Gwendolyne "Gwen" Maxine Stacy (Ghost-Spider) is a vigilante, a Secret Warrior, and a former intern of Oscorp who uses her powers and gadgets to fight criminals and protect the people of New York City as the Ghost-Spider.
Biography[]
Ghost-Spider Origin[]
Rise of Ghost-Spider[]
Gwen Stacy was born in Forest Hills the daughter of police captain George Stacy and Helen Stacy in the 2000s. Following her mother's passing, Gwen was raised by George alone. Gwen's free spirit and artistic inclinations often put her at odds with the type of ethics her father worked to instill. She often felt secluded and conflicted between the free spirit inherited from her mother and the strict principles of her police captain father. As a result of this contrast with her father, Gwen would often retreat into quiet seclusion and play the drums. Over time, Gwen developed friendships with other high school students, a group of girls with whom she formed a band to share their love for music, The Emm-Jays, fellow introvert student Peter Parker, and rebellious affluent student Harry Osborn. After Gwen was bitten by a genetically-engineered spider, she was granted spider-like abilities, and started a career as a crimefighter, dubbed by the media as Ghost-Spider.
Death of Peter Parker[]
Gwen found her voice through the rock band she co-founded with Michelle “MJ” Jones, Betty Brant, and Gloria Grant, The Emm-Jays, and further freedom through the mask, quickly becoming a popular news story and wisecracking performer. Influenced by her father's moral code, Gwen uses her powers to help those in need and bring criminals to justice. Ghost-Spider’s influence also caused one of the biggest tragedies in Gwen’s life. The bullied Peter Parker, desperate for becoming special like his idol Ghost-Spider, conducted an experiment that turned him into a reptilian-like creature, The Lizard. The serum caused Peter to go mad, and Gwen was forced to fight her friend. In the aftermath of the battle, Peter returned to his Human form, but died due to the serum. With no evidence or link to Peter's transformation, Ghost-Spider was blamed by the media and the authorities for Peter Parker's death and was branded a criminal accused of murder.
Secret Warriors[]
Recruitment[]
In an effort to clear her name and haunted by Peter Parker’s death, Gwen doubled her efforts to fight crime. Additionally, her police captain father was tasked with conducting the NYPD investigation and commanding the police force tasked with targeting Ghost-Spider. Throughout the course of her vigilante career, Ghost-Spider has made enemies on the right and wrong side of the law, but has also gained the trust of heroic allies. After several failed police attempts to capture Ghost-Spider, Captain Stacy requested the assistance of SHIELD to help bring in the vigilante. Though Ghost-Spider put up a fight, the vigilante was subdued by Agents of SHIELD and placed in their custody. However, instead of turning her over to the proper authorities, Agent of SHIELD Daisy Johnson decided to recruit Ghost-Spider as an off-the-books member of her Secret Warriors team and secretly arranged her escape after discerning her civilian identity Gwen Stacy.
Powers and Abilities []
- Spider Physiology: Gwen's powers were similar to those of Peter Parker of the Prime Marvel Universe, after a Radioactive Spider -- genetically engineered by Cindy Moon based upon the genetic template of alien spider parasites -- bit her, granting superhuman strength, speed, toughened flesh, and numerous arachnid-like abilities. Her powers included:
- Wallcrawling: Gwen's exposure to the mutated spider venom induced a mutagenic, cerebellum-wide alteration of her engrams resulting in the ability to mentally control the flux of interatomic attraction (electrostatic force) between molecular boundary layers. This overcomes the outer electron shell's normal behavior of mutual repulsion with other outer electron shells and permits the tremendous potential for electron attraction to prevail. The mentally controlled sub-atomic particle responsible for this has yet to be identified. This ability to affect the attraction between surfaces is so far limited to Gwen's body (especially concentrated in her hands and feet) and another object, with an upper limit of several tons per finger.
- Superhuman Strength: Gwen possesses superhuman strength enabling her to press lift approximately 10 tons.
- Superhuman Speed: Gwen is capable of running and moving at speeds that are far beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete.
- Superhuman Stamina: Gwen's advanced musculature produces less fatigue toxins during physical activity than an ordinary human. This allows her to exert herself physically for much longer periods of time before fatigue begins to impair her.
- Superhuman Durability: Gwen's body is physically tougher and more resistant to some types of injury than the body of a normal human. Her body is more resistant to impact forces than anything else. She can withstand great impacts, such as falling from a height of several stories or being struck by an opponent with super strength, that would severely injure or kill a normal human with little to no discomfort.
- Superhuman Agility: Gwen's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are all enhanced to levels that are far beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete.
- Superhuman Equilibrium: Gwen possesses the ability to achieve a state of perfect equilibrium in any position imaginable. She seems able to adjust her position by instinct, which enables her to balance herself on virtually any object, no matter how small or narrow.
- Superhuman Reflexes: Gwen's reflexes are similarly enhanced and are possibly about 40 times greater than those of an ordinary human. In combination with her spider-sense, the speed of her reflexes allows her to dodge almost any attack even gun fire if far enough.
- Spider-Sense: Gwen has a sixth sense that typically alerts her to danger, although it has proven unreliable. This was most likely due to the damage sustained by the web of life and destiny, rather than a relative weakness of the power when compared to other spider totems.
- Self-Gliding: Gwen has the ability to turn anything she wears into gliding material. This comes off as an illusion to flying.
- Martial Arts: Spider-Gwen is not trained in martial arts and thus has to rely on a freestyle martial art while using her powers. This freestyle form of fighting is inspired by Kung Fu movies that Gwen has watched. She heavily relies on her agility and balance to land swift kicks, like some sort of ballerina. Despite this fighting style being mostly effective, it is certainly a far cry from proper training, as evidenced by skilled close-range fighters like Cindy Moon and Earth-65 Matt Murdock. Cindy Moon has even outright stated that Gwen doesn’t know how to throw a real punch.
- Skilled Detective: Gwen has a proclivity for analytical thinking and detective work. She is also the daughter of a police captain, thus she knows some police protocols and methods.
- Musician: Gwen plays the drums with her band, The Mary Janes.
- Trained Ballet Dancer: Gwen joined the gymnastics team in her early days at Midtown High.