Gwenpool, Gwen Stacy mashup has Marvel fans rolling their eyes
Marvel made a surprising announcement last week, and like many recent headlines concerning the company, fans were not happy about it. On Tuesday, a post from the X account Discussing Film sparked furor on social media. The post states that “Gwen Stacy has been resurrected in Marvel Comics and will become Gwenpool.”
If those words don’t mean anything to you, here’s a little primer on the lore.
Gwen Stacy belongs to the Spider-Man universe and first appeared as Peter Parker’s second girlfriend (following Mary-Jane). Though Stacy canonically died several decades ago, the character has frequently been resurrected in various forms and has entered the multiverse.
Gwenpool’s history is a little more complicated. Her given name is Gwendolyn Poole, and she was first featured on the cover of a comic as a mashup of Gwen Stacy or (Spider-Gwen) and Deadpool. Later, she was given her own backstory that had nothing to do with Gwen Stacy or Deadpool so that Marvel could retain the rights to the character. (Sony owns the rights to Spider-Man and Fox used to own the rights to X-Men.)
Who is Gwenpool?
Gwenpool is a meta character, which in this case means she’s a Marvel fan from the “real world” who gets thrust into a comic book story. Using her extensive knowledge of the Marvel universe, Gwenpool becomes a mercenary, thinking her actions have no consequences in this fictional world.
Due to her initial conception, some fans still believe that Gwenpool is simply a Gwen Stacy “variant.” Fans of Gwenpool often push back against this assumption, attempting to illustrate the significance and originality of their favorite character. These fans want Marvel to respect the character, while many Spider-Man fans are tired of Gwen Stacy constantly coming back to life. Hence, the backlash.
Anti-Gwenpool fans found the Gweenpool/Gwen Stacy crossover amusing. Some X users laughed at the fact that Gwenpool fans have spent years arguing that Gwenpool is not a variant of Gwen Stacy, only for this new comic to upend all their hard work.
Gwenpool discourse
Fans of Gwenpool found the news disheartening, to say the least. “Being a gwenpool fan is nothing but pain,” one X user wrote. “Just end my suffering,” wrote another. “We'll never beat the ‘gwenpool is gwen stacy’ comments now,” a different fan noted. Others expressed how insulting this news felt as a fan of Gwenpool.
Even Marvel fans who don’t stan Gwenpool weren’t happy about this new comic book canon. “being a fan of Spider-Man is like being a fan of getting kicked in the teeth,” one fan wrote, noting how the character and his pals are always “disrespected” by Marvel. Others found the disrespect sexist in nature, with one suggesting a pattern of a “popular independent female character playing second fiddle to Spider-man and his lore.”
Some fans appear to be inured to this kind of disappointment. One user on the r/Spiderman subreddit described the company’s current strategy like this: “Marvel status quo—screw story, screw consistency, screw making sense, up the marketing gimmicks to 100.”
However, a significant part of the story was not included in the viral Discussing Film post. The resurrected Gwen Stacy (aka “Dark Gwen”) will take on the Gwenpool moniker when she returns, but she will not replace the original Gwenpool. In fact, both characters will exist in this universe, much to Gwen Poole’s dismay.
As one fan noted, the concept has potential “The idea is to settle the confusion between the two amongst casuals,” they wrote.
Still, even with this added context, the damage had been done. Fans remained insulted, exasperated, and disappointed in Marvel for creating stories that few people are excited about. As one fan wrote on Reddit, “Who asked for this?”
These complaints have become more and more common among Marvel fans. For the last several years, fans have consistently been annoyed with the company for their frequent “retconning” (meaning changing canon after the fact), and stunt casting. As several fans noted, their number one goal seems to be making money rather than creating interesting narratives.
What Marvel has been successful at is making fans care deeply about these characters and their stories. Fans who love Gwenpool, Gwen Stacy, or Spider-Man feel disrespected by how the company seems to rewrite these characters with so little thought or care. Faith, it seems, is at an all-time low. One fan on X summed up the sentiment perfectly: “sell da company.”
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