Sandbox / Spider Verse Gwen Stacy

Gwen Stacy

Gwen Stacy / Spider-Woman

"Above all, no matter how many times you get hit, can you get back up?"

Homeworld: Earth-65B

Voiced By: Hailee Steinfeld ^{Foreign VAs} Camélia Jordana (European French, Into the Spider-Verse), Shirine Boutella (European French, Acress the Spider-Verse), Alondra Hidalgo (Latin American Spanish), Leonie Dubuc (German), Happy Jankell (Swedish), Aoi Yūki (Japanese)

Appearances: Into the Spider-Verse | Across the Spider-Verse

"And I don't do friends anymore... Just to avoid distractions..."

A teenaged girl who was bitten by a radioactive spider and has been fighting crime as Spider-Woman for two years. The daughter of a police captain, she is a successful superhero in her own right, but is nonetheless haunted by her failure to save the life of her best friend, Peter Parker.

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• Action Girl: She's a teenage girl who has had her Spider powers for two years at the time of the first film, and has shown great proficiency with her abilities, particular with her fight against Renaissance Vulture in Across.
• Adaptational Badass: Not that comic book Spider-Gwen wasn't badass given that she's a superhero but she was a case of Unskilled, but Strong, being notably inexperienced and overly reliant on the physical advantages given to her by her powers, which meant she often struggled against similarly empowered individuals with greater training and was near helpless when depowered. By contrast Earth-65B Gwen has been Spider-Woman for over 2 years, and regularly shows she's more than capable of holding her own amongst and against other superpowered individuals. She would also still be physically athletic even without her powers as a trained ballet dancer.^note Ballet is among the most physically demanding sports out there
• Adaptational Intelligence: The original comic book Spider-Gwen notably lacked Peter's scientific brilliance and tech savviness, with her spider equipment being sourced from third parties, whereas here it's implied that she builds and maintains her web shooters and suit herself. Her infiltrating Miles' prestigious school as a student and Alchemax as a researcher further implies that Earth-65B Gwen's intellect is more in line with Peter's.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: Unlike in the comics where she strictly saw Peter as a platonic friend and was unaware of his feelings for her, and his jealousy when she developed feelings for Harry Osborn, Across implies that they were each other's date for the school dance where he became the Lizard and died, but whether they were actually dating or not is unclear.
• Affectionate Nickname: Hobie refers to her as "Gwendy" when talking to her. This is a Mythology Gag, as the original Earth-616 Gwen was called Gwendy by her friends and Peter, while they were dating.
• Age Lift: In the comics, she's in college but mentions she's fifteen months older than Miles in Into. Since Across establishes he's now 15, that means she was likely 15/16 in the first film. This also means she was either 13 or 14 when she first got her powers since she mentions being Spider-Woman for two years, with her flashback in the second film implying the latter based on her physical appearance.
• The Aloner: She admits that she distances herself from making friends after she failed to save her universe's version of Peter Parker, who was her best friend. She makes an exception for Miles just before she returns to her universe. Unfortunately, this leaves her feeling more isolated and alone in Across the Spider-Verse, which builds into her primary conflict between choosing Miles or the sense of community she's found in the Spider-Society.

• Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: The original comic book Earth-616 Gwen Stacy was little more than a Disposable Woman whose death was used to signify the end of The Silver Age of Comic Books, solidify the Green Goblin as Spider-Man's Arch-Enemy, act as a source of angst for Peter, and make way for Mary Jane Watson, and it's further established by the Spider-Verse films that the vast majority Gwen Stacys in the multiverse share this fate. Earth-65B Gwen by contrast is a crimefighting, dimension hopping superhero whose development and story focus is second only to Miles.
• Ambiguous Gender Identity: Across the Spider-Verse has many subtle hints associating Gwen with transgender pride. Standouts include a trans flag in her room, a trans pride flag on her father's jacket, and a frame of her colored in the exact tones of the trans flag (bright blue, pastel pink, and white)^note This could be an unintentional reference, as this is largely the same as Gwen's existing color scheme. The way in which she struggles with talking to her father about her identity as a superhero is also highly reminiscent of a transgender teenager struggling to talk to a parent about their gender identity. It's unclear whether this is meant to be an indication that she herself is transgender, or if she's simply an ally and the association is allegorical.
• Ambiguously Christian: In the opening of Across the Spider-Verse showing her life before her Peter became the Lizard, we can see her, her Peter, and her family saying grace before a meal. Her father explicitly says that he's Irish, so they are likely Irish Catholic.
• Antagonistic Offspring: An interesting and one-sided case where Gwen's father unknowingly considers her this. After Captain Stacy incorrectly identifies her alter ego as Peter's murderer, Spider-Woman becomes the former's Arch-Enemy and the elder Stacy makes it his mission to arrest her even as she helps to save the city. This one-sided feud between them ends after Gwen reveals her identity, which is followed by her leaving her dimension altogether, with the two reconciling when she eventually returns.
• The Atoner:
  • Like the other Spideys, she's coping with the guilt that her universe's version of Peter Parker died. She can't even bring herself to say his name among the other Spideys when she realizes most of them are alternate Peters.
  • When Gwen realizes that canon events CAN be averted without destroying a universe she gathers up other Spiders to find Miles and save him.
• Atrocious Alias:
  • When Miles asks for her name, she almost replies with "Gwen", but awkwardly tries to change it to Wanda. Miles takes her name as Gwanda. Ultimately, the name sticks and becomes what Miles and Gwen used to refer to herself when meeting Miles' parents.
  • Defied with her codename. While her comic cover has Spider-Gwen as the title, she calls herself Spider-Woman, and she is referred to as Spider-Woman in her home universe as well.
• Badass Adorable: Just like Miles himself, she's quite cute, and kicks ass with her Spider powers.
• Big Damn Heroes: As the inexperienced Miles and out-of-practice Peter B. are having trouble facing Doc Ock, Gwen comes to their aid with a Dynamic Entry that sees her kick Ock in the face.
• Birds of a Feather: With Miles. Both are teenaged superheroes who (initially) hide their alter ego from their parents, have suffered the loss of a loved one with a villainous alter ego (Peter for Gwen, Aaron for Miles) after gaining their powers, and have a father in law enforcement. Both also have (or had in Gwen's case until she revealed her secret identity) a very similar sounding fake voice that they use to interact with said father while in their superhero alter ego.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • She loves her father George Stacy and respects what he tries to stand for as a police officer in spite of his opposition to her alter ego, but after being forced to reveal her identity to him and having him shut down her desperate attempts to reason with him, as well as him instinctively flinching back and raising his gun when she tried to reach out, their relationship is shattered. George later manages to redeem himself when they finally reunite and she learns that he ultimately chose to stand by her after all, after being given time to process.
  • She's awestruck by Jessica Drew upon meeting her, and latches onto the Spider-Woman as a mentor and possibly even parental figure after running away from home, especially since Jessica was the one that reached out and offered her a support network in the form of the Spider-Society during her lowest moment when she felt completely alone and isolated. Their relationship cooled significantly in the following months however, as Gwen's friendship with Miles conflicted with the Spider-Society's mission statement, with Jessica acting increasingly stern and cold toward Gwen, eventually culminating with her allowing Miguel to exile Gwen back to her home dimension, betraying Gwen's trust in her and breaking the bond between them.
• Bully Hunter: She protected her universe's Peter Parker from bullies back when he was still alive and tried to protect Miles from Miguel's wrath several times in Across the Spider-Verse.
• Childish Tooth Gap: She has a small but noticeable gap between her two front teeth, which emphasizes her youth and teenage sensibility.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Much the same way Miles is a bit prickly about her relationship with various "cool" alternate universe Spider-Men, Gwen pouts and starts dragging him away with webbing when he starts admiring Spider-Byte a bit too much for her liking.
• Color Motif: Cyan and violet show up a lot in some of her scenes, harkening to the dominant colors of her comic series.
• Comically Missing the Point: As Gwen visits Miles in his childhood room, she notes that he has a toy that she also had as a child, though she fails to understand why he would keep it in its original packaging (which is due to him wanting to keep it preserved instead of playing with it) and rips it out of box. Not a characterization trope.
• Conflicting Loyalties: In Across the Spider-Verse Gwen is caught between her duties as a member of the Spider-Society, who are also her only support network after running away from her home dimension, and her friendship with Miles, who the Spider-Society has holds some animosity for due to him being regarded as an anomaly.
• Costume Evolution: Between the first and second films, she stops wearing ballet shoes and switches to a pair of Converse sneakers that she possibly took from Hobie. Her costume in Across the Spider-Verse also has the pink web pattern originally on the underside of her arms shifted down to cover her forearms (resembling fingerless gloves), the black tips of her front marking are angled inwardly, and the back's white markings are streamlined to look like a spider's fangs.
• Dance Battler: Her shoes resemble ballet slippers, and in the trailers, she's introduced landing on a tree branch en pointe. Her voice actress even described Gwen's approach to webslinging as "the grace of a ballerina and the attitude of a rockstar", and she asks Miles if he can fight with the grace of a "trained dancer".
• Deadpan Snarker: Every member of the Spider-Gang gets funny lines, but Gwen's are particularly deadpan.
  Gwen: [laughs at a bad joke Miles made in class] I'm sorry, it was just so quiet.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Says in her intro that she quit doing the "friends" thing when she got her best friend Peter killed after fighting him as her universe's Lizard, but she warms up to Miles over the course of the movie. The last shot of her after getting back to her Earth is her looking fondly at a selfie she and Miles took.
• Delinquent Hair:She starts out with normal feminine hair, but is forced to shave the right side after Miles suffers Power Incontinence and can't remove his hand from her hair. She's kept this part of her hairstyle as such ever since to remember him by. After the Time Skip in Across the Spider-Verse the non-shaved side of her hair is now shoulder-length and the ends are dyed pink.
• Deuteragonist: While having a major role in the first film, Spider-Gwen is ultimately just one of the Spider-people variants that got dragged into Miles' universe. In the second film, she's effectively the second lead alongside Miles. The movie in fact opens with how she's recruited into the Spider-Society, and she's the person who goes through the most Character Development throughout the story, culminating in her setting up her own band of Spider-people to rescue Miles and assist him in saving his father from his supposedly inevitable fate.
• Dysfunctional Family: It's hard to get more dysfunctional than having your own father obsessively working to hunt down your (unbeknownst to him) alter ego, who he mistakenly believes murdered your best friend in cold blood. As a result there's a constant tension whenever Gwen interacts with her father, with them struggling to so much as talk to each other about how their day went, and constantly getting into heated arguments surrounding the topic of Peter's death and Spider-Woman. Despite this both Gwen and her father genuinely love and care for each other, and clearly want to bridge the gap between them, they just don't understand how to. After George Stacy finds out Gwen's secret identity and slowly comes to terms with it they finally manage to air everything out between them, taking the first step toward healing the rift between them.
• Expository Hairstyle Change:
  • When Gwen first appears, her hair is long on both sides, but after she's forced to cut her hair when Miles's hand got stuck, she deals with the hand-shaped short patch by shaving that side of her head into an undercut.
  • In Across the Spider-Verse, Gwen still has her undercut, but she's grown out the rest of her hair and has dyed the ends pink, showing how much time has passed since she last went to Miles' dimension and how she's come to embrace her new look despite initially being angry at Miles over it.
• Foil: To Miles himself. Both are motivated to become superheroes because of the deaths of Peter Parker from their own dimensions. Both have trouble making friends, with Miles feeling that he doesn't belong in the elite society of his school, and Gwen chooses to stay friendless because of her guilt at failing to protect her best friend. Both also have fathers who worked in law enforcement. The difference is that Gwen is already an experienced superheroine who already came to terms with the baggage that comes with it, while Miles has just received his powers and is having trouble adjusting to his new life. Their costumes are also similar yet contrast each other, with Gwen's costume being white and black with pink outlines and ballet slippers, while Miles's final costume being black with red outlines and Air Jordans.
• Forgetful Jones: Has a habit of leaving her belongings behind in the various universes she visits, whether it be a jacket or even her toothbrush.
• Friendless Background: By choice. Her best friend — the Peter Parker of her reality — died after transforming into the Lizard and Gwen feels guilty for being unable to save his life. As a result, she doesn't keep friends out of fear of repeating that incident. She manages to make friends with the other Spiders, in particular Miles, and her final scene when returned home has her fondly viewing photos taken of them on her phone. She then manages to somehow contact Miles in his dimension in the final scene of the film before the credits.
• Friendly Enemy: She and Peter B. are this to Miles when he is being chased by the Spider-Society. While she is technically opposed to him returning to his universe to disrupt a Canon Event, she can't bring herself to actually attack him like Miguel and the other members do, restricting herself to briefly snagging him with a webline (which can be interpreted as an attempt to save him from falling as much as an attempt to catch him) and boosting Jessica towards him on the Nueva York highway.
• Friendship Denial: While she is nice toward Hobie and they mutually care for each other, she pointedly tells Miles that he is the only friend she has made since Peter's death and says her relationship with Hobie is "different" from theirs.
• The Gadfly: She wastes no time taking all the wind out of Miguel's attempts to come across as dark and mysterious upon meeting her, with her rapid-fire quips quickly breaking down all his attempts at gravitas.
  Miguel: (infuriated) You're not funny!
  Gwen: Eh, I dunno.
• Genre Motif: Rock, as fitting her background as a drummer.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Just like the comics, Gwen has blonde hair and is a hero. And while somewhat distant, she's not mean or a jerk.
• Handshake Substitute: Shares a fist bump with Miles as they team up against Doc Ock in the first film. Not a character trope.
• He Is Not My Boyfriend: Has this reaction to Pavitr mistaking her and Miles for a couple when they arrive in Mumbattan, which predictably Pavitr does not find the slightest bit convincing, not helped by him interpreting her irritation at Miles having secretly followed her (and thereby putting her in a tough spot) as Belligerent Sexual Tension.
• Heroic Build: She has spider powers, of course, and has broad shoulders and toned arm muscles.
• Heroism Motive Speech: Gives an impassioned one to her father months after coming clean and revealing her secret identity.
  Gwen: You're a good cop, Dad. You know you put on that badge because you know that if you don't, someone who shouldn't will. But... you have to understand: (Holds up her mask) this mask is my badge! And I'm trying to be good too. I was trying so hard to wear this thing the way you would want... and I didn't! I didn't! I can do all of these things, but I can't help the people I love the most and they can only know half of who I am, so I- I'm completely on my own! And now, I don't- I don't even know what the right thing is anymore. I don't know what I'm supposed to do, but I know... I can't lose one more friend.
• Her Own Worst Enemy: As a result of her wanting to close herself off from others after Peter's death, Gwen often lies about her true feelings or activities, including not revealing her identity to her father until he has her at gunpoint, telling Jessica that she is on top of keeping tabs on Spot, or insisting that she came to Miles's dimension just to see him when reuniting with the latter. Her lies are destructive to her relationships, and the consequences include her abandoning being with her father, being stripped of her role in the Spider-Society, and Miles feeling betrayed by and fleeing from her.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: As compared to Old Peter who's gruff, jaded, and clueless. Gwen keeps her mind focused on the task, adapts and assimilates into the alternate reality, and actually tries to honestly teach and help Miles with useful tips.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die:
  • Or rather, Gwen Stacy let Peter Parker die. Her universe's Peter Parker was her best friend who, unbeknownst to her, had developed an envy of her power that led him to developing the Lizard Serum that transformed him into The Lizard, which lead to a battle between the two that resulted in Peter's death, with Gwen only realizing his identity as he lay mortally wounded. Gwen blames herself for being unable to save him and has remained haunted by it since.
  • In Across, Gwen lampshades this trope to Miles as her time spent in the Spider-Society led to her interacting with numerous Peter Parkers that lost their own Gwen Stacys and it impacted her own feelings for him since the "canon" in most universes requires that Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy as a couple don't last long, and she didn't want to risk the chance that even a multiversal version could end up the same way.
• Implied Love Interest: Miles has a crush on her and mistakes her initial interest in him as romantic. It turns out her Spider-Sense told her to follow him, but there are still some scenes particularly their goodbye that imply a possible romance. ATSV makes this a little more explicit, with the two sharing a few more overtly romantic moments.
• Innocently Insensitive: When the Spider-Gang sees that Kingpin, who murdered the native Spider-Man of Earth-1610B, is holding a Spider-Man themed Gala in his honor and even giving a speech about how "close" he and Spider-Man were Gwen disgustedly calls Kingpin a pig... which Spider-Ham, who is right next to her, takes offense to.
• In the Hood: Her superhero costume has one in addition to the full-face mask.
• Jumped at the Call: Gwen is never shown hesitating using her powers for what is right, notably she lacks an Uncle Ben equivalent that had to die in order to push her to become a superhero, with the closest tragedy (Peter's death) taking place well after she had already begun her crime fighting. Even after her friendship with Miles is strained from her lying, she wastes no time assembling a team to rescue him.
• Keeping Secrets Sucks: Much of Gwen's angst comes from the vicious cycle of feeling completely isolated and alone in her experiences but feeling the need to avoid confiding in others and keep them in the dark out of fear of hurting or losing them (or being hurt herself), thereby making herself feel even more isolated.
  Gwen: I can do all of these things, but I can't help the people I love the most and they can only know half of who I am, so I- I'm completely on my own!
  • On the front native to her home dimension Gwen's father's vendetta against her alter ego, as George believes that Spider-Woman murdered Peter Parker in cold blood, has left a gulf between the two of them that she's unable to close. The two share a genuinely loving father-daughter relationship that leaves her desperately wanting him to understand and accept both sides of her, but Gwen is terrified that his hatred of Spider-Woman will cause him to reject his daughter as well if he's able to connect her two identities, and she's incapable of explaining her side of the story of Peter's death without revealing herself.
  • The trauma of watching her best friend die in her arms due to battling his monstrous alter ego is itself something she can't possibly explain or unburden herself to others of her home dimension without exposing her identity, leaving her to simply bury her feelings and push others away out of a desire to avoid being hurt again.
  • In Across Gwen desperately wants to reconnect with Miles, as he is one of the few people with whom she can confide and relate to when it comes to the stresses of being a Spider-Person, but ironically has to also struggle with keeping him in the dark regarding the Spider-Society and his place in Miguel's theories on the nature of the multiverse, which demands that she keep him at arm's length and can't let him actually be part of her life.
• Lonely Among People: Aside from actively distancing herself from others due to the lingering grief and trauma of her Peter's death Gwen also feels isolated from others, even those she deeply cares about, due to the nature of her double life meaning that nobody (except for alternate Spiders) can truly know and relate to her.
• The Mourning After: The death of the Peter in her universe caused her to withdraw from wanting to make friends and largely kept her from opening herself up to others, with the exception of Miles.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Thus far Gwen has the distinction of being the only one to make use of her Spider-Sense precognition beyond merely being a danger sense and Spider-Person identifier:
  • In Into the Spiderverse Gwen arrives to Miles' universe before any of the other Spiders and lacking any direction, follows the vague guidance of her Spider-Sense to infiltrate Vision Academy before Miles even attends.
  • In Across the Spiderverse as she's waiting for Miles to arrive back to his apartment, her Spider-Sense flares to help her realize that he was accidentally sent to the wrong dimension.
• Never Be Hurt Again: After she lost her universe's Peter Parker, Gwen avoids getting attached to anyone to prevent feeling loss again.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Miles and Gwen aren't quite dating as of yet, but neither Rio nor Jefferson particularly approve of how close she is with their son for a multitude of reasons that mostly stem from being unfamiliar with her. Complaining that she doesn't speak Spanish, looks to be older than Miles, addresses them by their first names and seems to be sneaking in to visit Miles behind their back. Jefferson in particular is prone to uncharitably speculating that Gwen associates with questionable company, going so far as to question whether her father sells drugs during a particularly heated moment.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: She and Hobie are the ones who captured the live-action Prowler seen amongst the villainous anomalies in the Spider-Society, though the two of them bicker over who pulled the most weight on the mission. They've also completed a couple dozen similar missions capturing various displaced villains, to Miles' envy.
• Only Sane Woman: The members of the Spider-Gang tend to have their various quirks and idiosyncrasies from being a talking cartoon pig to having a mid-life crisis. Although Gwen is still working through the grief over the loss of her Peter, she has the strength of character to be able to keep the group focused and working together.
• Parental Abandonment: Gwen's mother seems to be out of the picture, as she never appears or is mentioned in either movie.
• Proper Tights with a Skirt: Subverted; she appears to wear tights under her school uniform, but a closer look shows that it's actually the lower half of her Spiderwoman costume. Her schoolgirl persona is a cover for the fact that she's actually a superhero from an alternate universe.
• Renaissance Woman: She has an impressively widespread list of interests and experiences, several of which are particularly time consuming and intensive. Being a rock band drummer, a trained ballet dancer, having enough scientific and mechanical expertise to build and maintain her own spider equipment as well as pass herself off as a researcher at Alchemax, and of course moonlighting as an experienced crimefighting superhero.
• The Runaway: Runs away after revealing her secret identity to her father and it doing little to change his mind about Spider-Woman murdering Peter.
• Secret Identity Vocal Shift: As Spider-Woman, she uses a deeper voice when talking to her father George Stacy so the latter won't figure out her true identity.
• Sad Clown: It's less apparent than Peter B., but she shares the stereotypical Spider habit of masking stress, anxiety and trauma with quips and snark. She's also the Spider person who's dealing with possibly the most grief currently, feeling personally responsible for the death of her friend, being hunted as a fugitive by her own father and being completely isolated from any support networks in her home dimension.
• She-Fu:
  • Her acrobatics are more graceful than Peter or Miles, featuring elegant, dance-like movements. Justified, in that she directly asks Miles if he can "swing and flip with the grace of a trained dancer"?
  • Amusingly, Gwen's the only one of the Spider-Gang who actually has anything resembling a controlled entry into Miles's universe. Instead of bouncing around like a pinball and slamming into a building mounted billboard, Gwen catches and swings around a streetlight before allowing herself to be flung and skid to a stop on top of a building.
• Ship Tease: She and Miles get plenty inspired in part by them having a relationship in the comics during and after the Spider-Verse crossover. Dialled up even further in the sequel. Not a character trope.
• Super-Speed: Showcased most clearly during the helicopter crash scene in Across the Spider-Verse, in the time it takes for the police helicopter (which has already crashed through the roof of the Guggenheim) to fall just a few stories Gwen manages to set up an intricate web underneath the helicopter, pull the pilots out of the still falling chopper and vault off the chopper itself onto a higher vantage point in order to slow it down by attaching web lines onto the back of it and pulling, dodging underneath the still spinning rotor blades in order to do so.
• Super-Strength: Showcases the most notable and impressive example among the Spider-Person's thus far, when she and Hobie manage to temporarily catch and stall half of Mumbattan's Alchemax mid collapse, supporting thousands of tons with just a few weblines braced against their own bodies, and the webbing gave out first before they did.
• Stepford Smiler: While her generally upbeat and focused attitude when interacting with other Spiders can give the impression that she's got everything put together, especially when compared to Peter B.'s disastrously depressive midlife crisis in Into the Spider-Verse, it becomes clear upon actually seeing her own daily life in her home universe during Across that she's merely better at compartmentalizing and hiding her issues rather than having dealt with them. As Gwen is actually one of the more depressed, bitter and lonely Spider variants out there, it's just less obvious on the surface.
• Straight to the Pointe: Her superhero costume includes ballerina slippers. Naturally, she's sometimes seen doing pointe, notably when landing on a tree branch in her first costumed appearance. And the closing credits feature a whole ballet of Spider-Gwens. Misuse. Trope is about fictional dancers being able to dance en pointe better than real life ballerinas.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Miguel. From the start, Miguel is reluctant toward the idea of recruiting Gwen into the Spider-Society due to her ties with Miles, only doing so due to Jessica's prodding and her destroyed homelife managing to resonate with him. Even after working alongside them for months Gwen's position within the Spider-Society remains tenuous, with the very real threat of Miguel expelling her from the organization if she can't toe the line being held over her head. For her part Gwen is one of the most vocal Spiders when it comes to challenging Miguel's authority, only behind Hobie and right alongside Peter B., being willing to both take the piss out of his overly serious demeanor and outright argue with him over his approach to dealing with Miles. Ultimately despite Gwen supporting his beliefs about Canon Events and trying to apprehend Miles, Miguel strips her of her membership within the Spider-Society, attributing Gwen's friendship with Miles as the "problem" upon failing to stop Miles from leaving Earth-928.
• They Just Dont Get It: How she views her father's perspective on Spider-Woman, as although the two fight for the same cause of protecting and serving civilians, she is doubtful that he would be able to make that connection. Her belief is validated by Captain Stacy's reaction to learning her Secret Identity, and her lack of faith extends to the loved ones of other variants, pointedly telling Miles not to tell his parents about his dual identity.
• To Be Lawful or Good: The core of her conflict with both her father and the Spider-Society is the opposing pressure to either fall in line and act within the guidelines established by various systems, or to do what she personally feels is right.
  • George Stacy, as a police officer, is naturally inclined towards doing the right thing "by the book", and even before Earth-65B Peter's death was opposed to Spider-Woman's activities as an extralegal vigilante which is a big reason why Gwen kept that part of her life a secret from him.
    George: Gwen, I always taught you to do it by the book.
    Gwen: Yeah and how did that work out?
  • The Spider-Society, and specifically Jessica and Miguel in particular, likewise pressure her to operate strictly according to the rules and standards of their "Canon Event" model, with her continued membership being contingent on her ability to toe the line they set for her. Gwen has many misgivings about this, especially when it puts her in conflict with her close friend Miles, but is forced to put them aside if she wants to avoid being sent back to her home dimension.
    Jessica: I know he's your friend but it's the only way.
    Gwen: But my gut says—
    Jessica: Then use your head!
• Troubled Teen: Dealing with the fact that her own father is hunting down her alter ego under the mistaken belief that she murdered her best friend, who had mutated into a giant lizard monster that only turned back into a human just in time to die in her arms, has understandably caused Gwen to become somewhat sullen and withdrawn.
• True Companions:
  • With the Peter of her timeline. She used to protect him from bullies and often have him at her home, with Peter's death leaving a void in her life.
  • With Miles. When they reunite, she admits they have a special connection unlike that of the other variants. Even after Miles feels betrayed by her and accidentally gets sent to the wrong universe (Earth-42), Gwen still comes to his aid.
• Two First Names: Both "Gwen" and "Stacy" are used as first names.
• Underestimating Badassery: Like Miles, she also initially dismisses the threat of Spot, calling him a Villain of the Week.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: At some point after Gwen developed superpowers, Peter became envious of her strength and started taking a serum to boost his own power to emulate her, culminating in his transformation into the Lizard and his eventual death.
• Used to Be More Social: She used to have friends and was the drummer in a band, but her guilt over the death of her world's Peter Parker led her to distance herself from other people.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Delivers one to the Spider-Society as Miguel sends her back to her home dimension for failing to capture Miles and being "a liability" due to her friendship with the latter. Not a character trope.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Zigzagged. At the beginning of ATSV, her father discovers her identity and, believing her responsible for (their) Peter's death, he tries to arrest her and she is forced to flee with the Spider-Society. She expresses a desire to reconcile with her father but believes it impossible as he has labelled her a murderer and she is now a fugitive. However, she does end up returning to her world (though not by choice) and reconciles with her father, showing she does still have a home in her world. She has to leave again to help Miles, but she makes clear she'll return to her father once it's done.
• Younger Than They Look: Downplayed but a high-school-aged Gwen poses as a researcher (or at least a college-age intern) at Alchemax in ITSV with no one being any the wiser. In ATSV Rio upon seeing her with Miles comments that she "looks old enough to vote."
• Youthful Freckles: Has light freckles across her face.