Gwen Stacy is back and she’s deadlier than ever. The previous issue of Gwenpool showed the insane return of Gwen to the world of the living, fitted out with a killer attitude and some suspiciously Weapon X-style powers. Her identity was revealed to the shocked Gwenpool, horrified Spider-Man, and confused Hawkeye. She’s working for someone called the Great Architect, and whoever that is seems intent on causing major problems not just for Marvel’s heroes, but the very nature of continuity. Gwen Stacy isn’t taking any prisoners, and she showed her lethality near the end of issue #2, where she killed a Marvel hero, except this story is getting way, way too meta for things to stay this way. Someone has it out for Gwenpool, and this issue gives us plenty of hints as to what they want.
Someone Is Out to Take Down Gwenpool
After the surprising reveal at the end of last issue, Gwen easily fights off the injured trio of heroes, with Spider-Man screaming that this can’t possibly be the real Gwen. Even though the heroes are hurt, the fact that she’s able to hold her own against them without any visible effort definitely speaks to the fact that Gwen is dangerous. Before anyone can make any headway in the fight, Hawkeye gets an alert for all Avengers to assemble ASAP. New York City is in a total riot with people fighting at random and looting in the streets, and the heroes need to keep anyone from getting hurt. Gwen escapes in the confusion, and Spider-Man says he’ll track her while the others handle the civilians. Spider-Man is still really hurt, but he has to confirm for himself if this is really Gwen, and learn what it is that’s making his Spider-Sense scream like a tornado siren.
Gwenpool and Hawkeye jump into the fray to try and take down the rioters, but something is wrong. They seem to keep targeting Gwenpool, people with katanas and in giant bear suits charge her and she’s taking way more damage than she normally would in one of her comics. Hawkeye covers her, but Gwenpool knows that something is wrong. At one point, someone throws a crowbar straight for her head, which she only survives thanks to Hawkeye deflecting it, but Gwenpool has the strangest feeling, like someone walked over her grave. She turns to see a dark figure watching her from a rooftop, wearing a black and red costume with a billowing cape and a giant red X on their face. She tries to point them out, but by the time Hawkeye looks they’ve vanished.
Meanwhile, Spider-Man catches up to Gwen Stacy. He sees her standing over a young woman and jumps in to stop her from killing anyone, only to find out that she was trying to injure, but not kill, a man who was attacking the woman. Peter tries to question her, but his injuries catch up to him and he passes out. Gwen seems genuinely concerned, saying that while she should let him die, she can’t bring herself too, showing that she still cares. However, that’s when Gwenpool arrives and sees the killer standing over everyone’s favorite unconscious Wall-Crawler. She attacks her, and in retaliation Gwen skewers her in the classic Wolverine-claws-in-the-gut fashion. Gwen apologizes, saying she didn’t mean to, then runs off. Hawkeye finds Gwenpool, and holds her as the titular character dies, narrating that these out of nowhere deaths are the ones that always hit the hardest. Of course, there’s no way this is the end to this story.
Gwenpool Is Dead, But Not For Long
Gwenpool is definitely dead, but let’s be honest here, nobody actually expects her to stay that way. What’s really interesting isn’t even that she died, but the person who so clearly wants her gone, and why. Gwenpool noted last in the issue that the entire tone of her comic had changed to be darker, and given that her power is to literally manipulate the reality of the comic book around her, this gives the impression that somebody else is pulling the strings. The entire story is very meta, focusing on the nature of comic book retcons and backstory. The escaped villains from issue #1 said that the Great Retcon was coming, and even Gwen Stacy being Wolverine/Deadpool-ified is the exact thing people think about when they first hear the name Gwenpool.
This comic is very heavily playing with the idea of changing reality in comic books, and whoever is wearing the red X mask clearly wants to take Gwenpool out for good. It’s likely that this person is able to control reality like Gwenpool, and could even be another “real” person who fell into the comics and thus shares her abilities. They could be trying to eliminate Gwenpool so that there’s nobody left who can stand in their way, and they can retcon the Marvel Universe to be exactly how they want it to be. It’s a long shot, but I can’t imagine that this Great Architect has anything less than reality altering powers and the desire to get rid of someone as volatile as Gwenpool. This story is as much meta commentary as it is a comic book, so we’ll just have to wait and see what goes down in the next issue.
Gwenpool #2 is on sale now!
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