Gwen Lives
And so, the double walks away after placing flowers on The Grave and bids Peter not to watch her go. Off she goes into oblivion, so Marvel hopes.
Other clones show up, and sort of dissolve quite horribly.
Things get so bad and prices skyrocket that fans usually pick up a book at a rack glance through it, and put it back. Fancy artwork can't make up for bad plotlines and a thin funny book costing almost 3 bucks.
Marvel began to use Gwen extensively in flashbacks. That was okay. Pete married Mary Jane and that was stupendous. More and more Spiderman titles come and go. Fan base stabilizes somewhat. The movies come out, and things are looking up. Problem is, there is no Gwen in the movies. But thats okay, the movies are well done.
But what happened to the double?
After Gwen's death and the Clone Saga my friends and I began to poke holes in their plot lines. These were holes so big that if Marvel WANTED to see them they could have, and used them to better what they had screwed up so badly.
Would Prof. Warren have settled for a clone of Gwen when could have had the genuine article? (Oddly, the mad Prof made a clone of himself and it was eventually married to a clone of Gwen! The mind boggles…..)
Why did Gwen's neck break so easily when she was snagged in the web? (Wikpedia says it was because Spidey could take the snap of the end of the web, but Gwen couldn’t. However, Spidey has used his webs quite a few times to save people in one way or another!)
Who is in the grave, and who isn't?
The Wikpedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwen_Stacy
Thus, with some help from my buddies, we came up with this:
The Gwen that walked away was the True Gwen! The one in the grave was the clone.
When did Warren trade her for the clone? Speculation can be at any time he showed up in the mag.
Gwen's neck broke so easily because it hadn't endured something like 20 to 23 years of use. Her bones were something like a year or so old.
Recently I came up with the idea that Norman Osborne, disappointed with Harry, wanted to breed new offspring. This is based also on the fact that Osborne once tried to convince Pete to be his "son". Looking for a suitable breeder, Osborne noticed Gwen and made a deal with Prof. Warren. Clone the girl, keep the original, and give the clone to Osborne for his own uses. Warren agreed. Warren got Gwen, Osborne got his breeder, and thus the twins came to be.
Heres the exchange between Madgoblin and myself:
"I got this idea bumping around in my skull. So Norman Osborne funded Warren's Clone
Experiments. Osborne probably told him that he wanted a "breeder" for new offspring because Osborne was so dissappointed in Harry. So, he tells Warren he can clone Gwen, keep the original, and let him (Osborne) have the clone to use as a breeder. Warren, being in love with Gwen, would accept. He gets Gwen to keep under his control as some sort of "pet" and Norman gets his breeder. Warren, a bit upset that Spiderman killed his creation of a duplicate Gwen, went after Spidey as the Jackle. Does it fit? What do you think? ""That implies that Norman always had in mind having sexual relations with Gwen (or her clone - to follow your alternative theory). I subscribe to the theory that their coupling was a onetime only accident. But frankly, it would be an extremely expensive and highly inefficient way to have another heir. All Norman would have to do would be to pay a woman (or women if he wanted to increase the odds) to be artificially inseminated with his sperm and carry a child to term. Sure, that's expensive and no guarantee of success, but nothing like the millions it no doubt took for Warren to perfect his clone technology"
"To let Pete think Gwen was dead would tickle the green troll I reckon. Then to spring her on him at a later date, would have been pricelessly evil."
"That's what he's doing with Baby May
"So Mad Goblin didn’t like this idea, and I bow to his wisdom, but to me it seems to make better sense than Gwen hopping into the sack with Osborne "because she sensed strength and power" and having kids by that monster.
Why do Sarah and Gabriel, Gwens children, age so fast? Clones have rapid aging done to them so they can be months old, yet look as old as the real person. Gwen's clone passed this on to the twins! They are aging rapidly like the clone did, and because they are not under lab control by Prof. Warren or whoever, they continue to age, without what ever concoction was used to halt the aging of the clones.
(And from me, if you wanna get picky about it, Gwen has a dime sized birthmark on her lower left shoulder. The body in the grave had no birthmarks, so there.
Yes, I'm kidding!)
So here we are. Gwen is alive.
There are those who say "Shes dead, get over it!" But is she really? It if was with in your grasp to bring someone "back" wouldn’t you try? Even a comic book character, and especially one you grew up with? I and thousands of other fans are trying.
Marvel keeps killing Gwen, over and over. She rarely shows up without the gratuitous Bridge of Death scene.
Zap, off she goes in free fall, twip goes the web shooters, snap goes the neck. Over and over and over. Puleeeeese!
Then in a strange book called "Ultimate Spider Man" they completely redid the Gwen thing. And son, did they UGLY her up. She was living with Peter and Aunt May while going to school. The usual spider gang was there, but altered somehow in this strange Ultimate universe. Gwen was a tough punk type kid and even pulled a knife on a guy.
And this time, they didn't just kill her, they butchered her.
So in this Marvel world where there is no Truth, no Virtue, and no Beauty, Gwen cannot survive.
So we go to where Gwen Stacy lives and works today.
My Gwen
