Gwendolyn "Gwen" Maxine StacyGhost-Spider

Gwen Stacy is the famous wall-crawler on Earth-65, an alternate universe, where she’s bitten by the infamous irradiated arachnid and dubbed Spider-Woman or “Spider-Gwen.”

When Gwen's friend Peter Parker, who looked up to Spider-Woman, dies after a scientific experiment gone wrong, her alter ego receives the blame and is subsequently hunted as a criminal by her own father. Though she comes to terms with Parker's death, she wears her mask as a badge to honor his memory and go where she is needed most.
 

Herstory

On Earth-65, Gwen Stacy grows up in Forest Hills with parents Helen and NYPD Captain George Stacy. When her mother dies, Captain Stacy raises her on his own.

She becomes close with her neighbor Peter Parker, and they attend Midtown High School. There, she also bonds with Harry Osborn, Mary Jane Watson, and Betty and Glory Grant. The latter trio and Gwen form a band called the Mary Janes.

The rebellious teen’s life changes when she’s bitten by an irradiated spider and gains arachnid-like powers. She juggles her newfound powers, keeping them secret from her friends and family, and continues to play drums with the Mary Janes. Gwen also butts heads with her dad, who wants her to think more about the future and less about music.

Tragedy strikes when Parker, who idolized Spider-Woman, tries to induce a chemical transformation of his own–into a Lizard-like being. He loses control and attacks a school dance, dying in Spider-Woman's effort to stop him. She’s unfairly blamed for his death and hunted by the law, including her own father who leads the NYPD investigation to apprehend the killer vigilante.

During a Mary Janes concert, Hand leader Matt Murdock, on order of the Kingpin, sends assassin Aleksei Sytsevich, AKA the Rhino, after Captain Stacy. Spider-Woman defeats him only to be held at gunpoint by her father. She reveals her identity, and he leaves the investigation. Haunted by Peter's death and driven by a sense of responsibility, Gwen doubles her efforts to fight crime.

Arachnid Abilities

A bite from a radioactive spider grants Gwen Stacy superhuman strength—allowing her to lift approximately 10 tons—endurance, and agility. She can cling to walls and possesses perfect balance and equilibrium. She also possesses a spider-sense, which alerts her to danger.

Though, Gwen loses her arachnid abilities after a run-in with some nefarious super-scientists. When she bonds with symbiotic slime, made from thousands of synthetic living spiders, this venom goo responds to her every thought and mimics her original abilities, becoming the source of her powers. The goo occasionally expels gummy-like spiders.

Gwen possesses a pair of wrist-mounted mechanical web-shooters gifted to her by the retired crime-fighter-turned-billionaire-mogul, , Janet Van Dyne, AKA The Wasp. These mechanisms filter moisture from the air to create an advanced adhesive web-fluid, which can be ejected in a variety of configurations, including a single rope-like web-line, a net or glob, web-cocoons, or impromptu “web-wings” that allow her to glide through the air. She can weave the web-fluid into forms like a crude shield, web-wings, or a giant shape. As long as there’s sufficient moisture present, the web-shooters do not require manual cartridge refills.

She also possesses a web-watch or dimensional travel watch obtained during the war against the Inheritors to communicate and travel between alternate realities with the Web-Warriors.

Gwen has a penchant for detective work and is an analytical thinker. As the daughter of a police captain, she also understands police protocol. As a musician, she’s a skilled drummer, a talent enhanced by her superhuman abilities. She turns her musical abilities to form a band known as the Mary Janes. She’s an untrained fighter who can handle herself, but it’s mostly what she’s picked up watching Kung Fu movies. She’s also a ballerina dancer.

Buggy Bad Guys

Enemies are never far away from Gwen Stacy’s Spider-Woman, including corrupt lawyer and Hand leader Matt Murdock, whose incarcerated gangster client, the Kingpin, manipulates events from behind bars. It is Kingpin’s attempt to kill Captain Stacy that leads to Gwen revealing her dual identity to her father.

Mayor Norman Osborn of Battleworld seeks to use the Web of Life and Destiny for his own evil ends but Gwen never trusts him. She meets a long-lost Peter Parker from another universe, and they help defeat him, alongside the Web-Warriors.
 

Friendly Neighbors

Gwen often teams up with other spider-beings within the Spider-Verse including Earth-616’s Jessica Drew, AKA Spider-Woman, and Miles Morales, AKA Spider-Man. She is one of the first spider-totems to join Spider U.K.'s Spider-Army to combat the Inheritors—superhuman beings who feed on the life essence of spiders—during the Great Hunt.

Gwen also has the support of many of her hometown friends and family. Her father Captain George Stacy, after initially wanting to capture Spider-Woman, eventually sides with his daughter upon discovering her identity. She also has close relationships with bandmates the Mary Janes, Peter Parker, and Harry Osborn.

The Web-Warriors are a group of Spider-Totems from across the Multiverse with whom Gwen teams up to protect the fallen from the destruction of the universe. They work against Mayor Norman Osborn, and after the universe is restored, she uses a portal device to jump between universes when she needs advice from fellow Spideys.

Though, Gwen loses this portal device in a battle with the Inheritors and ends up lost in Earth-3109 where she meets a Gwen Goblin, a version of herself that turned into the insane Green Goblin. She helps to restore Gwen Goblin’s sanity, and in return she helps Gwen return to her world with her very own Ticket to the Multiverse and fashioned into a pendant necklace.

Spidey's New Spin

Spider-Woman teamed up with the Spider-Army to defeat Morlun and the Inheritors, who roamed the Multiverse devouring spider-beings. After defeating them, she returned to her reality where she had no time for her band and a new villain, the Vulture, was on the loose.

Gwen's father Captain Stacy expressed his discontent for her activities as Spider-Woman and informed her he was replaced with the NYPD's tough-as-nails cop Frank Castle, AKA the Punisher, on the vigilante investigation. During their conversation, Vulture attacked with gas incapacitating Gwen's senses. She followed him only to clash with Castle who unmasked her. To his shock that she was "just a girl" she rebounded and escaped his grasp.

She continued to save people but experienced a lot of distrust. Simultaneously, she struggled with the loss of Peter and having to face his Uncle Ben and Aunt May. When May expressed that she noticed Spider-Woman trying to help after Peter died, Gwen regained some faith in her crime fighting endeavors and rejoined her band. During an attack on Murdock at one of the band's shows, Murdock admitted his involvement in Vulture's attack on Captain Stacy and implied knowledge of Spider-Woman's identity.

When the Multiverse was destroyed, Gwen ended up on a patchwork planet known as Battleworld led by Mayor Norman Osborn. Her memories muddled, she fought crime as Spider-Gwen on this new world. Working alongside Spider-Totems from other worlds, Gwen joined them against the Sinister Six, they defeated Osborn and protected the Web of Life and Destiny. They called themselves the Web-Warriors and chose to use their powers to fight for the fallen.

Gwen returned to Earth-65 and discovered the reappearance of the Lizard, making her doubt whether Peter Parker died. She uncovered that the real culprit was Dr. Curtis Connors and one of many other lizards. She battled them only to be arrested by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s representative Samantha Wilson/Captain America.

Gwen travelled to Earth-616 to learn about her counterpart and encountered Spider-Woman (Drew), who reminded her about lessons in responsibility. She returned to her Earth and found Harry Osborn had come back from the army and equipped with S.H.I.E.L.D. training. He revealed his vendetta against Spider-Woman for killing Peter.

Osborn consumed the same serum that Parker had and with increased strength, he unmasked Spider-Woman to reveal his friend Gwen. Captain America intervened but it was Gwen that ultimately halted the Green Goblin's revenge plot and offered him a second chance. In working alongside Captain America, she gained an ally.

Meanwhile, Gwen's father Captain Stacy still struggled with her double life, but he eventually came to terms with it and quit his job to focus on being her dad.

Spider-Gwen then fought alongside Earth-616 visitors Cindy Moon, AKA Silk, and Spider-Woman against an alternate Cindy Moon. Moon revealed she had created the spider that gave Spider-Gwen powers and then injected her with a formula which removed them. A former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jesse Drew, who worked with Moon, defected, and helped Spider-Gwen restore her powers temporarily.

While she battled the imminent loss of her powers, she reconnected with her friends. Castle, now knowing her identity, attacked her. Spider-Gwen was saved by her father, but he only temporarily protected her as Castle was unstoppable. He mounted another attack to kill Gwen but was halted when he turned himself in to the cops, admitting that he aided and abetted Spider-Woman.

When Spider-Man (Morales) arrived on Earth-65 looking for his missing father, Gwen teamed up with him. They came across a future world where they were married with children and flirt with the idea of being a romantic relationship with each other but decide to remain friends.

After Gwen's father refused to claim innocence and deny the charges against him, she worked with Murdock to restore her powers and in so doing cure Osborn. Through Murdock at Oscorp, Gwen met scientist Dr. Elsa Brock, who created a mutant cousin of Agent Drew’s original alien parasite by combining Cindy Moon’s research of spider parasites, Dr. Connor’s Lizard serum, and her isotope research. This cousin, or venom, absorbs and amplifies the isotope, granting its host powers similar to Gwen’s arachnid abilities, though it emits deadly radiation. Fortunately, Gwen’s blood proved immune to the radiation and though she was reluctant at first, she agreed to bond with it and help restore Harry, who had been a lizard for too long.

Though, Murdock betrayed her and when Gwen bonded with the synthetic ooze, it mimicked the original powers she lost. Using these powers, she attacked Murdock, who stole her portal watch and revealed that her father was beaten into a coma by the Rhino. This news caused her to accept the bond and she became Gwenom, seeking revenge on Murdock.

She battled her allies as well, including Captain America, and faced the choice between defeating Murdock and the Kingpin or saving herself from the symbiote's hold. In a battle with Murdock where she gained the upper hand, she chose not to kill him, and at that moment a portal opened, triggered by Murdock’s watch (her former watch), and falling through the portal, she came face-to-face with an alternate version of herself in Earth-617. After avoiding her doppelgänger at first, she eventually sought her help to get home, and learned a lesson about her own rage and that she should be thankful that her father was still alive in her world. Her counterpart introduced Gwen to Tony Stark and Hank Pym, who helped fashion a device that would open a portal to her world. Upon returning to her universe, Gwen contacted publisher J. Jonah Jameson, offering him the truth about her secret identity as Spider-Woman.

Gwen reached a balance with the symbiote suit and faced Murdock to retrieve her portal watch, which she did so successfully. She even offered him a chance at redemption, but he rejected it. She then allowed herself to be arrested to serve time for her crimes committed as Spider-Woman. She spent a year in a S.H.I.E.L.D. prison, allowing prisoners to beat her up and even rejected Captain America’s offer to join a secret team. She believed that prison was a way to hold herself accountable. When she got out, she rejoined the Mary Janes and reunited with her father who had come out of his coma. She resolved to help people without resorting to violence.

When Otto Octavius, AKA Doctor Octopus, as the Superior Octopus used the Inheritors cloning technology with New U tech to become immortal, Gwen and the Web-Warriors with the Spider-Army attempted to stop him. Inheritors Morlun, Verna, and their scientist brother, Jennix, emerged from the cloning tanks and killed Spider-Man Noir and Spider-UK. The Web-Warriors escaped with their lives as Gwen held the monsters off and seemingly perished when Otto’s lab exploded, but really Verna had stolen her interdimensional teleporter and cast her into the Multiverse where Gwen found herself in a world where that universe’s Gwen Stacy had become an insane Green Goblin. Confronted with a twisted version of herself, she found allies in that reality’s Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson as well as the older versions of her bandmates. Gwen worked to save their Gwen and in helping restore her sanity, she returned the favor and finished up a solution: the Ticket to the Multiverse, keyed to Gwen’s DNA.

Gwen then recruited more Spider-Totems from across the Multiverse to aid the Spider-Army, who were still battling the Inheritors. Miles thought she was a ghost and Gwen admitted she liked the sound of “Ghost-Spider” but then warned him of an oncoming attack from Solus, the Inheritors abusive father, who forcibly instilled the hunger for life force into them. Miles had received the power of the Enigma Force and using the Sword Vigor, slayed Solus. The Spider-Army captured the rest of the Inheritors and with the cloning tubes, placed their consciousness into new bodies, babies to be precise, so they could have a fresh start without their father’s maniacal meddling. Since the recent destruction of the Web of Life and Destiny by a Norman Osborn Spider who had betrayed the Army, Gwen was the only one in the Multiverse who could still cross dimensions, while Annie May Parker took on the task of weaving a new web as the Patternmaker. Gwen then traveled to Spider-Man Noir and Spider-UK’s universes to let their families know of their deaths.

After losing her friends, Gwen takes a break from interdimensional travel. She returned to her home turf to spend time with her loved ones and embraced her role as Spider-Woman. She started by helping regular people and becoming an on-demand helper-for-hire to pay the bills. She faced a new threat in the form of Man-Wolf, who aimed to fill a power vacuum that formed in the criminal underworld, and she started experiencing lapses in her memory accompanied by massive headaches. She also goes on a date with her longtime friend Harry Osborn, but things go awry when the waiter refuses to serve her on account of her being who she is, her identity having gone public. She ran out of the restaurant, frustrated with the city for calling her a criminal, a city she had saved and a city she chose out of the whole Multiverse. Suddenly, she got a ping from her website, one that Betty set up to ping her when people needed help with odd jobs or needed a Super Hero.

While dedicating herself to helping the public, Gwen’s internal battle against her headaches was still raging. Through Harry and his connections as Oscorp, she contacted the only person that could help her understand her headaches, Dr. Elsa Brock who created the symbiote. But finding her turned out to be tricky. Meanwhile, she played with her band, the Mary Janes, and while playing one of the biggest gigs yet, a bomb went off targeting Gwen and she didn’t sense the danger. Enraged and fighting off headaches, Gwen sought out the monster responsible and her investigation, which led her to a face-to-face with the Man-Wolf, a criminal in league with the mysterious Miles Warren. She defeated Man-Wolf, bringing him to justice, but still needed to get a handle on her powers which were on the fritz. With Brock still missing in action, Gwen hopped over to Earth-616 and sought out Peter Parker who was teaching at Empire State University. She asked for his help to find Eddie Brock, AKA Venom, Elsa’s parallel-universe cognate. Not wanting to see her get her brain eaten by Venom, Spider-Man offered to analyze her symbiote in ESU’s lab first. While taking a break for lunch, they heard a kerfuffle at a nearby museum and investigating, they ended up teaming up against Fritz von Meyer, AKA Swarm, but in the shape of a dinosaur and dubbing himself Dinoswarm, who was stealing from the museum. After bringing Swarm to heel, a crowd gathered around Spider-Man and Gwen, asking for her name. Since Jessica Drew already had “Spider-Woman” on lockdown, Gwen committed to Ghost-Spider.

After spending time swinging through New York with Spider-Man, Gwen decided she’d spend more time in Earth-616 to regain a semblance of a normal life and get a college education at ESU. While there, an old foe of Spider-Man and the 616 version of Gwen Stacy started stalking Gwen, and even following her to Earth-65: none other than Dr. Miles Warren, AKA the Jackal. Gwen returned to Earth-616 and attended Peter’s class. She stayed behind when he requested her to do so, and informed Peter that the Jackal had killed Earth-65’s Miles Warren, and despite her Warren being a bad dude, Gwen was not happy about it. Peter warned her that the Jackal was dangerous and informed her about an incident with the Champions that went awry, leading to a law outlawing underage vigilantism. He advised her to take a hiatus from school, and Gwen, furious at both Peter and the new law, stormed out of his classroom and returned to her home universe.

Upon her return to Earth-65, sibling socialite influencers Sue and Johnny Storm had returned after being missing for five years. They invited Gwen to team-up with them. After successfully fighting crime together, they confronted Gwen about her former Villain status and told her to leave their universe. Gwen refused and they attempted to kill her. With the symbiote’s help, Gwen survived but the siblings used their recent crimefighting against her, extorting her into self-exile. Gwen said goodbye to her father and traveled back to Earth-616.

Gwen then joined the Order of the Web with other Spider-Friends to rescue Peter from Norman Osborn, AKA Green Goblin, who had betrayed Spider-Man in a team-up against Stanley Carter, AKA Sin-Eater. Though, the true threat behind Sin-Eater was the mysterious villain Kindred, Norman’s son Harry Osborn, who had his sights set on destroying Spider-Man. He possessed Gwen and her friends, turning them into demonic puppets and used them to wreak havoc on Spider-Man and the rest of New York City. Peter then struck a deal with Kindred, offering himself over to release his friends, and though freed, the Order was soon targeted by the Sin-Eater, who believed they were possessed by sin. Dr. Stephen Strange, AKAA Doctor Strange, and Felicia Hardy, AKA Black Cat, offered an assist in defeating the demon that possessed them and save Spider-Man. Meanwhile, Sin-Eater absorbed the powers of one of the Spiders deadliest enemies, Morlun.

In looking for Peter, the Order searched the Osborn family cemetery and came up against a Morlun-ized Sin-Eater and they were soon all dragged underground and knocked out by Kindred’s centipedes. As the Order was passed out at a dinner table, Spider-Man fought Kindred with his words and fists, and Mary Jane Watson arrived as bait, sent by Norman. Norman finally intervened but so did Kingpin who sent in his well-armored force to capture Kindred. While Norman was distracted, an unknown, destructive black ooze came through the walls, to which Peter advised MJ to escort the Order above ground to safety, who all were coming to. Peter didn’t have an explanation for what happened underground, but the Order resolved to stick together and help him because he was clearly still in trouble.

When Knull, God of the Symbiotes, connected to his armies through a psychic hivemind, he launched an all-out assault on Earth. However, since Gwen’s synthetic suit came from another universe, Knull had no sway over it. When dragons started raining from the sky, Gwen’s instinct was to protect her roommates, but a dragon soon attacked and infected them. Meanwhile, the Jackal was busy in Gwen’s universe infecting her friend Mary Jane with Gwen’s spiders, which he had acquired during his last encounter with Gwen, and he let them loose upon MJ. Simultaneously, Gwen attempted to escape the dragons hunting her, and using her pendant necklace, opened a portal, but Mary Jane of Earth-65 came flying through.

Knull sensed MJ’s arrival and covered her in evil symbiote, claiming the moniker Carnage. The symbiote elevated MJ’s emotions and the pair fought. Gwen attempted to liberate MJ of the evil symbiote and since part of her suit formed MJ’s current state, she saw a way in. As MJ/Carnage recruited new members for her band, Gwen sensed she would go to the biggest venue in the city, Madison Square Garden. Finding her there, Gwen challenged MJ/Carnage to a battle of the bands, drumming and attempting to gain control of her spiders to purge Knull and it worked. MJ was seemingly freed but when Gwen attempted to use her teleporter necklace, it failed to open a portal. In the meantime, Gwen took MJ somewhere safe.

When a pop idol from the end of time named Finale hopes to live forever, she accidentally quantum-zapped Gwen while Gwen was using her Ticket to the Multiverse pendant. Falling in an in-between space, Spider-Zero appeared to catch Gwen. Taking her back to Earth-65, they discovered it was completely changed. The fallout altered Gwen’s home dimension and created five distinct Gwen Stacys, all based on Gwen’s personality traits. Assisted by Spider-Zero, Gwen raced to find all versions of herself across the timeline and set her own back to normal. Those rounded up included eccentric demigod Thorgwen, a 1950s Super-Soldier named Captain America, a short-tempered mutant called Gwen Howlett, AKA Wolverine, and the super-smart and nerdy Toni Stacy, AKA Iron G.W.E.N. But the time-traveling assassins known as the Terminal Six are hot on their tail and eager to achieve Finale’s mission.

When Gwen and her other selves encountered the Terminal Six, Gwen faced their leader Gwen Stacy, AKA Nightbird, whose exposure to goblin gas resulted in mania, but the Super Villains made a clean getaway thanks in part to the bickering and insults the Gwens were throwing around at each other. Spider-Zero found another Gwen, Gwen Jones, AKA Captain Marvel, and warned that the threads of reality were tightening up, meaning they were running out of time. After another encounter with Nightbird, Gwen’s suit reacted to Nightbird and helped cure her of her insanity, but they lost Captain Marvel, who saved her city from a worse fate. The group rallied and resolved to bring the fight to Finale at the End of Time. While Spider-Zero held the Web of Life and Destiny together, the team of Gwens worked together against Finale, who was stealing life force energy from others to power the Finalizer, a device that meddled with time and the Multiverse and was causing it to destabilize. The Gwens realized they could use the villain’s Finalizer device to buy time but the only way to power it was to put themselves in it and restore Gwen’s universe. Gwen reluctantly accepted, defeated Finale, and saved time itself. Returning to her universe, it was restored, and she realized that all those Gwens made up who she was and accepted herself.