The third week of February 2025 was a banner week for Gwen Stacy as she was at the center of two big announcements. Or at least it was one to remember, for better or worse depending your reaction to these announcements. These announcements came in the form of two different mediums from Marvel. On one end we had the confirmation of Earth-616 Gwen Stacy being resurrected and becoming the new Gwenpool. Then there was the announcement Gwen Stacy would be joining the cast of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man in its second season.
GWEN STACY IS BACK AS THE NEW GWENPOOL
Last week Marvel put out a teaser to promote a story that hinted Gwen Stacy would finally be resurrected. In the breakdown for the teaser it did appear that Gwen’s return was somehow tied to the upcoming relaunch of Amazing Spider-Man. The timing just seemed to align with the new Spider-Man direction.
Now in the actual reveal of for what this teaser Marvel confirmed that Gwen is in fact being resurrected. But she isn’t being resurrected as part of Joe Kelly and John Romita Jr’s upcoming Amazing Spider-Man run. Instead, Gwen is being resurrected by an unknown entity as a Weapon X-like character in her own series titled Gwenpool by the creative team of writer Cavan Scott and artist Stefano Nesi
As we’ve seen with the resurrections of Bucky Barnes and Jason Todd it is not out of the realm of possibilities to successfully bring back a long deceased character. In both cases we’ve seen that as long as the creative team behind the return can tell a meaningful story can lead to long term success. So there is at least that spark of hope that could be had.
Unfortunately the announcement Marvel made did not do its job of sparking that hope. Gwen returning as a villain or anti-hero is not out of the normal. Bucky as Winter Soldier and Jason as Red Hood had very similar approaches. But for Gwen Marvel is already putting on the backfoot by not going with an original name. Rather she is being brought back as Dark Gwenpool. That’s right she is not just coming back with the name of a character who is already a fan favorite but assuming a darker identity of Gwenpool that also already exists.
So in this grand announcement Marvel made Gwen not just a derivative character but a derivative of the derivative. That is addition to Gwen getting what appears to be Adamantium claws exactly like Wolverine and X-23. So out of the gate there is zero originality to Gwen Stacy as Gwenpool. That is not exactly the kind of momentum to create for a title that is featuring a creative team that’s not recognizable to Spider-Man fans.
SPIDER-GWEN JOINING YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN CAST
For as disappointing as the whole resurrection of Gwen Stacy as the third version of Gwenpool that was at least not the only announcement about the character. Time with the release of the final two episodes for the first season of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man we learned that Gwen Stacy will joining the cast. This announcement came from Head Writer and Executive Producer of the animated series Jeff Trammell. Along with that, in Trammell’s Instagram post, it was revealed Gwen would be assuming the Spider-Woman roll at some point in season two.
That is genuinely exciting as the first season of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man was a ton of fun. While it did take time to get used to the animation style there is no doubt that the team behind the series took a lot of care in creating something special. They really made a Spider-Man show that clearly took inspiration from both the comic books and their animated predecessors. Doing that made for some cool twists on characters and interesting reveals to set up an even stronger season two.
Now I will avoid almost all spoilers about Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man since it just debuted at the end of January. What I will say is that Trammell and his team already set the stage for Gwen debut in the second season and being Spider-Woman. During that opening few minutes of the series premiere Peter Parker got his basic origin story. Though unlike in other versions of the origin the spider that bit Peter did not die or get captured. Instead after biting Peter the spider ended up getting on the backpack of an unseen student.
It could be Gwen that ends up being this unseen student and she gets her powers from the same spider Peter got his from. This is the origin story that Cindy Moon received in the comics that led to her become Silk. With Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man staff taking inspiration from many different interations of the franchise going with this origin would immediately connect Peter and Gwen.
Most importantly Gwen becoming Spider-Woman is hopefully a sign that the staff is planning to go with a new direction for the character. We don’t need yet another retelling of Gwen’s tragic history. And Spider-Gwen certainly opens things up for her to be an important part of the narrative that goes beyond a supporting character role.
This announcement of Spider-Gwen’s animated series inclusion does help balance out the Gwenpool comic book announcement. Now let’s just see if both or at least one can get over the new takes that Gwen Stacy is going to be receiving.
SOURCE: Gwen Stacy comic return – Marvel.com; Gwen Stacy in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man – Jeff Trammell’s Instagram
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