Finding Gwen Stacy part 7: Special Interlude

We are going to take a small interlude in our Gwen/Peter saga. As I said before, I will be posting all of Gwen’s appearances in “Amazing” during her lifetime (some of the post-death stuff will be in later parts). Since I am doing every last panel, it is prudent to do the Annuals and Specials. I didn’t want to break up the mainstoryline going on in “Amazing” so I am devoting this post to the Gwen stuff in Amazing Annuals 4 and 5 plus the Spectacular Spider-Man Special 2 (we’ll cover Special 1 when we get to the Conway years). They were all published around the time period we left off at so this feels like a good spot.

Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine issue 2

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Warren is awfully close to Gwen isn’t he? Once again another case of him needling Peter in front of Gwen..

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Gwen would love it if her boyfriend would open up to her about his daddy issues over a cup of coffee, and the rebuff is probably not something that pleases her. This type of thing becomes a problem later in the relationship, but we are still in the early lovey dovey phase. We know very little of Gwen’s relationship with her mother or the time of her death so I’m sure Gwen wants to bond with Peter over the “dead parent” thing.

Norman does return and throws a dinner party more awkward than the one on “The Office” in season four.

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Mary Jane still has the haircut!! NO!! GET AWAY! And her calling Norman “dad” (slang or no slang) is just weird….and she and Harry hadn’t even been established as dating yet.

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Gwen doesn’t seem thrown by Norman’s odd behavior towards Peter. Actually she seems pretty entranced in the conversation. She herself is probably just as curious about Peter’s mysterious behavior but can’t be as forward as Norman is about it.

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This scene was brilliantly adapted in an episode of the 90’s Spider-Man animated series. One of the best episodes really.

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This implies that Gwen saw more connection between Peter and Norman than she let on. Due to Peter’s mysterious nature, this probably perplexed Gwen more. Later Gwen shows up again in the form of a hallucination during the Goblin fight..

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Once again, Mary Jane is left out of another “floating heads” sequence.

After Norman loses his memory again, he rejoins the girls.

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Like I said, it’s a reprint edition so the Gwen dies thing is a bit of a spoiler which wasn’t there in the original edition because her death hadn’t been planned yet.

Gwen and the gang also appeared in the Coffee Bean pinup during Spider-Man Annual 4

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Stan finally apologizes for the dialogue, but only Anna and May’s. It’s ironic because they are two old people trying to talk like teens which is just what Stan was doing.

Gwen’s only appearance in Annual 5 was the cover and a pinup.

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And that, my friends, is the last time you have to see Mary Jane’s “ginchy” haircut unless the Braintrust Webheads decide to bring it back.

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That’s all for now. Next we will return to the main storyline in Amazing where Peter and Gwen’s golden romance begins to unravel.