Nerd Factor: The Night Gwen Stacy Died
Dr Mike ~ UL Communication Studies Professor

Fifty years ago, on March 13, 1973, Amazing Spider-Man #121 hit the newsstands and comic book spinner racks. After “The Night Gwen Stacy Died,” nothing would ever quite be the same for superheroes again.
The cover of ASM #121 pitches this story as crucial. Comic book covers were then, and will certainly always be, devices of pure hype. Designed to encourage the potential buyer to pluck the comic off the shelf, the promotional images and blurbs on the cover pit a fan’s wide-eyed wonder against that fan’s weary cynicism. Aware that comic covers of the past had tricked readers into believing all sorts of things, this cover reassures us that this story is “Not a trick! Not an imaginary tale—but the most startlingly unexpected turning point in this web slinger’s entire life!”
We view Spider-Man from behind as he swings towards a series of headshots of his supporting cast. “Someone close to me is about to die!” he shouts. Spidey had the best developed supporting cast in comics and they narratively spun through his life like a finely tuned soap opera engine. So naturally a reader would worry who was about to go. Could it be kindly Aunt May, who was always near death anyway? Or Peter Parker’s aggressive boss, J. Jonah Jameson? By the end of the story, readers would know that Peter Parker’s girlfriend Gwen Stacy was the victim.
The story began melodramatically enough with Peter’s best friend Harry Osborn relapsing into drug addiction, moved along with Harry’s father Norman Osborn becoming the Green Goblin in a reaction to that (and other stressors), and concluded with one of the most harrowing splash pages of all time. The final image of Spider-Man swearing revenge upon the Goblin seared its way into popular culture.
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