9 Worst Things That Ever Happened To Gwen Stacy

7. Gwen's Death

Gwen Stacy Sad
Marvel Comics

It's clearly impossible to do an article dedicated to the most traumatic things to happen to Gwen Stacy and not make mention of her shocking death in The Amazing Spider-Man #121.

Gwen's death was a line in the sand for comic books, period - with many viewing her death as the moment that the Silver Age of Comics officially became the Bronze Age.

When Marvel Comics went with The Death of Gwen Stacy arc, that was the first time in comic book history where a character of such prominence was killed off. It was monumental stuff, and to this day it remains one of the most memorable stories in Marvel's history.

Of course, Gwen's demise came after the Green Goblin launched her from the top of the George Washington Bridge.

Spider-Man would fire his webbing towards Gwen in order to catch her, yet all Spidey caught was a dead Gwen Stacy. At that point in time, it was left ambiguous was to who exactly was responsible for Gwen's death: did she die from the fall, or did the whiplash caused by Spider-Man's webbing break Gwen's neck?

For the record, Marvel Comics editor Roy Thomas confirmed in a later issue that it was indeed the whiplash caused by Spider-Man's webbing that was responsible for killing Gwen.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.