'The Night Gwen Stacy Died'
This week's writing ...
Comics legend Gerry Conway died this week at 73. Marvel Comics confirmed his death but did not give a specific cause. However, Conway was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2022.
Conway was among the first generation of “fans turned pro.” When he was 13, he had a letter published in 1966’s Fantastic Four No. 50, the climax of the first Galactus story. Three years later, his first professional comic book script was published in DC Comics’s House of Secrets No. 81.
He was not yet 21 when he wrote the revolutionary 1973 Amazing Spider-Man story arc in which the Green Goblin murders Peter Parker’s girlfriend Gwen Stacy. It’s impossible to even imagine a Superman comic from the same month where Lex Luthor kills Lois Lane … permanently, no hoax or imaginary story.
The Goblin, who knows Peter Parker is Spider-Man, has kidnapped Gwen and taken her to the George Washington Bridge (though it’s drawn like the Brooklyn Bridge). When the Goblin knocks her off the bridge, Spidey catches her with a web line but the sudden stop snaps her neck, killing her instantly. Obviously, that’s what would have happened in real life but normally, comic book physics would prevail. Not this time.
The Goblin taunts a grief-stricken Spider-Man, while simultaneously exonerating him: “Romantic idiot! She was dead before your webbing reached her. A fall from that height would kill anyone before they struck the ground.” Of course, the sneaky “SNAP!” sound effect on the preceding page tells a grimmer story.
Holding Gwen’s lifeless body, Spider-Man vows revenge in the final page of issue No. 121, “Turning Point.” Readers at the time might’ve thought he’d actually cross that line. All bets were off. The Goblin would meet his well-deserved end in the next issue, but it’s not at the hands of our hero but the Goblin’s own glider, which impales him through the chest when Spider-Man avoids Goblin’s final sinister move.
I dare say that “The Death of Gwen Stacy” is how the Green Goblin became Spider-Man’s greatest enemy. It’s probably why Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man faced the Goblin before Doctor Octopus. The first Sam Raimi Spider-Man movie in 2002 adapted the final showdown with the Goblin but replaced Gwen Stacy with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) who survives the experience. The Goblin, however, is still hoist by his own petard. (Watch below.)
Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) from the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movies doesn’t avoid her comic-book fate. Discount Green Goblin shoves her off a clock tower in Amazing Spider-Man 2, and when Spider-Man tries to catch her with a web line, comic-book physics once again fails him.
Garfield’s Peter will later have a chance to redeem himself for this failure when he saves MJ (Zendaya) in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
If Gwen Stacy’s (permanent) death and the Goblin’s (alas, temporary) extinction were all Gerry Conway had contributed to comics, it would still be a significant legacy, but Conway also co-created the Punisher, Firestorm, Power Girl, Jason Todd (the second Robin), Ms. Marvel (the first one), and the villain Killer Croc. At the age of 23, he wrote the equally revolutionary Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man crossover special.
Conway is also credited with “Marvelizing” Batman — introducing ongoing subplots, more complex characters, and gritty realism long before Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. Conway’s Batman run with artist Gene Colan is moody and noir-ish. We even get vampire Batman!
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That’s it for this week. See you on Monday.
Happy 80th birthday, Joanna Lumley, may it be absolutely fabulous!