.
  • While dodging police cars in the first issue of the second volume, an ad can be seen for Hammer Industries.
  • In-universe, Captain America had a series of comic books about her WWII adventures that were drawn by Steve Rogers. In Earth-616, Steve started out as a comic book artist who chronicled his own adventures as Captain America.
  • The only known song of The Mary Janes is called "Face It, Tiger". This is what Mary Jane first told Peter Parker when she met him on Earth-616.
  • Johnny and Susan Storm are kid actors in a sitcom that got renewed for a fourth season. One of the characters is a robot similar to H.E.R.B.I.E., the robot that replaced the Human Torch during The Fantastic Four (1978).
  • A flashback shows Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk were chatting, the narrative box in that panel is "an art that binds us with its beauty", whereas in the Netflix's tv series, they first met in an art gallery. The next flashback panel shows Matt (in his black costume) killed Felicia Hardy's cat burglar father by stabbing him in an eerily similar way to how Bullseye killed Elektra in the mainstream universe.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Matt is drawn to Gwen, because he thinks they are Birds of a Feather. He tries to tell her how similar they are and pushes her to become evil like he did, but Gwen is having none of it.
• One-Steve Limit: The reason her book is called Spider-Gwen, despite going by the name Spider-Woman in-universe. The original Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew, already had a book planned for publication when Spider-Gwen was announced. Also, Spider-Gwen is just a catchier title than Gwen Stacy: Spider-Woman. The character later goes under the moniker Ghost Spider in order to avoid this in-universe, with the book gaining it as a subtitle.
• One to Million to One: The Venom symbiote here is less of an amorphous blob than it is a colony of what's described as " gummy" spiders that can meld together into a suit. The effect gives it a unique and sinister appearance, and has been used by Gwen for intimidation at least once.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: This is the reason Matt Murdock gives the Vulture as to why the Kingpin's goons are roughing him up. Sometime ago, Spider-Woman spurned his offer to join his criminal empire. Now, her death is his to dole out, which is why he's more than a little upset that Vulture might have killed her.
• Previously on…: Edge #2 picks up In Medias Res; a two-page splash recaps her origin up to the start of the issue.
• Private Military Contractors: Tony Stark is known for two things on Earth-65: Coffee chains and his mercenary outfit, "War Machine". Frank Castle and Kraven the Hunter are both former employees.
• Protectorate: The Peter Parker from Earth-616 goes out of his way to protect her. When he comes clean about this, she admits she feels just as guilty about letting her Peter die. So they agree to watch each other's backs.
• Race Lift:
  • Black Cat is Caucasian in the main Marvel Universe and black on Earth-65. Also, Black Cat is now French.
  • Earth 65 Reed Richards is also black and a kid genius.
  • Earth 65 Captain America is the local version of Sam Wilson... a girl called Samantha Wilson (double shocker especially because she has been the Cap since the Forties).
  • The Spider-Gwen Annual introduces a version of Baron Blood that Cap met during her exile through the multiverse. He's black and is clearly based on Prince.
• Refusal of the Call: In the final issue of Radioactive Spider-Gwen, Gwen is confronted by Captain America with the intention of recruiting her for a S.H.I.E.L.D.-backed formation of the Sinister Six in exchange of getting her sentence commuted. Gwen turns it down, stating that she'd rather take the long road in getting out of jail.
• Ret-Canon: As of Marvel: A Fresh Start, Gwen has taken to using "Ghost Spider" as a codename ala Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors as opposed to Spider-Woman to differentiate this Gwen from Jessica Drew.
• Retcon:
  • #18 retcons the Spider-Ham seen in Spider-Verse — stated to be from Earth-25 — as being from Earth-8311.
  • Earth-617 was previously used as the designation for a universe besieged by Nightmare. At the end of the Gwenom arc, Gwen-65 is shown creating Earth-617 by being warped to the past of Earth-616 and running into her mainstream counterpart, causing a new offshoot timeline to form.
• Rogues Gallery: In addition to Alternate Universe versions of traditional Spider-Man villains, Gwen is stated to have her own wholly original set of enemies, including the Bodega Bandit^note An inept Hamburglar-esque thief and Koala Kommander^note A talking Koala who wants to Take Over the World. Unfortunately, they're all embarrassingly lame and outlandish, so she actively avoids talking about them with her fellow Spider-People.
• Secret Identity:
  • By Radioactive Spider-Gwen #3, both Matt Murdock and Frank Castle knows Spider-Woman is Gwen Stacy. The former confronts George Stacy with the truth in that issue, figuring it out thanks to Spider-Gwen's behavior. Meanwhile, that issue had Castle actually see her unmasked and later figure out that the woman he fought was George's daughter due to his behavior. Mary Jane also comes to suspect that Gwen is the web-slinger by matching the superheroine's appearances with her bandmate's new tendency to suddenly disappear, though she's unable to convince the others of her theory.
  • At of the end of issue #31, Gwen gives up her secret identity entirely by revealing herself to J. Jonah Jameson, which results in her submitting to being arrested after she confronts Murdock one more time.
• Secret-Keeper: Captain Stacy becomes this for Gwen after she reveals herself to him.
• Self-Deprecation: In the Annual issue, the Watcher says that Gwen's world is just terrible puns and plot rehashes.
  The Watcher: How does anyone sit through this?
• Senseless Sacrifice: How J. Jonah Jameson perceives Peter's death and justifies his vendetta against the Spider-Woman:
  "Such blatant disregard for human life cannot be tolerated! Peter Parker must not have died in vain!"
• Shout-Out:
  • When Gwen decides to go after the Vulture in Spider-Gwen #1:
    Gwen: So, you wanna break bad and go Heisen-bird, do you, Toomes?
  • Betty Brant's cat is named Murderface. Also the picture on her flyer from Radioactive Spider-Gwen #1 looks a lot like Facebones.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: To show she still has a childish attitude in this universe, Earth-65 Cindy Moon sings "A Whole New World" before telling Gwen and 616-Cindy that they can rule the world together.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Harry Osborn's character profile reveals that his mother Emily is still alive. It's also stated she and Norman are divorced. Until Go Down Swinging retconned that Earth-616 Emily has actually faked her own death.
• Squick: In-Universe, Spider-Woman has this reaction when Yancy Street Gang members Hobie and Izzy suggest that she's in bed (figuratively) with Capt. Stacy. She interprets this as a literal statement, and nearly hurls under her mask.
  Hobie: You're totally undercover or like, in bed with him or—
  Spider-Woman: IN BED?!! What?! Blargf! Why?! I'm NOT SLEEPING WITH CAPTAIN STACY, you little pervert! [Thinking] He's just my #@*% Dad
• Stable Time Loop: The Gwen Stacy from Earth-617 creates one in order to ensure that her past self will meet the Gwen from Earth-65, enabling them to help each other through their problems.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: One story arc proposes that Miles Morales and Gwen could be this, with the future timeline that would result from such a relationship being described as a utopia. Gwen isn't very interested in the idea, disliking the notion of getting together with the younger Spider-Hero just because destiny said so.
• Superhero Paradox: Two villains in the Spider-Gwenverse (The Vulture and, sadly, Peter Parker) came to be because they wanted be "special" like Spider-Woman.
• Thin Dimensional Barrier: At the end of the Gwenom arc, Gwen is pulled through a dimensional portal and ends up in the past of the 616 universe a little while before that reality's Gwen was killed by Green Goblin. She is forced to seek help from her, causing the creation of a new universe called Earth-617. Gwen-617 theorizes that there are thin spots between realities one may be capable of traversing. To Spider-Gwen's incredulity, the nearest confirmed point is just above the water by the George Washington Bridge, and to achieve sufficient velocity to break through she needs to dive at it from the top.
• Title Drop: The final issue of Radioactive Spider-Gwen has Gwen finally proclaim herself as "Spider-Gwen".
• Trademark Favorite Food: Corndogs appear to be popular on Earth-65, overtaking pizza as the NYC staple. In Spider-Gwen #1, Gwen thinks that after she catches Vulture she'll "Get trust, pride and life back... Eat all the corndogs." And the Bodega Bandit, in Radioactive Spider-Gwen #1, is seen stealing corndogs.
• Trumplica: The Annual issue reveals that M.O.D.O.K.'s counterpart in this reality is named M.O.D.A.A.K. (Mental Organism Designed As America's King) and is blatantly based off of Donald Trump, his face being a caricature of Trump's and attempting to keep Mexicans out of America. M.O.D.A.A.K. even almost quotes the "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan before Captain America knocks him out.
• Tuckerization: Multiple real cats are memorialized in this panel.
• Weaksauce Weakness: At one point Gwen begins having trouble with her symbiote cutting out in battle. Earth-616's Peter Parker eventually determines that the cause is simple lack of food since the symbiote burns vast amounts of calories when in use. After learning this Gwen is usually seen eating very high calorie food to keep herself and the symbiote "fueled up."
• What the Hell, Hero?: When a frightened and trigger-happy cop opens fire on her in a crowded subway, Gwen disarms him, webs him up, verbally lambasts him, and then reports him using his own radio.
• Who Writes This Crap?!: Utau the Watcher does not have a fond opinion of Earth-65, and does not like to have to keep watching it. The "Mary Janes" are discussing who will play the drums in Gwen's absense? MJ suddenly finds her ex? "Sigh". Even when Gwen bonds to the Venom symbiote and starts becoming a Nominal Hero, his response is apathetic.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: This is Gwen's reaction when she sees that Verna sent a pack of Goblins after Silk, Spider-Woman and herself.