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Ghost-Spider, Spider-Woman, Gwen Stacy, Spider-Gwen - she's gone by many names, but the breakout hero is going back to her Spider-Verse roots with her own Multiverse adventure, and we've got a whole new set of colored pages to check out - including a full-on Into the Spider-Verse homage, complete with a Miles Morales namecheck.
Ghost-Spider (the latest superhero name used by the alt-Earth version of Gwen Stacy) debuted in Spider-Verse, a story about numerous versions of Spider-Man from different worlds all working together to face a murderous threat, meaning that with the onset of her own Gwen-Verse event, she's coming full circle at Marvel Comics by teaming up with a bunch of her very own variants.
... but she's apparently switching back to her old name, Spider-Gwen.
Spider-Gwen: Gwen-Verse will be a five-issue limited series from writer Tim Seeley and artist Jodi Nishijima with character designs by Peach Momoko. Each issue will showcase different versions of Gwen Stacy from around the Multiverse who follow in the footsteps of heroes other than Spider-Man.
Here's a gallery of interior pages, including some hot, fresh new fully-lettered and colored ones showing off Gwen's Spider-Verse connections. Check it out:
To wit, David Nakayama's cover for Spider-Gwen: Gwen-Verse #1 shows Gwen front-and-center, along with mashed-up versions of Gwen combined with Captain America, Wolverine, Iron Man, Thor, Captain Marvel, and even her Night-Gwen/Nightbird incarnation from the recent Heroes Reborn event.
You may notice the premise of Gwen-Verse's mash-ups of Gwen Stacy and other Marvel heroes comes hot on the heels of a similar set of mash-up stories for Gwen's long-time ally Miles Morales, with the newly announced title What If...Miles Morales focusing on alternate reality versions of Miles who follow in the footsteps of heroes such as Captain America and Wolverine, rather than Spider-Man.
In other words, more or less the exact same concept, but featuring Miles instead of Gwen.
Befitting such a multiversal series, Spider-Gwen: Gwen-Verse #1 will have an array of variants including ones from Natacha Bustos (a 'Stormbreakers' variant), Leonardo Romero, Todd Nauck (a headshot variant), Felipe Massafara (two versions), Peach Momoko, Sabine Rich (two versions), David Nakayama (an unlettered version of his primary cover), and Greg Land. Check them all out here:
Marvel's penchant for mashing up its characters, especially on variant covers, is nothing new - the publisher has embraced the idea as part of its ongoing philosophy of the 'illusion of change.'
In fact, Marvel mashing up Gwen Stacy with other heroes isn't even a brand new idea in of itself, as the publisher created a series of variant covers a few years ago featuring similar Gwen Stacy mash-ups.
That series of variant covers eventually led to the creation of Gwenpool by Chris Bachalo, a mash-up of Gwen Stacy and Deadpool who later became her own totally separate character named Gwen Poole, who has since become part of the mainstream Marvel Universe.
And in that same vein, Marvel is celebrating Gwen-Verse with a line of variant covers mashing up Gwen Stacy with different members of the X-Men for many of the publisher's spring 2022 titles.
Here's a gallery of all the X-Gwen (couldn't have gone with 'Gwex-Men'?) variant covers:
And here's a list of all the titles on which the X-Gwen covers will appear, along with the artists who drew them:
- Amazing Spider-Man #88 - 'Gwen Grey' by Francesco Mattina (February 2)
- Captain Marvel #37 - 'Gwenstique' by Rian Gonzalez (February 9)
- Ghost Rider #1 - 'Gwenna Frost' by Taurin Clarke (February 9)
- Moon Knight #8 - 'Gwenclops' by Todd Nauck (February 9)
- Devil's Reign #4 - 'Gwen Stacy as Psylocke' by Betsy Cola (February 9)
- Avengers #53 - 'Gwen Stacy as Kitty Pryde' by Leonardo Romero and Jordie Bellaire (February 9)
- Hulk #4 - 'Rogue Gwen' by Nick Bradshaw (February 16)
- Iron Fist #1 - 'Gwemino' by Nick Dragotta (February 16)
- Shang-Chi #9 - 'Gwenbit' by Tony Fleecs (February 16)
- She-Hulk #2 - 'Gwenverine' by David Nakayama (February 16)
- Thor #22 - 'Gwen Stacy as Angel' by Marc Aspinall (February 16)
- X-Men #8 - Gwen Stacy as Boom-BOom' by Logan Lubera and Rachelle Rosenberg (February 16)
- Black Panther #4 - 'Phoenix Gwen' by Phil Noto (February 23)
- Miles Morales: Spider-Man #35 - 'Captain Gwendolyne' by Pete Woods (February 23)
- Silver Surfer Rebirth #2 - 'Polaris, Mistress of Gwenetism' by Rod Reis (February 23)
- Iron Man #17 - 'Gwen Stacy as Banshee' by Ernanda Souza (February 23)
- Fantastic Four #41 - 'Gwen Stacy as Jubilee' by Rickie Yagawa and Emi Fuji (March 2)
As for the mainstream Marvel Universe Gwen Stacy, who remains as dead as ever in the current timeline, she had a flashback title of her own that's been missing in action since early 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic caused supply chain disruptions that necessitated many publishers rearranging their schedules for several months.
Originally announced to go on sale February 9, Marvel has delayed Spider-Gwen: Gwen-Verse #1 one month to March 9. As a result, Spider-Gwen: Gwenverse #2 has been pushed back to April 13.
Peter Parker is just one of the many Spider-heroes who populate the Marvel Multiverse. Here are the best Spider-Mans of all time.
