By Athena Skapinakis
Advertising Manager

Disclaimer: Major spoiler alert! Please do not read this article if you have not yet seen the “Amazing Spider-Man 2.” Spoilers will be dropped.

In Spider-Man’s No. 121 comic book issue, Gwen Stacy meets her death. Not only did it completely shock the comic book fan community, but also it greatly impacted the world. The event itself made history, and the writers of Spider-Man hadn’t seen so many letters to the editor from distraught fans who couldn’t accept their decision.

Before “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” issue, it was unfathomable to kill off a main character — especially one who was the love interest of the hero. It clocks in as a marker for the end of the Silver Age of comic books before an era that was sordid and darker. This grittier epoch was known as the Bronze Age.

There were many reasons for Gwen Stacy’s death, one being that Gwen and Peter had become a too-perfect couple. The writers had made the executive decision to kill her off in order to perpetuate Spider-Man’s story.

Gerry Conway, one of the writers, insisted that for their relationship to continue, Peter would have to marry her or reveal his secret identity, and that would have “betrayed everything Spider-Man was about.”

Her death was used as a vehicle for Spider-Man’s emotional storyline. Like many super heroes, personal tragedy follows closely at their heels. It is their purpose for becoming a hero.

“With great power comes great responsibility” is the moral theme of Spider-Man, and it is perpetuated through his life experiences, especially through his tragedies. The first catalyst had been the death of Peter’s Uncle Ben.

In the comics, Gwen Stacy’s iconic death was highly controversial for fans and even for the writers. There is no clear-cut causation. Writers and fans alike have argued what events transpired which eventually killed her. There is no consensus on the subject.

Even Stan Lee, Spider-Man’s creator, hadn’t authorized the death and was greatly saddened by the writers’ choice.

One belief is that her death is a result of the whiplash she received after Spider-Man used his webbing rather than the Green Goblin sending her on a free fall off the Brooklyn Bridge. (It was mistakenly labeled as the George Washington Bridge until fixed in later reprints of the issue).

Later, it was speculated that it wasn’t Spider-Man’s web that killed Gwen but the fall itself. The Green Goblin taunted him in the issue by saying, “Romantic idiot! She was dead before your webbing reached her! A fall from the height would have killed anyone — even before they hit the ground!”

However, this is where more physics-oriented fans have come in and declared this statement fallible. They often compared the event to skydiving, saying that if this were a scientific fact, skydivers would all suffer the same fate. Thus, refuting this theory.

Other suggestions have been made such as Gwen suffering internal injuries by being mishandled by the Green Goblin. The neck snapping and fall didn’t impact her because she was dead before she was thrown over the bridge.

Either way, Spider-Man vows to get revenge on the Green Goblin. He tracks him down, but in the end is unable to kill him. Peter will always blame himself for Gwen’s death, and the guilt tortures him throughout the series. The incident is even cited by Iron Man at some point, and Tony Stark credits the mishap as a result of inexperience as a super hero.

Forever the scientist, Peter does correct his methods. When the Green Goblin casts Mary Jane Watson mercilessly over the same bridge to recreate the horrifying Gwen Stacy tragedy, Spider-Man remembers to use his web to attach to all of her major joints and body parts. Mary Jane escapes Gwen’s fate, and is saved.

The “Amazing Spider-Man 2” movie shows a slightly different version of Stacy’s death. The tragedy takes place at Manhattan’s clock tower. Spider-Man and the Green Goblin are exchanging blows while Gwen tries to make her escape, clinging to moving cogs for safety. She loses her balance and then hangs onto a line of web Spider-Man shot to her. The web snaps.

In slow motion, she plummets toward the ground. The desperation and fear read clearly across her face as she calls out to Peter, who is still struggling against his nemesis. In a final attempt, Spider-Man knocks the Green Goblin back and shoots out his web to reach Gwen. The synthetic web makes its way to her through the debris of cogs almost as if a symbolic representation of Peter’s attempt to stop time itself to save her.

As tragic and morbid as the scene unfolds, it is depicted beautifully. Spider-Man’s web reaches out to Gwen in the form of a spidery hand. The tendrils spread like fingers as they fasten onto her abdomen, and we think he has saved her.

And he almost does, until it is realized that Stacy had generated too much momentum from her fall. The placement of the hero’s webbing causes her back to snap, which in turn makes the back of her head hit the hard, cold concrete floor.

Gwen Stacy dies instantly.

There was almost a moment of hope, or perhaps it was just denial, when Spider-Man rushes down to Gwen after subduing the Goblin. She dangles lifelessly, suspended midair by a line of webbing. Spider-Man tears off his mask and takes her in his arms.

“Stay with me,” the unmasked Spider-Man begs over and over again.

It’s nearly as if her eyes may flutter open, but they remain closed. A single drop of blood runs from her nose and down her face. There is no denying that Gwen is indeed dead and gone.

The same controversy from the comic book depiction of Gwen Stacy’s death resurfaces. The question of whether it was Spider-Man’s poorly placed webbing that killed Gwen Stacy, his inability to reach her in time, or the fall itself.

“Originally, she didn’t hit the ground. She just bounced and her neck was supposed to break. But, what was interesting was people, when they watched that, the web represents salvation to people,” said director Marc Webb in an interview with ScreenCrush.

“They did not understand or believe or were not willing to accept that she had died — which is how it was done in the comics. So, we had to add a moment where there’s an impact wound. And then people understood what it meant.”

Webb also told ScreenCrush that Gwen’s death was inevitable from the first movie. There was no doubt that she would be killed off, as much as everyone would hate to see her leave the franchise. Her death is an important factor in Spider-Man’s story as a hero. There is a meaning to her loss, and it will be central to the third installment of the franchise. (It is yet to be known whether Mary Jane Watson, Spider-Man’s new love interest, will make an appearance).

Spider-Man is a story of personal growth, transformation and perseverance. Despite the sorrow and tragedy that occurs throughout his life, he doesn’t succumb to it. He overcomes it, and that is his true essence as a hero.