Marvel Comics is teasing out a big Spider-Man announcement for next week centered around Gwen Stacy. And this is not for Earth-65 Spider-Gwen. This announcement is teasing the possible return of Earth-616 Gwen Stacy. With Marvel teasing out such a potentially big storyline with a week’s heads up there is a lot to already process about it.
TEASING RETURN OF GWEN STACY
Marvel sent out a teaser this week for the upcoming announcement involving Gwen Stacy, with the tagline teaser:
NOTHING IS SACRED… Stay tuned next week for more information from Marvel Comics.
This tagline teaser came with artwork by Paco Medina and Morry Hollowell featuring someone standing in front of Gwen Stacy’s grave that appears to already being dug up. We won’t know what exactly this teaser is about until information is revealed next week.
The information released is timed with Marvel scheduled to release their May 2025 comic book solicitations at the end of the week. So the teaser tied to a Spider-Man story starting in May, ahead of the summer, all aligns.
This teaser is also timed to make it a likelihood that whatever storyline involving Gwen Stacy will take place in Amazing Spider-Man. Afterall, Joe Kelly is about to begin his time as the full-time Amazing Spider-Man writer with artists John Romita Jr. and Pepe Larraz joining him.
There is just as much a possibility this Gwen Stacy story could be for Spectacular Spider-Men or an even comic book on its own. But with Marvel’s track record for how they hype up new Amazing Spider-Man creative runs it would be odd this marketing effort would not go for Kelly and co.
NOT THE FIRST TIME GWEN STACY’S RETURN IS TEASED
Officially its been over 50 years since the iconic “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” story took place in Amazing Spider-Man #121-122. Since the death that rocked Spider-Man’s life and the comic book world as a whole, it can be said that she hasn’t disappeared.
From a modern perspective, Gwen is more popular than ever thanks to the rise of her Earth-65 counterpart in Spider-Gwen. With how much of a fan following Spider-Gwen has it could be argued that Gwen Stacy has never been more popular. That’s thanks to the Spider-Gwen version appearing in the Spider-Verse movies and most of the Spider-Man animated shows of the last few years.
In the main Marvel Universe, just within the last ten years Gwen Stacy has been “resurrected” through various means. That includes in the 2017 Clone Conspiracy event where she was brought back as a clone with all her memories up to the moment she died. 2022’s Amazing Spider-Man tie-in to the Judgment Day event as a reward for passing his test the Progenitor gave present-day Peter a few moments to spend with a briefly revived Gwen. Then most recently last year in Spectacular Spider-Men when given his ideal life Peter pictured himself married to Gwen and having two kids together.
So to say Marvel has attempted to tell the story of Gwen Stacy return a few times would be an understatement. Current Marvel Editor-In-Chief CB Cebulski publicly stated in 2019 that he views Gwen Stacy as Peter Parker’s true love. When the EIC of the entire company says this not long after starting their tenure in the position this return was inevitable.
The surprise is that Cebulski didn’t have Nick Lowe order Gwen’s official return sooner. Though maybe they needed to focus on permanently breaking Peter and MJ up for good first.
MARVEL RESSURECTION OF GWEN STACY POTENTIAL FOR BIG RETURN OR LOSS
If this was 25 years ago, even with all of her cloned returns before then, the return of Gwen Stacy would not just be a big deal but quite shocking. Gwen was up there with Bucky Barnes, Jason Todd, and Uncle Ben as characters fans never expected to be back full-time. But in 2025 we are long past that thinking as, to their credit, Marvel and DC Comics were able to successfully bring back Bucky Barnes and Jason Todd in critically well-received stories.
That said, for every successful character return from death we have there are countless others than have not been done with as much care. And when it comes to Gwen Stacy there is possibly a greater risk of her return not being successful than being one that is remembered.
With this latest teaser it does put Marvel in a spot that if they do confirm the return storyline as being real it puts heavy pressure on the creative team. A part reason for that is the previously mentioned attempts Marvel has made to bring Gwen back in many different ways in recent years. A fake out when it comes to Gwen’s return could burn goodwill that Marvel attempts to build for the new Amazing Spider-Man creative team.
Though Spider-Man’s Editor Nick Lowe certainly has experience with burning fans with the start of new creative runs, as we saw with the start of Zeb Wells’ recent run. And given the controversial editorial decision made under Lowe’s and his predecessor’s watch being nervous about Gwen’s return is something we couldn’t blame Spider-Man fan for reacting in that way.
So no matter what Marvel does they need to be careful with how they announce this story next week. That will set the tone for if they are setting up the creative team behind this story for success. And given that Ultimate Spider-Man has taken Amazing Spider-Man’s spot as the #1 Spider-Man comic book fumbling the ball with Gwen Stacy’s return will just put it further behind in the sales rankings.
SOURCE: Comicbook.com
For more opinions on anime, comic book, movies, and sports you can follow Kevin on Bluesky, Instagram, Threads, and Twitter/X.