Dear Marvel,
I’m writing to you today (12–5–2020) to express my interest in writing/directing the newest live-action Spider-Gwen TV series, which is to also recognize that there indeed are no current plans for a live-action TV series.
I’m not speaking to the modern day iteration of the company, which is owned by Disney and has seen massive success in the past two decades, but rather, to the future generation of Marvel, after superhero movies are just enough on the decline where making another one can be seen as “quirky” and “fresh”, and when Netflix inevitably takes over Disney in the industry’s most salacious hostile takeover yet.
I’m putting my name in the hat because I just bought my first copy of Spider-Gwen a couple of days ago and I’ve literally been unable to put it down. As a famous writer/director of the future, I’d like to declare my undying love for the franchise early on and show you that I know my stuff so that you know I’m serious. If you’d like my credentials, please see my award-winning franchise (TBD) and Oscar-nominated film (also TBD), both set to release in ~20–50 years, God-willing.
Gorgeous costume and beautiful aesthetics aside, Spider-Gwen is revolutionary by its very existence. Although other iterations of Spider-Woman had existed within the previous Marvel Universe, they’d primarily existed in tandem with Spider-Man within the “Prime” (ie, main) world Earth-616. In essence, this original Spider-Woman always served as an “other” to the primary character. As a result, Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew, Julia Carpenter, etc.) always co-existed with a male counterpart, which effectively eliminates the character’s own agency within the viewer’s eyes, as these Spider-Women are in constant comparison to the original Peter Parker. Even upon the original Spider-Woman’s conception, Stan Lee explained that the character was literally designed to safeguard the original trademark property, rather than as a distinct hero:
“I suddenly realized that some other company may quickly put out a book like that (Spider-Woman) and claim they have the right to use the name, and I thought we’d better do it real fast to copyright the name. So we just batted one quickly, and that’s exactly what happened. I wanted to protect the name.”
(The Comics Journal #42, October 1978).
This series introduces us to Earth-65’s very own Spider-Woman, also known as Ghost-Spider and Spider-Gwen. In this universe, gender isn’t the defining characteristic or the primary selling point, but rather, simply is. There exists only one Spider-Person with Gwen Stacy. Mary Jane Watson is no longer somebody’s love interest, but an ambitious diva front-lining a band aptly named The Mary Janes. Captain America is a Black woman. With this story world, the female characters are no longer struggling for attention against a male counterpart — rather, they’re able to exist solely as themselves.
The fact that they chose Gwen Stacy as the rebooted character is also quite revolutionary. In the original Earth-616, Gwen Stacy mostly serves the role of Peter Parker’s wife, and later dies a tragic death just for Peter Parker’s character development.
This was in 1973. Gwen Stacy had remained dead for over 40 years before she found new life as Spider-Gwen. As writer Jason Latour admits:
“Latour took a night to sleep on it and asked himself what he really knew about Gwen Stacy and not just as a “fridged” character who was killed for the sake of the hero as a plot progression.
The answer was not a whole lot, and that was a problem.”
As a result, the decision to return to Gwen Stacy was, in a sense, akin to redemption. It was a literal second chance for a female character that’d traditionally been sidelined and killed in the comics for the purpose of plot. It’s another shot at telling the female superhero story — a niche that had only ever, in my lifetime, been occupied by sidelined characters (like the Wasp, Black Widow, or any anime heroine ever), or by films which explicitly market off the gender of its protagonists. Instead, Spider-Gwen breaks new ground in its vulnerable and realistic heroine, and rights the wrongs committed by years of patriarchal history within the realm of comics.
Gwen Stacy, as a character, deals with themes of survivor’s guilt, feelings of powerlessness, and overcoming grief. Shortly after gaining her powers, Gwen Stacy accidentally killed her best friend Peter Parker. Her career as Spider-Woman is largely built on atoning for this tragedy, as Gwen wants to redeem herself through fighting crime.
Her grief and remorse, while proving to be powerful motivators, also cause her great emotional anguish. My very first introduction of the character was to Hailee Steinfeld’s version in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse where Spider-Gwen, although a confident crime-fighter, is also still deeply disturbed by her trauma and struggles with making new friends. Nonetheless, this guilt is also layered throughout the first portions of Spider-Gwen, when Gwen pulls back from her friends, her band, and her dad. As Spider-Woman, Gwen must learn how to let go of the past, and confront her present reality.
Although Gwen is always guided by a strict sense of duty (having been raised by her Police-Captain father), Gwen struggles with her approach to doing good in the world. For one, she has never forgiven herself for Peter’s death, and is unable to reason that his death arose from a tragic misunderstanding. In one of her delusions, a rather inquisitive Spider-Ham offers:
“You’re doing this for the wrong reasons. None of this will change the past. So long as you’re out here alone, running from the truth, trouble will find you.”
(Spider-Gwen, Most Wanted: Part 2)
Throughout the Most Wanted storyline, Gwen’s primary issues focus on her inability to overcome her mistakes. Indeed, the world most certainly won’t let her forget, as the entire NYPD force (including her father) is out to get Spider-Woman for murdering Peter Parker, allegedly in cold blood. As Gwen looks for a way to circumvent dealing with her trauma, she decides that fighting crime is the right way of doing that, instead of striking straight at the heart of the dilemma. Nonetheless, as the always sagacious Aunt May notes about Spider-Woman:
“Maybe it’s easier to be someone else behind that mask. To pretend she has no choice.”
(Spider-Gwen, Most Wanted: Part 4)
As Gwen Stacy heals, she’s finally able to fully confront her past head-on, realizing that she herself can’t be blamed for Peter’s decision to transform into The Lizard. In doing so, she’s also able to recognize her shared insecurities with Peter, in that they both were motivated by a desire to feel “special”, rather than a truly altruistic motivation of responsibility. As a result, this manifests also in a question of power, as constantly bullied Peter Parker was desperate to find a way to empower himself, which proved to be the cause of his death.
When her former best friend, Harry Osborne, shows up with a similar problem, Gwen is only able to confront him openly as she herself had recognized and experienced a similar catharsis through overcoming and owning her past. In doing so, Gwen is finally able to better herself, and successfully fight crime from a healthier point-of-view.
I see myself in Gwen Stacy in ways which I can’t fully articulate, as her characterization is so much more relatable to me than the near invincible heroines of Wonder Woman or Captain Marvel. She blunders constantly and is always running late. She faces an overbearing parent worried about her future. She is unhealthily driven in her desire to do good by extreme guilt. She tells lame jokes when she’s under pressure to deflect.
All in all, Gwen Stacy proves to be an enormously fascinating and complicated character, and simultaneously exists in a world that’s well-known enough to draw fans of the franchise, while fresh enough to feel like it’s own distinct universe despite the existence of a certain friendly neighborhood hero.
I’m pursuing film/TV for the very purpose of chasing stories which create a strong level of empathy, and reading Spider-Gwen was one of the first times I’d felt fully seen in the Marvel Universe (raise a glass to all my fellow wisecracking yet awkward a f gals out there!). With that kind of representation, Marvel, I hope I can create a movie off of this comic with you that can make others feel what I feel:
A sense of empowerment, of visibility — the feeling that you can do anything you set your mind to, that you’re worth something… dreaming for a future where the possibilities are limitless, and you can do anything you set your mind to — even something as wild and unbelievable as directing a blockbuster series for one of the best well-written superheroes of our generation.
With Much Love,
Rey Tang
