What Universe Is Gwen Stacy From & How Did She Get to Miles Morales’ Earth?

Ever since Peter Parker first debuted in 1962, many other supporting characters associated with Spider-Man were also created from his family members, friends, work colleagues, teammates, and enemies. One of the most popular supporting characters was Gwen Stacy, who was primarily known as Peter Parker’s first love with tragic fate before the other Gwen Stacy from a different universe debuted as Spider-Woman, or Spider-Gwen. So, in this article, we will discuss which universe Spider-Gwen is from and how she traveled to Miles Morales‘ Earth.

Gwen Stacy, who became Spider-Woman, is from Earth-65 in both source material and the animated ‘Spider-Verse’ franchise. But since they’re still separate incarnations in the Marvel Multiverse, the animated Spider-Gwen is formally from Earth-65B. In 2018’s ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,’ Gwen was accidentally transported to Miles Morales’ Earth-1610B when Kingpin activated a collider that opened a doorway to parallel dimensions. In the sequel, however, Miguel O’Hara gave her a Dimensional Travel Watch, allowing her to travel freely to Miles Morales’ Earth and all the other dimensions without glitching outside Earth-65.

Gwen Stacy’s Spider-Woman was first introduced during the 2014-15 ‘Spider-Verse’ storyline, featuring nearly every Spider-Man variant ever introduced and comic books and other media since the 1960s. The comic book series received positive reviews, and it’s deemed one of the most popular Spider-Man stories in recent history. After her introduction, Spider-Gwen became a prominent character, starting her own comic book title and debuting in the animated form in 2018’s ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,’ in which Hailee Steinfeld voiced her.

The history of Spider-Gwen

Jason Latour and Robbi Rodriguez created Earth-65’s, Gwen Stacy. She first appeared in the comics in the second issue of ‘Edge of Spider-Verse,’ where her origin story was depicted before she was recruited for the Spider-Army by Spider-UK. After the ‘Edge of Spider-Verse’ series was concluded with its fifth issue, the epic climax of the Spider-Verse storyline occurred in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ Vol 3 #14.

After the Spider-Army defeated the Inheritors, Gwen returned to her reality, where she continued her self-proclaimed crime-fighting mission. Her story continued in ‘Spider-Gwen’ Vol 1, which ran for five issues in 2015. ‘Spider-Gwen’ Vol 2 has started publishing in October 2015, and it ran for 34 issues until July 2018.

Spider-Gwen from the animated ‘Spider-Verse’ franchise is very closely based on Spider-Gwen from the source material, but since the comic book incarnation already had her own title series, her story was explained in much more detail, while we expect that the story of the animated Spider-Gwen will be further explored in future installments of the ‘Spider-Verse’ franchise, including her own spin-off movie.

In both comic books and animated movies, Spider-Gwen is depicted as Gwen Stacy from Earth-65. She was born in Forest Hills, in central Queens, New York, to George and Helen Stacy, and her father raised her alone after her mother’s death. She went to Midtown High School, where she befriended Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson, with who she formed a band called The Mary Janes, in which Gwen played drums.

As the general audience unfamiliar with the source material could’ve seen in the ‘Spider-Verse’ franchise, Gwen was bitten by a radioactive spider instead of Peter Parker on Earth-65. She became a crime-fighting vigilante known as Spider-Woman, although Marvel Comics and the fans proclaimed her Spider-Gwen to differentiate her from other incarnations of Spider-Woman. In the source material, she was given a suit and web shooters by Janes Van Dyne, who is a retired crimefighter on Earth-65.

Earth-65’s Peter Parker looked up to Spider-Woman and wanted to feel special like her, so he experimented on himself and turned himself into a Lizard. He crashed the Prom at the school, and Gwen arrived to stop him. At the end of the fight, Peter returned to his human form before he died, and since there was no evidence of his transformation, Gwen was blamed for his death and branded a criminal. George Stacy was close to arresting her at one point, but he let her after she took off her mask in front of him.

During her career as Spider-Woman, Gwen fought many known villains associated with Spider-People, including the Vulture and Green Goblin, as well as Curt Connors, a new Lizard who knew that Peter Parker was the original Lizard.

After Peter’s death, Connors was taken by Cindy Moon, who was the leader of the terrorist organization S.I.L.K on Earth-65. Connors was taken as a test subject in experiments that turned him into a new Lizard. Spider-Gwen also teamed up with Spider-Women from Earth-616 and Miles Morales, with whom she formed a romantic connection but was forced to part ways.

One of the storylines also featured Gwen merging with the symbiote, becoming Gwenom, which set her on a dark path, like the symbiote usually does. She found out that Earth-65’s Cindy Moon created a spider that gave her her powers. Cindy injected her with a formula that took away her powers, which led her to merge with the symbiote that restored her powers.

She eventually defeated Matt Murdock, who is Kingpin on Earth-65. After that, she surrendered to the authorities. She was convicted of the murder of Peter Parker. She-Hulk was her lawyer, and the DA, Foggy Nelson, tried to throw the whole case out. Regardless, Gwen was found guilty by the Jury but sentenced to only one year in prison, where she met Cindy Moon once again.

After she was released, she rejoined her band, and with her identity now revealed to the world, she continued to help people, now officially known as “Spider-Gwen.”

In her adventure, Gwen is informed that the Inheritors, the villain of the ‘Spider-Verse’ storyline, returned, and she joins the ‘Spider-Geddon,’ during which she adopts a new name; “Ghost-Spider.” At one point, she was presumed dead after the explosion, which only left her stranded on Earth-3109, where Gwen Stacy became Green Goblin. Without her Dimensional Travel Watch, she helped this Earth’s Peter Parker and Mary Jane to cure Gwen of her Goblin persona. After that, Earth-3109’s Gwen developed Ticket to the Multiverse, a pendant that allows her to travel between dimensions.

When will the animated Spider-Gwen return?

Since the character’s inception, Spider-Gwen became one of the most known female characters associated with Spider-Man and one of the most known superheroes that originally wasn’t from the mainstream Earth-616. It’s not even ten years since the character was first introduced, and there’s no doubt that we can expect a lot more from Spider-Gwen, or Ghost-Spider as she’s known now, in the future.

As for her animated incarnation, Hailee Steinfeld’s voice performance was widely praised in both ‘Spider-Verse’ movies. We already know that she’ll return for the upcoming threequel ‘Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse,’ and her own spin-off movie is also in development.

Spider-Gwen maybe doesn’t have such a long history in comic books, but she already had so many adventures that would be perfect to adopt in her solo movie. Of course, that leads us to speculation; will we ever see Spider-Gwen in live-action? Well, maybe not anytime soon, but one day, we really hope so.

Are you excited for Gwen Stacy’s story to continue in the ‘Spider-Verse’ franchise? Which of her adventures from the source material would you like adapted into her spin-off movie? Let us know in the comments.

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