When thinking of Spider-Man’s greatest romances, two names inevitably come up – Mary Jane Watson and Gwen Stacy. Although fans will debate on which one of these women deserve to be considered Peter Parker’s “one true love,” it’s clear that Gwen still holds a special place in Peter’s heart, while her death remains one of the great tragedies of Spider-Man’s life.
Ironically, however, when Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy first met, Gwen often saw Peter as cold, standoffish, and stuck up. While this might not sound like the Peter Parker readers know and love, it might be illuminating to see their early meetings from Gwen’s point of view…
Gwen Stacy made her first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #31, during Peter Parker’s first year of college at Empire State University. At the time, Peter was struggling to get his life together in more ways than one. Although he received a full-ride scholarship thanks to his academic achievements, he still had to balance school with his work assignments at the Daily Bugle and his responsibilities to Aunt May, who was frequently sick. To top it all off, his adventures as Spider-Man continued to dominate his time and keep him from developing much of a social life.
From Gwen’s perspective, however, Peter Parker seemed stuck inside his head all the time. Although she admitted she found herself attracted to Peter, he quickly turned her off with his spacy behavior. Once May recovered from her illness, Peter tried to socialize with the other kids, but by then they – and Gwen – had written Peter off as an antisocial creep who thought his science scholarship made him too good for any of them. Peter realized what had happened, but his own ego kept him from explaining what was really going on.
To make matters even more complicated, Peter was sort-of dating J. Jonah Jameson’s secretary Betty Brant who hated Spider-Man. When Betty left town, Peter tried to convince himself he didn’t care about her and actually started avoiding other potential relationships. His behavior both aggravated and fascinated Gwen Stacy, who found herself following Peter into science halls hoping he’d notice her. However, Peter often had to run off to switch to Spider-Man when trouble came around… which just convinced Gwen that he was also a coward.
Meanwhile, Gwen’s cold attitude toward Peter convinced Peter that Gwen must be “a nut.” The two continued to have a tense relationship for several issues – with Gwen mocking Peter openly while privately defending him when her friends made fun of him. Surprisingly, Peter found himself loosening up on his own – getting over his feelings for Betty Brant and even buying a motorcycle – but just as things seemed to warm up between Gwen and Peter, Mary Jane Watson entered the picture and Peter wound up getting into Marvel’s version of a Betty vs. Veronica situation.
Eventually, Peter stopped dating Mary Jane (ironically because he began seeing her as superficial – although later comics would show he was misjudging her the same way Gwen misjudged him). Gwen and Peter became a couple – although their relationship would be strained when Spider-Man was implicated in the death of Gwen’s police captain father, and then cut short when the Green Goblin murdered her.
A great part of Spider-Man’s early appeal was in his romantic entanglements – and Stan Lee made sure to make Peter’s web of relationships as complicated as possible to keep readers guessing about who Peter would end up with (and how long the relationship would last). Later re-imaginings of Peter and Gwen’s relationship in The Amazing Spider-Man movies or The Spectacular Spider-Man animated series would make their eventual relationship seem almost inevitable… but for early readers, Spider-Man almost didn’t end up with Gwen Stacy!