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Image Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains one of the largest comic book publishers in North America. Its output was originally dominated by work from the studios of the Image partners, but later included work by numerous independent creators. Its best-known series include Spawn, Savage Dragon, Witchblade, The Darkness, Invincible, and The Walking Dead.

History[link]

Founding[link]

Panel at ComicCon 2007 on the 15th anniversary of the founding of Image Comics. From left: Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino, Marc Silvestri, Rob Liefeld, and Whilce Portacio.

In the early 1990s, several freelance illustrators doing popular work for Marvel Comics grew frustrated with the company's policies and practices. Their primary complaint was that the artwork and new characters they created were being merchandised heavily, with the artists receiving only standard page rates for their work and modest royalties on sales of the comics.^{[citation needed]} In December 1991, a group of these illustrators approached Marvel president Terry Stewart and demanded that the company give them ownership and creative control over their work. Accounts vary as to whom this group included, but it is generally accepted that Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld were among its leaders.^{[citation needed]} Marvel did not meet their demands.

In response, eight creators^[1] announced the founding of Image Comics: illustrators Todd McFarlane (known for his work on Spider-Man), Jim Lee (X-Men), Rob Liefeld (X-Force), Marc Silvestri (Wolverine), Erik Larsen (The Amazing Spider-Man), Jim Valentino (Guardians of the Galaxy), and Whilce Portacio (Uncanny X-Men); and long-time Uncanny X-Men writer Chris Claremont.^[2] This development was nicknamed the "X-odus", because several of the creators involved (Claremont, Liefeld, Lee, Silvestri, and Portacio) were famous for their work on the X-Men franchise. Marvel's stock fell $3.25/share when the news became public.^[1]

Image's organizing charter had two key provisions:^[3]

• Image would not own any creator's work; the creator would.
• No Image partner would interfere – creatively or financially – with any other partner's work.

Image itself would own no intellectual property except the company trademarks: its name and its logo,^[4], which was designed by writer Hank Kanalz ^[5] Each Image partner founded his own studio, which published under the Image banner but was autonomous from any central editorial control. Claremont was not part of the partnership, and Portacio withdrew during the formative stages to deal with his sister's illness,^[6] so Image originally consisted of six studios:

• Extreme Studios, owned by Rob Liefeld
• Highbrow Entertainment, owned by Erik Larsen
• ShadowLine, owned by Jim Valentino
• Todd McFarlane Productions, owned by Todd McFarlane
• Top Cow Productions, owned by Marc Silvestri
• Wildstorm Productions, owned by Jim Lee

Development[link]

Image's initial titles were produced through Malibu Comics, a small but established publishing company sympathetic with Image's position on creator ownership. Malibu provided administrative, production, distribution, and marketing support for the launch of the initial titles.^[2][7]

The first Image comic books to arrive in stores were Liefeld's Youngblood, Larsen's The Savage Dragon, McFarlane's Spawn, and Lee's WildC.A.T.s. Propelled by the artists' popularity and the eagerness of comic book collectors to get in on the "next big thing", these series sold in numbers that no publisher other than Marvel, DC, or Valiant Comics had achieved since the market's decline in the 1970s.^{[citation needed]} (The company experienced lesser successes with Silvestri's Cyberforce, Valentino's Shadowhawk, and Portacio's much-delayed Wetworks.)^{[citation needed]} Within a few months, the Image titles' success led to Malibu having almost 10% of the North American comics market share,^[8] briefly exceeding that of industry giant DC Comics.^[9] By the beginning of 1993, Image's financial situation was secure enough to publish its titles independently, and it left Malibu.^[10]

Some of the founders' studios came to resemble separate publishers, each with several ongoing series set in a shared universe. (At first there were indications of an "Image Universe" shared by all the studios, but these decreased as the studios developed their own directions.) The use of freelancers to write or illustrate series that were owned by the Image partners led to criticism that some of them had reproduced the very system they had rebelled against, but with them in charge instead of a corporation^[11]. Image partners such as Larsen and Valentino, who did not take this approach, assumed a neutral position on it, in keeping with the requirement that none of them had any say in how the others' studios were run.

Some of the Image partners used their studios to also publish works produced outside of their studios, allowing the creators to retain ownership and editorial control over those series, an arrangement which was then uncommon among large publishers. These included Sam Kieth (The Maxx), Dale Keown (Pitt),^[12] Jae Lee (Hellshock), and the team of Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, and Alex Ross (Astro City). Later, some established self-published series also moved to Image, such as Jeff Smith's Bone and Colleen Doran's A Distant Soil.

The partners had little business or management experience, and many series fell behind their intended publishing schedule.^[13] Retailers' orders of newly-offered issues were typically based on the sales of recent issues, but as the issues shipped weeks and even several months late, fans' interest tended to wane, leaving retailers with unsold inventory. In response, retailers cut orders to reduce their risk. This significantly hurt the studios, which were each responsible for their own cash flow and profitability.^{[citation needed]} In late 1993, the partners hired independent cartoonist Larry Marder to act as "executive director" for the publisher;^[14] Valentino quipped in interviews that Marder's job was literally to "direct the executives" (i.e. the Image partners). Marder developed better financial planning and had some success in disciplining creators to deliver their work on time, in part by insisting that retail orders for new issues would not be solicited until the books had been illustrated, usually ensuring they would be ready to ship when promised.^{[citation needed]}

By the mid-1990s Image series such as Spawn and The Savage Dragon had proven themselves as lasting successes (the former frequently topping the sales charts for months in which new issues came out), while new series such as Wildstorm's Gen¹³, and Top Cow's Witchblade and The Darkness were also successful. Image had become the third-largest comics publisher in North America, exceeded only by long-established industry leaders Marvel and DC Comics.^{[citation needed]}

Partial break-up[link]

Clashes between partners began to harm the company. Several of the partners complained that Liefeld was using his position as CEO of Image to promote and perhaps even to financially support his own separate publishing company Maximum Press.^{[citation needed]} Silvestri withdrew Top Cow from Image in 1996 (although he retained his partnership in the company), protesting that Liefeld was recruiting artists from his studio, including the highly popular Michael Turner (Witchblade).^{[citation needed]} The other five partners discussed ousting Liefeld from the company, and Liefeld resigned in September 1996, giving up his share of the company.^[15][16] Silvestri subsequently returned Top Cow to Image.

Wildstorm's Cliffhanger imprint, established in 1998, was a commercial success, launching high-selling creator-owned properties by Humberto Ramos, J. Scott Campbell, Joe Madureira, and others. However, Jim Lee sold Wildstorm to DC Comics in 1999, citing a desire to exchange his responsibilities as a publisher for the opportunity to do more creative work.

Diversification[link]

A panel of non-founding Image creators at the 2010 New York Comic Con (l-r): Tomm Coker, Tim Seeley, Ben McCool, James Zhang, Nick Spencer and Ron Marz.

The founders of Image were best known for their dynamic and extravagant art, and for character-driven thinly-plotted stories in the superhero genre, and although the company published dissimilar works, many readers came to perceive this as the "Image style" of comics. Valentino had become less active as a creator after the company's first few years, and responded to this by using his position as a partner to seek out and publish a number of titles by other creators in distinctly different genres and styles, in a deliberate attempt to diversify Image's output and its perception. Although most of these series — ironically dubbed the "non-line" because of their lack of commonality — did not sell well and were soon canceled, they introduced an increasingly important business model for the company: offering other creators the same total-ownership terms the partners enjoyed, but taking a fixed fee upon publication for the company's administrative costs. This practice was later formalized as a function of "Image Central", the business unit independent of any of the studios.^{[citation needed]} This focus on non-studio comics increased when Valentino took on the role of Image's publisher, assuming many of the responsibilities held by Marder until he left the company in 1999. In February 2004, Larsen replaced Valentino as publisher, largely continuing existing business practices. Larsen stepped down as publisher in July 2008 and executive director Eric Stephenson was promoted to the position.^[17]

Shortly after Stephenson's appointment, Image added a new partner. Robert Kirkman, whose black and white series The Walking Dead had emerged as a long-running and popular series, and whose Invincible had become one of the longest-running series featuring a newly-created superhero series in recent years, became the first partner added since its founding.^[18] In July 2010 he announced that he would create an imprint under his direction, known as Skybound.^[19]

The company's position in the North American direct market diminished in the first decade of the 2000s, challenged by Dark Horse Comics and IDW Publishing for the position of "third largest publisher" after Marvel and DC.^{[citation needed]} As of 2010, the majority of titles Image publishes in a given month are non-studio productions. McFarlane's Spawn and related titles, his McFarlane Toys line, Silvestri's Top Cow imprint, and Kirkman's various series remain a substantial segment of Image's total sales. Larsen's Savage Dragon continues as the longest-running owner-created title by an Image partner. Valentino has returned to operating his own studio with his Shadowline imprint.

See also[link]

	San Francisco Bay Area portal
	Companies portal
	Comics portal

• List of Image Comics publications
• Image Universe

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Image Comics: The Road To Independence (by George Khoury, 280 pages, TwoMorrows Publishing, June 2007, ISBN 1-893905-71-3) excerpts:
  • McFarlane and Khoury on 15 Years of Image Comics, Comic Book Resources, June 13, 2007
  • Marc Silvestri from Image Comics: The Road to Independence, Newsarama, June 14, 2007
  • Dale Keown excerpt from Image Comics: The Road to Independence, June 14, 2007
  • Robert Kirkman Interview
• Image Comics at the Grand Comics Database
• Image Comics at the Big Comic Book DataBase

External links[link]

• Official website
• Image Comics at the Comic Book DB
• "The Image Story" by Michael Dean. The Comics Journal, 2000.
• Image Comics on Myspace

Jim Lee
Jim Lee at the CBLDF Drink and Draw at San Diego Comic Con 2007.
Born	(1964-08-11) August 11, 1964 (age 47) Seoul, South Korea
Nationality	Korean-American
Area(s)	Writer, Artist, Publisher
Notable works	All Star Batman and Robin Batman: Hush Superman: For Tomorrow WildC.A.T.s X-Men vol. 2
Awards	Harvey Award, 1990 Inkpot Award, 1992 Wizard Fan Award, 1996, 2002, 2003

Jim Lee (Korean 이용철; born August 11, 1964) is a Korean-American comic book artist, writer, editor and publisher. He first broke into the industry in 1987 as an artist for Marvel Comics, illustrating titles such as Alpha Flight and Punisher War Journal, before gaining a great deal of popularity on The Uncanny X-Men. X-Men #1, the 1991 spinoff series premiere that Lee penciled and co-wrote with Chris Claremont, remains the best-selling comic book of all time, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

In 1992 Lee and several other artists formed their own publishing company, Image Comics, to publish their creator-owned titles, with Lee publishing his titles through his studio, Wildstorm Productions, such as WildC.A.T.s and Gen¹³. Eschewing the role of publisher in order to return to illustration, Lee sold Wildstorm in 1998 to DC Comics, where he continued to run Wildstorm as a DC imprint until DC ended Wildstorm in 2010, as well as illustrating successful books set in DC's main fictional universe, such as the year-long "Batman: Hush" and "Superman: For Tomorrow" storylines. On February 18, 2010, Jim Lee was announced as the new Co-Publisher of DC Comics with Dan DiDio, both replacing Paul Levitz.

He has received a Harvey Award, Inkpot Award and three Wizard Fan Awards in recognition for his work.

Early life[link]

Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea, on August 11, 1964. At the age of four he and his family emigrated to the United States, and grew up in St. Louis, Missouri,^[1][2] where he lived a typical middle-class childhood.^[2] Lee's St. Louis Country Day School classmates predicted in his senior yearbook that he would found his own comic book company.^[1][2] Despite this, Lee seemed resigned to following his father's career in medicine, attending Princeton University to study psychology, with the intention of becoming a medical doctor.^[2][3]

Career[link]

Rise to fame at Marvel Comics[link]

In 1986, as he was preparing to graduate, Lee took an art class that reignited his love of drawing, and led to his rediscovery of comics at a time when seminal works such as Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen spurred a renaissance within the American comics industry.^[2] After obtaining his psychology degree,^[3] he decided to postpone his medical degree, and earned the reluctant blessing of his parents by allotting himself one year to succeed, vowing that he would attend medical school if he did not break into the comic book industry in that time. He submitted samples to various publishers, but did not find success until he met editor Archie Goodwin at a New York comic book convention. Goodwin invited Lee to Marvel Comics, where the aspiring artist received his first assignment by editor Carl Potts, who hired him to pencil the mid-list series Alpha Flight, seguéing from that title in 1989 to Punisher: War Journal.^[2][4] Lee's work on the Punisher: War Journal was inspired by artists like Frank Miller, David Ross, Kevin Nowlan, and Whilce Portacio, as well as Japanese manga.^[4]

In 1989, Lee filled in for regular illustrator Marc Silvestri on Uncanny X-Men #248 and did another guest stint on issues #256 through #258 as part of the "Acts of Vengeance" storyline, eventually becoming the series' ongoing artist with issue #267, following Silvestri's departure. During his stint on Uncanny Lee first worked with inker Scott Williams, who would become a long-time collaborator. During his run on the title, Lee co-created the character Gambit with long-time X-Men writer Chris Claremont.

Lee's artwork quickly gained popularity in the eyes of enthusiastic fans, which allowed him to gain greater creative control of the franchise. In 1991, Lee helped launch a second X-Men series simply called X-Men (volume 2), not only as the artist, but also as co-writer with Claremont. X-Men #1 (vol 2) is still the best-selling comic book of all-time with sales of over 8.1 million copies (and nearly $7 million), according to a public proclamation by the Guinness Book of World Records at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con.^[5][6] The sales figures were generated in part by publishing the issue with five different variant covers, four of which showed different characters from the book that formed a single image when laid side by side, and a fifth, gatefold cover of that combined image, large numbers of which were purchased by retailers, who anticipated fans and speculators who would buy multiple copies in order to acquire a complete collection of the covers.^[7] Lee designed new character uniforms for the series, including those worn by Cyclops, Jean Grey, Rogue, Psylocke and Storm. He also created the villain Omega Red.

Stan Lee interviewed Jim Lee in the documentary series The Comic Book Greats.

Image Comics and WildStorm, return to Marvel[link]

Enticed by the idea of being able to exert more control over his own work, in 1992, Lee accepted the invitation to join six other artists who broke away from Marvel to form Image Comics, which would publish their creator-owned titles.^[3] Lee's group of titles was initially called Aegis Entertainment before being christened Wildstorm Productions, and published Lee's initial title WildC.A.T.s, which Lee pencilled and co-wrote, and other series created by Lee in the same shared universe. The other major series of the initial years of Wildstorm, for which Lee either created characters, co-plotted or provided art for, included Stormwatch, Deathblow and Gen¹³.

In 1993, Lee and his close friend, Valiant Comics publisher Steve Massarsky, arranged a Valiant-Image Comics crossover miniseries called Deathmate, in which the Valiant characters would interact with those of Wildstorm, and of Lee's fellow Image partner, Rob Liefeld. The miniseries would consist of four "center books", (each one denoted by a color rather than an issue number), two each produced by the respective companies, plus a prologue and epilogue book. Wildstorm produced Deathmate Black, with Lee himself contributing to the writing. He also illustrated the covers for that book, the Deathmate Tourbook and the prologue book, as well as contributing to the prologue's interior inks. The assignment was given to Valiant creators against their better judgment, in particular Editor-in-chief Bob Layton, who complained about Image's inability to meet their deadlines. Deathmate Black, in particular, came out a few months after Valiant's Blue and Yellow installments, which had come out on time, and Liefeld's Deathmate Red was so late that Layton flew to California to procure that chapter personally, and ink it himself in an Anaheim hotel room. Layton sees Deathmate's lateness as one of Valiant's "unmitigated disasters", and views that project as the beginning of the speculator collapse of the 1990s.^[8]

Wildstorm would expand its line to include other ongoing titles whose creative work was handled by other writers and artists, some of which were spinoffs of the earlier titles, or properties owned by other creators, such as Whilce Portacio's Wetworks. As publisher, Lee later also expanded his comics line creating two publishing imprints of Wildstorm, Homage and Cliffhanger (that years later merged and were replaced by a single Wildstorm Signature imprint), to publish creator-owned comics by some selected creators of the US comics industry.

Lee and Rob Liefeld, another Marvel-illustrator-turned-Image-founder, returned to Marvel in 1996 to participate in a reboot of several classic characters; the project was known as Heroes Reborn. While Liefeld reworked Captain America and The Avengers, Lee plotted Iron Man and wrote and illustrated The Fantastic Four. Halfway through the project, Lee's studio took over Liefeld's two titles, finishing all four series.

Lee returned to Wildstorm, where he would publish series such as The Authority and Planetary, as well as Alan Moore's imprint, America's Best Comics. Lee himself wrote and illustrated a 12-issue series called Divine Right: The Adventures of Max Faraday, in which an internet slacker inadvertently manages to download the secrets of the universe, and is thrown into a wild fantasy world.

Move to DC Comics[link]

Because he felt his role as publisher interfered with his role as an artist, Lee left Image Comics and sold Wildstorm to DC Comics in late 1998, enabling him to focus once again on art.^[2][3] In 2003 he collaborated on a 12-issue run on Batman with writer Jeph Loeb.^[9] "Hush" became a runaway sales success. He followed this up in 2004 by illustrating "For Tomorrow", a 12-issue story in Superman by writer Brian Azzarello, although this did not replicate the earlier success. In 2005, Lee teamed with Frank Miller on the new series All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder, a series plagued by delays. Lee himself took full responsibility for the delays, explaining that his involvement with the DC Universe Online video game were the cause, and not Miller's scripts, which had been completed for some time.^[10][11][12]

Lee continued to run Wildstorm as Editorial Director, sometimes working on both DC and Wildstorm properties simultaneously. In September 2006, Jim Lee returned to WildC.A.T.s with Grant Morrison as the writer, pencilling both WildC.A.T.s and All Star Batman and Robin, both of which were characterized by publication delays. The gap between All-Star Batman and Robin #4 and #5 was one year, and to date, only one issue of WildC.A.T.s (Vol. 4) has been published. Lee drew alternative cover art for the Infinite Crisis series.

In February 2006 it was announced that Lee would be involved with the concept art for the upcoming DC Comics MMORPG, DC Universe Online.^[3] In 2008, Lee was named the Executive Creative Director of the forthcoming game, which at that time was expected to be released in 2009.^[13]

In 2009 Lee provided artwork for the album booklet for Daughtry's 2009 album Leave This Town.

In February 2010 Lee was named alongside Dan DiDio as Co-Publisher of DC Comics.^[14][15][16] According to Lee, this does not indicate another move away from the creative side of comics, as he will not only have greater creative involvement in the entire DC line, but was to be illustrating a new monthly title, Dark Knight: Boy Wonder, a re-branded conclusion to the story he and Frank Miller began in All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder.^[2][17] He also was to supply the painted art over Giuseppe Camuncoli's layouts in Batman: Europa #1, a 2011 miniseries^[18] inspired by Lee's time living in Italy,^[19] though as of June 2011, neither of these projects have materialized. DC announced they were ending the Wildstorm imprint in September 2010.^[20]

In September 2011, DC Comics instituted a program called The New 52, in which the publisher cancelled all of its superhero titles and relaunched 52 new series with #1 issues, wiping out most of the then-current continuity. Lee and writer Geoff Johns, DC Comics' Chief Creative Officer, are the architects of the relaunch, which was initiated with a new Justice League series, written and illustrated by Johns and Lee, respectively. The series' first story arc was a new origin of the Justice League, which depicted the return of DC's primary superheroes to the team.^[21]

Technique and materials[link]

Lee is known to use F lead for his pencil work.^[22][23] While inking his own pencils on Punisher: War Journal, Lee began using a crowquill nib for the first time.^[4]

In talking about the artist's work ethic, Lee has said, "Sometimes I wonder if we ever really improve as artists or if the nirvana derived from completing a piece blinds us enough to love what we have created and move on to the next piece. If we could see the work as it is, with years of reflection in the here and now, how many images would end up in the trash rather than on the racks?"^[24]

Awards[link]

• 1990 Harvey Award for Best New Talent^[25]
• 1992 Inkpot Award^[26]
• 1996 Wizard Fan Award for Favorite Penciller^[27]
• 2002 Wizard Fan Award for Favorite Penciller (For Batman)^[28]
• 2003 Wizard Fan Award for Favorite Penciller^[29]

Bibliography[link]

Lee at San Diego Comic Con 2009

Comics work (interior pencil art) includes:

DC[link]

• All-Star Batman and Robin #1-10 (2005–08)
• Coup d'état: Sleeper (Authority) (2004)
• Batman #608-619 (2002–03)
• Batman: Gotham Knights (Batman Black and White) #1 (2000)
• Flinch #1 (1999)
• Justice League #1-6, 9- (2011–Present)
• Justice League of America, vol. 4, #0 -one page only- (2006)
• Just Imagine Stan Lee with Jim Lee creating Wonder Woman (2001)
• New 52 (Free Comic Book Day) #1 (among other artists, 2012)
• 100 Bullets #26 (among other artists) (2001)
• Orion (Tales of the New Gods) #12 (2001)
• Robotech #0 (2002)
• Superman, vol. 2, #204–215 (2004–05)
• Superman/Batman #26 (2-pages, among other artists) (2006)
• Weird War Tales, one-shot (2000)

Image[link]

• Darker Image (Deathblow) #1-2 (1993)
• Deathblow (full pencils): #1-3; (along with Trevor Scott): #0 (1993–96)
• Deathmate #Black (among other artists) (1993)
• Divine Right #1–12 (1997–99)
• Gen¹³ #0, 4-7 (1994)
• Grifter/Shi, 2-part miniseries, #1 (along with Travis Charest) (1996)
• Cover to Invincible#51
• Moonlight and Ashes: Fire From Heaven, 2-part miniseries, #2 (1996)
• Savage Dragon #13 (1994)
• StormWatch #47 (1997)
• WildC.A.T.s (full pencils): #1-13; (among other artists): #32, 50 (1992–98)

Marvel[link]

• Alpha Flight #51, 53, 55-62, 64 (1987–88)
• Daredevil Annual #5 (1989)
• Fantastic Four, vol. 2, #1–6 (1996–97)
• Iron Man, vol. 2, #6 (among other artists) (1997)
• Marvel Comics Presents (Namor) #33 (1989)
• Punisher Annual #2 (1989)
• Punisher: War Journal #1–13, 17-19 (1988–89)
• Solo Avengers (Mockingbird) #1 (1987)
• Stryfe's Strike File #1 (among other artists) (1993)
• Uncanny X-Men #248, 256–258, 267–277 (1990–91)
• X-Men, vol. 2, #1–11 (1991–92)

Marvel/Image[link]

• WildC.A.T.s/X-Men: The Silver Age (1997)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jim Lee

• Jim Lee at the Comic Book DB
• Jim Lee on deviantART
• Jim Lee on Myspace
• Jim Lee on Twitter
• Jim Lee's channel on YouTube
• Sun of Gelatometti - A blog of multiple artists, including Jim Lee
• Audio Interview - Comic Geek Speak - April 27, 2007

Gwendolyn "Gwen" Stacy^[1][2] appears as a supporting character in Marvel Comics' Spider-Man series. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, she first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #31 (December 1965).

A blonde college student, Gwen was originally the first love of Peter Parker (Spider-Man) before the introduction of Mary Jane Watson. The Green Goblin (Norman Osborn) killed Gwen in The Amazing Spider-Man #121 (June 1973). Both the decision to kill Gwen and the method in which Marvel implemented it remain controversial among fans, but the death became a pivotal point in both Spider-Man’s history and in American comic books in general. Many point to Gwen's death as the end of the so-called Silver Age of comics.^[3] Spider-Man writers and fans disagree about who is the character’s "one true love;" Gwen or his subsequent love-interest Mary Jane. The character was ranked 89th in Comics Buyer's Guide's "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list.^[4]

In the 2007 feature film Spider-Man 3, Gwen is portrayed by Bryce Dallas Howard. In the upcoming reboot The Amazing Spider-Man she will be played by Emma Stone.

Fictional character biography[link]

Background[link]

Gwen first appears in The Amazing Spider-Man #31 (December 1965). Peter Parker meets Gwen while both study as undergraduates at Empire State University.^[5] Initially, with Aunt May in the hospital, Peter feels troubled and ignores her advances; insulted, she dates both Flash Thompson and Harry Osborn. Gradually, however, a romance develops; Gwen, a science major, seems to appreciate Peter's intellectual personality. In the comic books, their relationship begins almost immediately after a relationship between Peter and Betty Brant ends.

Their relationship almost ends before it begins. A mind-controlled (police) Captain George Stacy, Gwen's father, gets into a fight with Peter, which Gwen observes. Thinking Peter attacked her father, she halts the relationship. Gwen eventually learns the truth and she and Peter reconcile. Their romance becomes more complicated when Gwen's father is killed by falling debris during a battle involving Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus (The Amazing Spider-Man #90). Gwen blames Spider-Man for his death, which sets their relationship back for a while. Gwen leaves for Europe to cope with her loss. She wants Peter to ask her to marry him and convince her to stay, but his guilt stops him from proposing.

Peter goes to London to see Gwen, but is forced into action as Spider-Man and leaves without seeing Gwen. Gwen eventually realizes her error in trying to pressure Peter into marriage, so she returns to New York and they get back together.

Death[link]

In The Amazing Spider-Man #121 (June 1973), by writer Gerry Conway and penciller Gil Kane, the Green Goblin (Norman Osborn, who has identified Peter Parker as Spider-Man) holds Gwen Stacy captive on a tower of the George Washington Bridge. Spider-Man arrives to fight the Green Goblin, and when the Goblin throws Gwen Stacy off the bridge, Spider-Man catches her by her leg with a string of web. He initially thinks he has saved her, but when he pulls her back onto the bridge, he realizes she has already died. In shock and anger, Spider-Man nearly kills the Green Goblin in retaliation, but in the end chooses not to do so. The Goblin still seemingly dies when he is impaled by his own goblin glider in an attempt to kill Spider-Man, and Norman Osborn would not return for nearly three hundred issues.

The death of Gwen Stacy had an enormous impact in the world of comic-book fandom.^[6] Before her, except possibly as part of an origin story, superheroes did not fail so catastrophically; nor did a loved-one of the superhero die so suddenly without warning. Because of this, some fans and historians take the death of Gwen Stacy as one marker of the end of the period they refer to as the Silver Age of Comic Books.

In the real world, physicist James Kakalios shows in his book The Physics of Superheroes that, consistent with Newton's laws of motion, the sudden stop would have killed Gwen Stacy.^[7] The comic book Civil War: Casualties of War: Captain America/Iron Man (2007) concurred that the proximate cause of death was the sudden stop during a high-speed fall. An issue of Peter Parker/Spider-Man revisits the issue, and further confirms that Gwen died of a broken neck due to the use of the webbing.

During a battle with the Sinister Twelve, the Green Goblin captures Mary Jane and takes her to another bridge, throwing her over the side just as he had Gwen; however, this time Peter succeeds in saving MJ by using multiple web-strands, providing her with enough support to avoid any fatal injuries.^[8]

After death[link]

Gwen Stacy's death has enormous repercussions. Mary Jane Watson feels the loss of Gwen deeply and becomes a more serious person. Gwen's death also draws Peter and Mary Jane into a closer friendship, and eventually to romance.

The Green Goblin's murder of Gwen Stacy greatly elevates his status in Spider-Man's rogues' gallery. Before her death, Doctor Octopus had seemed Spider-Man's primary nemesis, but Gwen's death pushed the Green Goblin into that role.

The Jackal, Miles Warren in disguise, a former professor of Gwen's, was secretly in love with her. Following her death, Warren had grown increasingly insane and adopted the persona of the Jackal.

In the fourth and final issue of the miniseries Marvels (April 1994), photographer Phil Sheldon befriends Gwen Stacy, who has absolved Spider-Man of any blame for her father's death. Gwen's simple faith in heroes convinces Sheldon of the purpose of the "Marvels" (superheroes) - to protect innocents such as Gwen. He resolves to write a book to praise the heroes and what they should mean to humanity. But the Green Goblin kidnaps Gwen and holds her hostage to ensure that Spider-Man will challenge him. Sheldon, frantically following the resulting chase in a taxi, arrives at the George Washington Bridge in time to see Spider-Man fight the Goblin and to see Gwen accidentally knocked off the bridge and killed, despite (and tragically because of) Spider-Man's desperate attempt to save her. Sheldon's faith in the Marvels is shattered and he retires, but not before passing on the body of his work to his assistant Marcie.

Clones[link]

Approximately two years after her death,^[9] Gwen Stacy reappears in Amazing Spider-Man 144 (May 1975), perfectly healthy but with no memory of the time since her death. The Jackal has managed to create a clone of Gwen, and uses her as part of a plot against Spider-Man in the original Clone Saga. At the end of that story, Gwen’s clone leaves to find a new life for herself.

In the 1988 crossover "The Evolutionary War", the High Evolutionary, who had once been Miles Warren's teacher, captures Gwen's clone. In the process, he discovers that Warren had not in fact cloned her, but had instead created a genetic virus (the "carrion virus") that transforms already living beings. Spider-Man investigates Warren's old laboratory and identifies Carrion as a genetic weapon developed by Warren. Another former student of Warren's, Malcolm McBride, is infected with the virus and becomes the second Carrion. The High Evolutionary identifies this Gwen Stacy to Spider-Man as in fact not a clone but a woman named Joyce Delaney whom Warren had altered.

During the second Clone Saga, Gwen Stacy's clone, now married to a clone of Professor Warren named Warren Miles, sees a copy of Peter Parker's book of Spider-Man photos, Webs, and remembers (to an extent) her real history, and returns to New York City. During this storyline, she again disappears from Spider-Man's life. It was recently revealed that the Gwen Stacy clone introduced in Amazing Spider-Man #144 was in fact the second Gwen clone that Miles Warren created and has been living in London under the name Joyce Delaney. This clone was murdered by the Gwen Stacy clone known as Abby-L.^[10]

Another Gwen clone appears in The Amazing Spider-Man #399 (March 1995). This clone believes she is the real Gwen. She dies from clone degeneration in Spider-Man vol. 1, #56 (March 1995), the next issue of the story arc.

Deadpool vol.3, #0 (December 1998) reveals that the evil geneticist Arnim Zola obtained samples of the DNA of various superhumans for cloning purposes. These experiments, discovered by the mercenary Deadpool, also involve four clones of Gwen Stacy. Zola allows Deadpool to take the four Gwens to his San Francisco base of operations, where they serve and entertain him. They later die in a plane crash.^[11]

Spider-Man: Blue[link]

Gwen and (to a lesser extent) Mary Jane become the focus of the critically acclaimed^{[citation needed]} Spider-Man: Blue, a 2002 limited series by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale that retells the beginning of Peter's relationship with the two women.

The frame narrative has Peter, several years after her death, on Valentine's Day recording a voice "letter" to his dead love.

Dead Girl[link]

In the 2006 limited series X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl, Gwen, along with Moira MacTaggert and Mockingbird, appear in Heaven as members of the Dead Sisters' Book Club. They assist Doctor Strange, Dead Girl, and a small group of dead heroes on a mission to the lower depths of Hell.^[12]

[edit] Sins Past and Sins Remembered

The story arc "Sins Past" by J. Michael Straczynski in The Amazing Spider-Man #509-514 (August 2004 - January 2005) reveals that Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin's alter ego, fathered twins, a boy and a girl, with Gwen Stacy, to whom she gave birth while in France shortly before her death. She vowed she would raise them with Peter and refused to allow Norman access to them. Seeing her as a threat to his potential heirs, the Green Goblin killed Gwen Stacy. Norman Osborn then raised Gwen's two children, a boy and a girl named Gabriel and Sarah. Due to Norman's enhanced blood, the twins aged about 2 to 3 times faster than normal and became adults within the span of a few years. Osborn told them that Peter was really their father and was responsible for their mother's death.

The twins then attack Spider-Man, and he subsequently deduces their true identities. However, in seeking to confirm it, Peter goes to Gwen's grave and digs up a sample of her DNA to compare to the twins' DNA. Spider-Man tells Mary Jane about his initial encounter with Gabriel and Sarah, whereupon Mary Jane reveals that she knew about Norman's involvement with Gwen. By the story's end, Peter has told the twins the truth. Sarah believes Peter and concludes that he would never have dug up Gwen's grave to acquire a DNA sample if he thought there was even a chance that he was their father — but Gabriel does not. Gabriel takes the Green Goblin formula and briefly becomes the Grey Goblin. His glider explodes when it is shot by Sarah and he washes up on a beach with no memory of what happened.

"Sins Remembered," a follow-up story to "Sins Past" (published in The Spectacular Spider-Man (Vol. 2) issues #23-26, December 2004-March 2005 and written by Samm Barnes with art by Scot Eaton) spins directly out of the events of Amazing Spider-Man #509-514. Spider-Man locates Sarah in Paris, where Sarah has her brother (suffering from amnesia) restrained in her home. With the help of Spider-Man and Interpol, Sarah helps build a case against a criminal called Dupres in exchange for the government's help with her rapid-aging disease. However, during this time Gabriel escapes and has yet to be seen again. This story arc was later collected as a trade paperback in 2005 as The Spectacular Spider-Man Vol. 5: Sins Remembered (ISBN 0-7851-1628-1).

Straczynski later stated that he originally wanted to make Peter Parker the father of Gwen's kids but the editors vetoed the idea. They felt that it would age Peter Parker too much if he had two adult children. The whole creative and editorial team then decided that Norman Osborn would be the father.^[13] In an e-mail to popular comic book website Newsarama, Straczynski claimed that he regretted the version of Sins Past that went to press, and that he had hoped to "retcon" it out of continuity during the events of the recent One More Day storyline: "I wanted to retcon the Gwen twins out of continuity, which was something I always assumed I could do at the end of my run. I wasn't allowed to do this, and yes, it pissed me off."^[14] In the original plans for One More Day, the story would have ended with Gwen Stacy being resurrected by Mephisto's reality-warping spell along with Harry Osborn, but it was eventually decided to let her remain dead.

Other versions[link]

In the two-issue mini-series X-Universe which detailed what happened to the rest of the Marvel Universe during the Age of Apocalypse, the Green Goblin never killed Gwen Stacy; instead she became the bodyguard of Donald Blake, who, in this reality, had never become the Mighty Thor. Sometime later in the mainstream universe in X-Man #37, the Age of Apocalypse version of Gwen is pulled from her reality to the mainstream Earth's George Washington Bridge, much to Spider-Man's shock.

In the House of M storyline, in which the Scarlet Witch alters reality to make mutants the ruling class over humans, Gwen was never killed. Instead, she married Peter Parker, and the couple had a young son. She had become a scientist, a savvy businesswoman, and a peace activist – and had a decidedly hostile relationship with chemical weapon developer Norman Osborn. Mary Jane Watson, a popular actress in this reality, played Gwen Stacy in the film adaptation of Spider-Man's life story. Gwen and her father read textual accounts of their deaths in the main universe, though they believe this simply to be the morbid imaginings of Peter Parker, who is suffering from mental health issues.^[15]

Gwen Stacy first appeared in Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #53 as a new student of Midtown High. She had transferred from her previous school after the Torino Gang, a powerful New York mob, began harassing her in an attempt to keep her father, police captain George Stacy, from arresting members of their gang. However, the Torinos continued to harass Gwen at Midtown, prompting Spider-Man to help the police take down the gang.^[16] Like her father, Gwen believes Spider-Man is a hero. She subsequently began participating in a "Spider-Man Appreciation Society" designed to foster better public opinion of Spider-Man.^[17] Gwen is also attracted to Spider-Man's alter ego Peter Parker; although she openly flirted with him, Peter began dating a different girl, Sophia "Chat" Sanduval, which made Gwen very unhappy.^[18] Later, Gwen was brainwashed by Emma Frost into believing she was dating Peter. Gwen's brainwashing wore off (or was undone by Emma), but Gwen now believes her relationship with Peter ended when he chose Chat over her,^[19] causing her to treat Chat very coldly. She has since warmed to Chat, however.^[20] Recently, Gwen began a close friendship with Carter Torino who is the grandson of the head of the Torino Gang.^[17] Their relationship is complicated by the fact that Gwen's father is still trying to take down Carter's criminal family.^[21]

In the limited series, Marvel Zombies Return, Gwen of 'Earth Z' is still a college student out with her friends Mary Jane and Harry Osborn. The zombiefied Spider-Man travels to this earth and, despite his best intentions, turns the Sinister Six. They then slay and partly consume Gwen and her friends. To stop the spread of the virus, zombified Spider-Man obliterates the bodies.^[22]

Issue #1 of Spider-Man: Fairy Tales follows the fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood. Gwen Stacy has been previously killed by the wolf. Issue #4 is an adaption of Cinderella with Gwen as Princess Gwendolyn. She falls in love with the masked "Prince of Arachne," who is revealed to be Peter Parker, servant to Sir Osborn, but is killed during a fight between Osborn and Parker.

Gwen Stacy first appears at the end of Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #5.She is the new girl at school and quickly becomes close friends with Peter Parker. In Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #9, Peter and Gwen take their relationship to the next level by sharing a tender kiss, much to the dismay of Mary Jane. They date for a time, though Gwen breaks up with Peter when she learns that Mary Jane is the girl he truly loves. MJ, attempting to fix this, breaks up with Peter and reunites with Harry, but Peter cannot commit to Gwen and she is unwilling to accept him as a friend and not a boyfriend.

In the fourth issue of the comic book based on the Spider-Man Unlimited animated series, Spidey encounters a Counter-Earth version of Gwen Stacy. She helps him escape a hidden paradise known as "The Haven".

In this mini-series, Gwen Stacy again appears as the girlfriend of Peter Parker. Norman Osborn again kidnaps and attempts to kill her as a part of a plan to intimidate Peter. In a twist, the powerless Peter (with a limb crippled from a spider bite) manages to save Gwen from falling to her death.

Ultimate Gwen Stacy[link]

In the Ultimate Marvel continuity, Gwen Stacy first appears in Ultimate Spider-Man #14 (December 2001) as a teenage girl at Peter's high school. In this continuity, she has amber eyes, wears punk-style clothing, and is rebellious.^[23] In her first appearance she gives a rousing speech on 'super powers'; in the next issue she pulls a knife on Kong, a classmate who was bullying Peter. She is suspended from school temporarily. Gwen becomes friends with Peter, which leads Mary Jane Watson to believe that Gwen is vying for his affections.

Gwen is later taken in by Aunt May after her father, police captain John Stacy, is killed by a burglar wearing a Spider-Man costume. Her estranged mother does not want to take her in. Her living in the Parker house creates more tension between Peter and Mary Jane, and leads to their temporary break-up. Peter's relationship with Gwen is further complicated by her hatred of Spider-Man, whom she blames for her father's death. When Peter finds his friend Eddie Brock, Gwen confides in him about her feelings of isolation. Eddie then tries to kiss her and Gwen is shocked.

When she eventually learns that Peter is Spider-Man, the angry Gwen pulls her father's gun on him. Fortunately, he manages to convince her that he is not to blame for her father's death. Gwen runs off but returns, explaining that she is just really mad at everything at the moment and that she wouldn't have really shot him, a fact Peter already knew because his spider sense didn't go off despite Gwen's wrath. Gwen then agrees to keep his secret.

Gwen Stacy dies in Ultimate Spider-Man #62. Before her death, she made peace with Mary Jane and assured her that she never had romantic feelings for Peter, and that she considered him just as a friend. She is killed by Carnage, a vampiric monster made by the splicing of genetic material from Peter Parker, his father, and Dr. Curt Connors. Although Peter is not in the area when she dies, he still feels some responsibility for her death, as he allowed Dr. Connors to use his genetic material for experimentation. His guilt makes him decide to retire as Spider-Man for a while, but eventually he takes up his hero identity when his responsibility for the innocent becomes too great to overlook.

At the end of the arc, there was an issue that dealt with Gwen's death. Flash makes an off-color remark about Gwen's passing, and it infuriates MJ to the point where she physically attacks Flash. It is revealed that Flash had a crush on Gwen all along.

A girl seeming to be Gwen Stacy appears in Ultimate Spider-Man #98. Says Ultimate artist Mark Bagley, "Gwen’s return is integral to the Clone storyline and is basically a way to rock Peter's world...again."^[24] In this issue "Gwen" appears to have no memory of her "death" and believes she was in a hospital, from which she has escaped. In issue #100, after a raft of revelations, the stress of the situation enrages "Gwen" and she transforms into what appears to be Ultimate Carnage before leaping out the window.

In the next issue, "Richard Parker" claims that "Gwen" should not have met Peter at all, and was merely an experiment in stem cell research. This Gwen/Carnage fights with the Fantastic Four, Nick Fury, and the Spider-Slayer drones, until she is knocked unconscious by a beam of light, and taken into custody. In issue #113, Norman Osborn as the Green Goblin causes a massive prison break from the Triskelion. An inmate appearing to be 'Gwen' walks out amidst the chaos, disappearing in the shadows. It has been revealed that the creature posing as Gwen Stacy is still the original Ultimate Carnage that Spider-man faced earlier in its run. After "devouring" Gwen, this incarnation of Carnage has gone on to mimic her "essence" and now believes itself to be Gwen Stacy.^[25]

During "War of the Symbiotes", Gwen/Carnage's back story in the Triskelion is revealed. It is shown that Gwen has been taking some form of therapy with Tony Stark. However, when the Green Goblin broke out of the Triskelion, Gwen escaped and went to Peter Parker's house in a confused and terrified state, with Carnage's face on her body. During an exchange between Peter and Gwen, Eddie Brock attempts to attack Aunt May and retake his symbiote. In a rage, Spider-Man engages Venom on a nearby rooftop. During the fight, Gwen is shown to be able to use her symbiote to fight off Eddie but Eddie reabsorbs his symbiote along with the Carnage symbiote rendering Gwen Stacy an average girl. After SHIELD intervenes, SHIELD Director Danvers states that Gwen will remain in SHIELD custody. Peter and May argue for her to come back to live with them, with Tony Stark supporting the Parkers. In Ultimate Spider-Man #129, the Parkers are now helping to rebuild Gwen's life. Six months after "Ultimatum", in Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1, Gwen is living with the Parkers again and seems to be dating Peter. However, circumstances involving the Chameleon made Gwen realize she made a mistake dating Peter and she breaks up with him.