019: The Crazy Phenomenon of Gwenpool

Gwenpool is a real oddity in comicdom. She's a gender-swapped homage to a composite character... a parody of a parody... meta being meta about meta. Gwenpool is hard to explain unless she's been experienced, but I'm going to attempt to explain her in this post. Because as strange and impossible as she is, I love this character very much.

This instantly won me over. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Christopher Hastings Art: Gurihiru)

Of course, spoilers follow. To explain my love for this oddity of a character, I'm going to have to start with a lengthy history lesson. Come back with me to long, long ago... to the olden days of 2015. When I rode a dinosaur to the comic store and everything was in black and white.

I got back into comics at a very interesting time. I was big into reading Marvel (and some Image) comics in the 80s and 90s. Around 1997 or so I dropped off. Partly because I was broke and partly because I was unhappy with the direction the editors were taking with Spider-Man. In 2015 I learned that Fight Club 2 was going to be released as a comic book. At the same time I learned that Invader Zim was getting his own comic, overseen by the creator Jhonen Vasquez. (More on Zim in a later post.) I decided I would have to get them.

I'd been keeping up on Spider-Man very sparsely, looking stuff up every now and then. I knew about One More Day when they retconned his marriage to Mary Jane. I knew about Civil War where he unmasked himself in a press conference. I knew he'd died and Doctor Octopus had taken over his life. I knew about Miles Morales. That was about the limit of my knowledge of current events. I had been burned before, so I wasn't ready to get back into Spider-Man. I would go into the comic store and only get these two comic books. Or so I thought.

Around this time, Cocoashade had gotten me into The Walking Dead comic. I also got into Kickass thanks to the first movie. I was slowly rediscovering my love for the medium. When I was in the comic store adding Zim and Fight Club 2 to my pull list, I glanced at the Spider titles on the stand. Something was going on called Spider-Verse. It looked like a whole lot of Spider-Men and Women fighting inter-dimensional vampires. I thought this was an interesting concept.

I did an internet search to find out more about this story. In the course of this, I found an article introducing a character named Spider Gwen. She had debuted in Spider-Verse and was going to get her own ongoing title. As soon as I read that article I was pretty much lost. An alternate universe Gwen Stacy (Spidey's first true love) who had Spidey's powers and an awesome costume? The traditional damsel in distress of the Marvel Universe who was fridged way back in the 70s... and she was back, in hero form? Yeah... I called that same day to get that added to the pull list too.

From there it was a slippery slope. I picked up a couple of comics, then a couple more. I learned about Secret Wars and started getting up to speed on what had happened in the Marvel Universe in my extended absence. Marvel was rebooting itself, starting an initiative they called "All-New, All-Different". Legacy heroes like Captain America and the Hulk were being replaced by younger, more inclusive heroes. This phase was all about representation. Hulk was Asian American. Ms Marvel was Muslim American. Captain America and Spider-Man were black. Thor and Hawkeye were female. Not long into it we also got a black female Iron Man (Riri, later known as Iron Heart), Moon Girl (formerly Devil Dinosaur ran with a caveman named Moon Boy), and a rough and tough gay Latin-American superhero (America Chavez). This trend was amazing to me. At long last comic books were evolving. It was long overdue and desperately needed. I wanted to be a part of this movement. I believe in supporting inclusivity and representation. And if the comics don't sell, after all, they won't keep making them.

Marvel’s new age. (Credit: Marvel Comics)

I started getting into more ongoing series. Wednesday (new comic day) was now my favorite day of the week. I subscribed to Marvel Unlimited and read every Miles Morales comic. I even got Avengers for awhile because I liked the line up. It was a mix of these younger heroes (Miles, Ms Marvel, Nova) and reimagined heroes (Sam Wilson's Captain America, Lady Thor) with legacy heroes (Iron Man and Vision). This lineup didn't last... and neither did All-New, All-Different. As I've said before, Marvel loves the status quo, so slowly over the years things went back to normal. But the change had been made... new characters had worked their way into reader's hearts. Nothing would be completely the same, thankfully.

I tell you all this because I want to give you a picture of the Marvel landscape at the time Gwenpool was unleashed upon us. Spider Gwen came out to resounding reaction. Her solo comic quickly gained a following, and deservedly so. It was unique, creative, and had its own style. Also the cosplayers loved her. Her hoodie spider suit was easy to make and unique.

In June of 2015 Marvel ran variant covers for several of their popular titles. These were the "Gwen Variants". The idea was, Gwen Stacy had been re-imagined as a Spider-Man type character. What would happen if they made Gwen into different heroes? Well, the one that caught everyone's eye was Gwen as Deadpool on the cover of Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars #2.

First appearance. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Art: Chris Bachalo)

Gwenpool (like the Gwen who came before her) was immediately adopted by cosplayers. Readers wanted more of her. And Marvel was happy to oblige. They scrambled to create a character and backstory to go along with the costume and name. (It was pretty backwards, really.) Gwenpool became a recurring backup story in the new Howard the Duck comic, and then starred in her own Holiday Special. Shortly after this in 2016, The Unbelievable Gwenpool premiered.

WHEEE! (Credit: Marvel Comics. Art: Gurihiru)

No longer was Gwenpool a Gwen Stacy in a Deadpool costume. She was now Gwen Poole, a real teenager from our real Earth, somehow transported to the Marvel Universe. Exactly how this happened was not explained for a long time. Her age was either 18 or 19 depending on the story. Her pink speech bubbles are an “interdimensional accent”, according to Doctor Strange.

Upon arriving in the Marvel Universe, Gwen decided that non-super heroes were expendable in comics, so in order to survive, she would need to be a super hero too. She just happened to be near a super hero tailor, so she asked for a costume. The tailor, Ronnie, misheard her name, thinking she was calling herself Gwenpool, so she made a costume that was like Deadpool's (minus the pants-- Ronnie ran out of pink fabric before she could make pants) and set Gwen up with mercenary work.

Great motto for a tailor. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Christopher Hastings. Art: Danilo Beyruth)

In the beginning, Gwenpool's only power was her extensive knowledge of comic books. She knew everyone's secret identities and history. (Except Deadpool's, ironically. She didn't read Deadpool comics.) She knew everyone's powers and weaknesses. And since she knew she was a comic book character, she took insane risks that most characters would not be comfortable with.

Howard’s made a new friend. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Christopher Hastings. Art: Danilo Beyruth)

And this is where the layers of the character comes in. Deadpool himself was created in the 90s by Rob Liefeld. (I won't get into my opinions of Liefeld here. Not worth it. I do like what Deadpool has become, though. I've recently become a fan.) Deadpool was (allegedly) a ripoff of a character named Deathstroke. Even his name was a reference to that. Deathstroke was named Slade Wilson and Deadpool's real name is Wade Wilson. Liefeld has said in the past that Deadpool was born of his desire to draw Spider-Man and Wolverine. Those characters were not available to him, so he created a composite character combining Wolverine's savagery and healing factor and Spider-Man's silliness and red suit.

So already you see that Deadpool is a composite character that could be construed as either an homage or a rip-off depending on your opinion (and how gracious you feel). Spider Gwen is a mixture of Gwen Stacy and Spider-Man. You combine these two composite characters and you get a third, completely different mash-up, Gwenpool. Gwenpool doesn't have many of the traits of her inspirations. She can't heal. She's not a particularly good shot. She has no spider powers. She’s not actually Gwen Stacy at all, she's a whole different Gwen with an entirely different personality. She's basically a comic book character created by fan support, a variant cover that got a life of her own and spun out of all control.

Pure gold. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Christos Gage. Art: Lan Medina.)

One of the things she inherited from Deadpool is the constant breaking of the fourth wall. Since Gwen knows she's a character in a comic book, she can play with that in ways no other character has been able to before. (More on that later.) But this trait is also where the inherent tragedy of the character comes in. She not only knows she's a character, she also knows that she's brand new. Not yet established. A novelty. Living on borrowed time. If her comic stops selling well (which, sadly, it did) then she essentially dies. If she's drawn and written by different people, those things that make up who she is are fundamentally changed forever. (This means every new creative team is a rebirth of sorts.) She lives her comic life playing to the audience, hoping to get the support of fans and Marvel editors in order to extend her page count, and thus her existence.

This is one of the things I love about the character. She's tortured by the knowledge she shouldn’t conceivably have. Constantly worried that she's not going to be entertaining enough, not going to fit in well enough to become a legacy character. She worries that she'll be forgotten. Her life is dependent on others. She wouldn't exist without her readers, and even they are not enough. If she's not profitable, the Editorial machine will toss her in the trash bin. They worked her cancellation into the DNA of the character and they did it quite well.

Comic mortality. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Christopher Hastings. Art: Gurihiru.)

Adding to the tragedy, she wants to be a hero. But her powers, impulsivity, and reader reactions continually push her towards villainy. We get to see in the original run of her comic that she would make a very effective super villain.

Gwen as a super villain just makes sense. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Christopher Hastings. Art: Gurihiru.)

But this isn't what Gwenpool wants. She is the hero of her own story, so she wants to be accepted as a hero to everyone else. Unfortunately, her comics sold better (or so she claims) when she was being bad. As soon as she made the determination to be good, her page count dwindled.

The burden of knowledge. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Leah Williams, Art: David Baldeon)

Her ongoing series lasted for 25 issues. It was written by Chris Hastings and drawn by Gurihiru. This is the most recognizable form of Gwenpool. While it was going on, it was one of my favorite titles. I wanted it to last forever. The story introduced Gwenpool’s mercenary work, and then her quest to extend her comic book life. She got a number of supporting characters and interacted with other more established Marvel characters such as Miles Morales, Hawkeye, Deadpool, and Doctor Strange. And at one point she had an army of henchmen.

Fabulous. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Christopher Hastings. Art: Gurihiru.)

After and before her series ended, Gwenpool had some guest appearances on Champions, Rocket and Groot, Superior Spider-man, and Edge of the Venomverse. That last one was my favorite. It showed an alternate dimension Gwen becoming bonded to an alternate dimension Venom symbiote. Her knowledge of the comic book realm seemed to have been enhanced by the symbiote, who realized they were an alternate reality story. Which was an excellent twist. This Gwenpool met an unfortunate end in the Venomverse storyline, but it was great that they included her in a big event like that.

This entire issue was perfect. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Christopher Hastings. Art: Irene Strychalski.)

After all that, Gwenpool was a member of the West Coast Avengers, another creative and quirky comic that didn't get enough of a chance before it was canceled. She didn't appear to have any powers in this incarnation, but she still retained her knowledge of the medium. She also got a boyfriend and adopted a pet land shark named Jeff. She was the main reason I got the series to begin with, and the story and characters got me to stick around.

Yikes. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Kelly Thompson. Art: Stefano Caselli.)

In the latter part of 2019, due to fan support, Gwenpool scored her own five-issue miniseries called Gwenpool Strikes Back. She spent all five issues trying to prove to the Powers That Be that she was popular enough to sell more comics, thereby earning herself another ongoing title. It remains to be seen if her gambit worked, but at least we got another five issues of pure gold.

This version of Gwenpool is pretty random and ADHD. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Leah Williams, Art: David Baldeon)

One amazing thing about this character is how she changes. She's a different person depending on who's writing her. She knows that she's never going to be the same because the next time she shows up a different team will be in charge of her. They'll make her act different. They'll change her powers (or take them away completely like they did in West Coast Avengers). They'll retcon her origin. They'll reboot her. Gwen knows this about herself, but because of her powers, she also has knowledge of and access to these other selves. (She calls these different incarnations of herself the "Gwen Hive".)

A hive of Gwens. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Leah Williams, Art: David Baldeon)

So, exactly what powers does Gwenpool have? In the beginning nothing but an extensive knowledge of all things comic book. This knowledge has helped her many times: she knows everyone’s secret identities, she knows common comic book tropes, she knows she can’t be arrested (a super hero can’t sit around in a jail cell or dungeon for too long before a comic becomes boring). She can do incredible things even without power, like throwing heavy things or grabbing onto a moving train, simply due to comic book logic.

Later on, Gwenpool also learned to play with the format to shift reality. This is referred to as medium-awareness. Late in her first series, she gained access to "The White Space", which is the blank area between pages. She can use this in various ways, to hide, to travel to different pages in the comic, play with word bubbles, to look at back issues, and even to imprison people, albeit temporarily.

The White Space. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Christopher Hastings. Art: Gurihiru.)

Along with these, like mentioned before, she can pull alternate versions of herself from past appearances. She can also pull other items from back issues by diving into plot holes in the Marvel Comics Continuity Abyss. She knows how to play with the medium to get different results. She had a background character say their name because named characters are less likely to die in random comic book accidents. She tore open the Iron Man version of Doctor Doom in order to get the older, villainous form out of him. (This proved to only be temporary, but it was pretty crazy.)

In the recent miniseries Gwenpool Strikes Back, Gwen discovered a new power. The power to change events that happened off panel, whether or not they actually happened. Basically, she could manipulate reality using flashbacks that never actually occurred. A good example of this was giving herself radiation poisoning because a thought bubble taught her ways to expose herself to radiation. (This doesn’t sound super useful, but it got her away from a botched bank robbery.)

Another power that can't be ignored is her plot armor. For those who may be unfamiliar with the term, plot armor is an artificial buff or power up that brings a weaker character to a stronger character's level. This is usually because the weaker character is vital to the plot. Usually this is done by granting a special ability through the plot of the story or depowering the stronger character temporarily. This is considered lazy writing by some, but Gwenpool plays with it. She knows she's not going to get killed off if she's the main character. She can drive her motorcycle out of the window of a building or jump from great heights because she knows some plot contrivance will save her. This ties in with her medium knowledge. She knows the laws of the comic book universe better than anyone else because she has been outside of those laws. Her plot armor saves her frequently. Falling from a great height can’t kill her… because she’s the hero in her own story. This also makes it impossible for even highly-trained enemies to successfully shoot her. They immediately become bad shots when she’s around. (Ooh, idea! What would happen if Gwenpool fought Taskmaster, who can adapt to anyone’s fighting skills? Now that would make an interesting story…)

This just makes me think of In the Mouth of Madness. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Christopher Hastings. Art: Gurihiru.)

All of these things put together give Gwenpool near-Godlike powers in the Marvel Universe. She has weaknesses, of course. The main one is that she has no idea how her powers work and can't always access them. (Super Villain Gwen and Future Gwen have shown greater control over their abilities.) She's often at the whim of the writers or editors, so at any moment her powers could flake out, or someone she trapped in the White Space could wander back out. Before when I mentioned she tore open Doctor Doom... that didn't last because his change into a more heroic form was an editorial decision and if she changed him permanently, it would impact his own comic series. So there's a clear limit to her powers-- she can impact her own comic, but not the works of others. If she's relegated to a guest appearance or a team up she's also limited because in those cases she's not the primary star. This makes her vulnerable to the needs of a plot she’s only loosely involved with.

Hanging out with Superior Spidey and the West Coast Avengers. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Christos Gage. Art: Lan Medina.)

Gwen's greatest weakness, though, is the transient nature of the medium. If her book stops selling, she's cancelled. If the fans stop liking her, writers will stop putting her in their comics. It's something that effects all but the longest-running legacy characters. The tragedy of Gwenpool is that she realizes it. She sees her mortality in a different way from the other characters. If she stops being relevant and interesting, she just becomes a memory. A "hey, remember when there was a girl version of Deadpool?" mention in a comic shop. A fleeting experiment that can be ended at any time. In that way she’s different from other comic characters… she’s aware her time is limited.

I love this. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Christopher Hastings. Art: Gurihiru.)

Knowing this adds a tone of desperation to her character. She tries really hard. She gets into the craziest situations, both in an effort to prove herself and make a place for herself in the Marvel Universe, but also because she's having fun. That's the counterbalance to the tragedy and desperation-- Gwenpool is a regular nerdy girl who found herself in a comic book and enjoys the hell out of it. She loves being a fictional character, despite all the limitations. She would rather live in these panels than in the real world because comic books are more fun than real life to her. She can do whatever she likes-- within reason-- and she abuses this notion.

She kills henchmen because they were written to be killed. She steals a cop car because who would arrest the main character? She walks right into traps knowing there will always be a way out. She gives herself radiation poisoning knowing that another Gwenpool can just walk away and continue. She puts herself in danger simply because she knows the plot will give her an escape hatch.

Gwenpool logic. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Leah Williams, Art: David Baldeon)

Some of the craziest things she's done in her brief career: She accidentally launched her boss M.O.D.O.K. into space, which put her into conflict with a race of alien squids and a rogue Doom Bot. She snuck into the Punisher's bedroom to attack him with bees. She shot Bruce Banner in the head to pick a fight with the Hulk without having any semblance of a plan on how to win the fight. She stole Thor's ripped off arm so she could use his hammer. Tricked several super heroes into having a swimsuit battle royale on an island, almost causing Marvel Civil War III. And most recently, invaded a sovereign nation by proclaiming herself a Mutant.

Ms Marvel breaks Gwenpool. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Leah Williams, Art: David Baldeon)

So, yeah... one more thing I need to talk about. I'm not going to give away the end of her first series, because it's really worth reading. I'll just say it's pretty brilliant... I still think about it often. But her most recent miniseries, Gwenpool Strikes Back... this was an interesting ending that I really didn't see coming, and it required a little pondering before I decided if I liked it or not.

For those of you who have read my House of X/Powers of X post, you know that the Mutants of the Marvel Universe have formed their own sovereign nation on the living island Krakoa. Well, as I mentioned in that post, the portals to Krakoa will only let Mutants through (or those accompanied by Mutants). In Issue 5 of Gwenpool Strikes Back, Ms Marvel suggested that maybe Gwen has been a Mutant all along, and has reality-shifting powers. She suggests that Gwen didn't want to face this fact and so made up a backstory where she came from "the real world". Gwen cries, agreeing with her, and goes to her White Space to think about this.

She has her human moments too. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Leah Williams, Art: David Baldeon)

Suddenly a portal to Krakoa appears and she's able to walk through it. Does this mean Ms Marvel was right? Or did Gwen use her flashback powers to retcon her origin, making her into a Mutant? I really think it's the latter option. There was even a flashback bubble as Ms Marvel was talking. She said it and so it's true. Comics are subjective. The way retcons work is that it's written and so it's law… at least until the next retcon comes along. Gwen would know this. Her power is so great that she can bypass the laws set down by other writers (Ryan Hickman's assurance that Krakoa portals can only be used by Mutants) by doing some literary gymnastics and retconning herself. (I've got to say, I could be wrong, but I think this is the first time a character has willingly retconned herself. Which is incredible.)

So apparently Gwenpool is a Mutant now and "always was". This served the purpose of giving her more options. She is now living on Krakoa, considered to be and welcomed as a Mutant. She can guest star in X titles. If she (or another writer) decides otherwise, another retcon can take effect, changing her origin again. She could be rebooted and the events in this miniseries could be ignored completely. (Or more likely just mentioned in passing.) There are unlimited possibilities only limited by the interest in the character.

Awwww. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Christopher Hastings. Art: Gurihiru.)

Gwenpool is a character that by all rights should never have existed. She started her career as a throwaway gag on a variant cover and managed to carve out her own place-- fleeting though it may prove to be-- in the legacy of the Marvel Universe. I consider every issue or guest appearance by this character to be a gift. If she lands another series, either ongoing or limited, I will be the first in line to have it added to my pull list. I can guarantee it will be the first comic I read that week.

Modern comics are fickle and constantly shifting. Whenever progress seems to be made, the all-important status quo snaps back into place, leaving those new properties to feed off the scraps left behind by the big money-makers. The fact that we got 31 issues of a fan-demanded, creative, and utterly meta character like Gwenpool is pretty unbelievable. (Hence the title of her first series.) But it happened, and I am so grateful I was there for it. And now I've shared the gift of this unusual phenomenon with you.

Thank you for reading my thoughts and feelings about one of my favorite characters. This was a blast to write, as always, so I hope you enjoyed it. See you soon!

That’s all folks. (Credit: Marvel Comics. Writer: Christopher Hastings. Art: Gurihiru.)