Why is Gwen Stacy a popular character?

Follow the leader really.

And my point is, taking the leader off the board could be a pretty big game changer.

Besides, Stone convinced me that Gwen is vastly more interesting alive. Like most people who aren't dictators or serial killers, really.

edited 5th Feb '16 4:16:32 PM by HamburgerTime

Interestingly, Gwen was originally a much different character. She even looked different, angular, cool, and sophisticated. It was clear Stan Lee was putting them together, but fans apparently went for the long talked about but never seen Mary Jane as soon as they actually got to see her (Aunt May had been trying to get Peter to go out with her friend Mrs. Watson's niece for years).Gwen looked more like a sterotypical femme fatale, at least as drawn by John Romita, and MJ seemed more bouncy, fun, and approachable. They ultimately softned Gwen's personality considerably, made her look significantly more like a blonde MJ, and in turn gave MJ an ugly perm and a flaky personality. Stan really wanted Pete to be with Gwen, and he wanted fans to want it too.

In regards to Emma Stone's portrayal, I thought it would have been an interesting twist to have her play MJ too, with her usually signature red hair and different mannerisms/body language. That may be because, with red hair and her usual public persona, she's pretty much a ringer for what I always thought MJ would be like in real life.

While I liked Stone's performance, I feel like her version of Gwen didn't really have much to her other than being Peter's girlfriend and her feelings regarding her dad's death weren't given the attention they deserved. There is a lot to be said about Raimi MJ, but we at least knew more about her than ASM Gwen.

@Zarius: Gotta disagree with you there, Gwen has far more depth in her own book than in Web Warriors.

Especially since she's not written as Peter.

Speaking of Web Warriors, they need a better colorist. They keep forgetting that Spider-Man India is, you know, Indian.

It's ending in like two more issues.

Yeah, i know. I wasn't talking about that though.

No more shilling of Gwen in this series. :V

edited 11th Aug '16 7:31:30 PM by Mizerous

...in what way is this not a Complaining Thread?

Gwen's popular because people like her. What more answer does there need to be?

...the fact that I'm not complaining about the character? I genuinely wanted to know why this character has seen such success. The thread got necro'd and it was getting off-topic anyway.

edited 11th Aug '16 5:17:27 PM by Soble

"People like her" does not add any depth to the conversation, nor does it answer the question, WHY do people like Gwen when she is objectively bland and uninteresting outside of her death or affair with Norman Osborn?

edited 12th Aug '16 10:23:16 AM by Zarius

Oh.

Don't bring up the affair.

As for why people like her, it may not be so much that people like her (some do) so much as the writers want people to like her due to an apparent backlash against Mary Jane.

I imagine there's a massive case of What Could Have Been. Gwen was the girl Peter would have been with if the writers back then weren't so hell bent on not getting him married (and we've seen how far some will go to enforce that despite being different writers), and there are some who feel she could have been more if she wasn't summarily killed off. There was still room for development (her relationship with Peter, her feelings towards Spider Man, etc).

See, that's exactly what I mean by "Complaining Thread". "Why do people like X?" is a question that, in asking it, asserts that the character shouldn't be liked. That liking the character is an abnormal opinion that warrants investigation.

It's an attempt to start a debate on the relative shittiness of a character with a question that communicates disliking that character as the appropriate default reaction.

edited 12th Aug '16 10:52:15 AM by TobiasDrake

"...WHY do people like Gwen when she is objectively bland and uninteresting outside of her death or affair with Norman Osborn?"

Well, we don't know that she's objectively bland. How precisely can a character be "objectively" bland? You're telling me that regardless of who writes her, this character is by her essential nature somehow inherently bland? Nothing ever can be done about it?

As to why she's popular...you're likely going to get as many answers to that as people to whom you ask the question. She's actually been much more popular since she died than she was in life (her first life, anyhow). Mary Jane was so popular when she was introduced in person that John Romita actually started making Gwen look more like MJ (Gwen pre-MJ was a very different character, much more cool and aloof, what read as "sophisticated and sexy" back in the late 60's, rather than "bouncy and fun" like MJ). If Gwen is more popular now, it's likely something to do with whatever the hell it is there doing with her now (which I don't know, because I don't read 'em).

Her recent popularity came from the Amazing Spider films and Spider Gwen.

edited 12th Aug '16 2:40:49 PM by Mizerous

The Spectacular Spider Man probably helped a little as well.

When alive she wasn't that popular (just a kinda generic run-of-the-mill nice girl/love interest, ala Jane Foster, Betty from Hulk...), but it's her death that made her legacy. Many writers who didn't like the death kinda began to "saintify" her and put Mary Jane behind her, as to suggest Peter chose the "wrong" woman.

I kinda like her old character tbh. A love interest, yeah, but I'm all for girly characters and that 60s fashion. Plus, she was a bio-chemist and was interested in talking about the politics of the era, so she wasn't dumb...

I think Spider-Gwen is mostly popular due to the new movies and Marvel trying to capitalize off it. It doesn't help that she's got a really nice design, too. But at least for me, her character really only works in theory. The comics I've read of her left me really cold (and the MJ they have there is just...).

I never got the MJ hate tbh. I could see the reasons why somebody may not be fond of her in the movies (however I could comment that the movies showcase realistically her abuse and give her a character beyond just being the "girlfriend" ala Gwen in the new films is), but what hate is there to give her in the comics? She's amazingly complex and entertaining there. Is this some old sexist idea that marriage "slows you down" or something?

edited 6th Nov '16 5:47:50 AM by Redmane

It's not that I dislike her or think "ugh, she's so awful, why would anyone like her?"

But when a character goes from "dead" to "alive" to "star of their own spin-off and showing up all over the place" it raises my eyebrow some. It'd be like if Jonah Jameson suddenly gained powers, had his own book, showed up as Aunt May's love interest in a new film, and had a strong supporting role in Avengers Infinity War.

Granted, he's been in the comics longer than Gwen Stacy has I think, and I'd still be a little bewildered that he suddenly took off. But at least he's a mainstay of Spidey-lore. Gwen wasn't until recently. Her character has seen a massive resurgence that speaks volumes of how well she's been received and/or written.

Anyway, I think the initial question of this thread has been answered several times over. Thank you.

Yep a lot of Gwen's recent popularity can be attributed to Emma Stone and her universally praised performance in the Amazing Spider-Man films as Deborah Whitman.

From what I've read about Quesada's reasoning behind "One More Day", something like that.

The Spectacular Spider Man also had a really popular and much-beloved Gwen Stacy. She kinda served as the precursor to Emma Stone's version.

edited 7th Nov '16 8:09:00 AM by TobiasDrake

And according to Wiesman, Peter would have still wound up with MJ if that show had went the way he wanted and he got to graduate them all and put them through adult life, so I wonder what he would have done to ensure Peter and Gwen didn't have a happy ending. He also said he would never have killed her off in that show.

Really wish Marvel had given him a book to write with that universe, I imagine rights issues had something to do with that not happening too.