The Problem with Spider Gwen 

Here's Her Story ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nRYmw9fYu2M.html and these are those Agent Venom thoughts I mentioned ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5qnTJf9EWxc.html

She's popular because she has honestly, one of the best looking Hero costumes i've seen, and her regular Gwen look is fire as well.

The problem with her is just that Marvel wants her to cross over with their 616 comics rather than just creating comics focused on her universe. It annoys me so much that they feel the need to merge everything into 616. Maybe they should pick a new mainline universe and start over from scratch. Do an Ultimate Universe again, but make it actually good. Then they could just bring in all the characters they want without the consequences.

I’m 100% with you on the point of “if you don’t want a character called by a certain name, then don’t start off by calling them by that name in the first place”. Keep preaching the gospel of sanity.

Firstly, she should be called spin because she wears ballet flats and dances, and miles should be called ghost-spider because he can turn invisible.

I actually kind of liked how Spider-Gwen was done in the Ultimate Spider-man show. She's in the same universe as Miles Morales, and after Miles disappears she takes it upon herself to become the next spider themed hero. She built technology to simulate spider powers such a digital Spider sense. It's essentially an extension of when Peter built his own Webshooters. Much more interesting and different than just being bitten by the same spider.

Tbh, I can believe them trying to change her hero name in the comics. After all, what’s the point of a secret identity if *you put your actual name in your hero name?* Spider Gwen only works as a name for us because we know that she’s a spider man that is Gwen.

Wouldn't it have more sense if Miles was Ghost Spider because he can turn invisible?

I guess the naming problem is that Marvel thinks people are stupid. Both Peter and Miles can be called Spider-Man. That’s fine. With Spider-Gwen, it makes sense to rename her because it wouldn’t make sense for her to go around her universe and calling herself Spider-Gwen, unless they do something like the Marvel’s Spider-Man (2017) show. Calling her Spider-Woman in her universe makes sense because there aren’t other Spider-People in her universe.

Something I've noticed is that marvel really struggles with legacy type heroes while DC is like yea this is the 5th Robin or the 20th Green lantern and keeps it moving

I think Ghost Spider is a great name for Spider Gwen, especially with her standard costume.

loved the video, one thing i wanna mention is in the "Ghost Spider" series where she went to 616 for college, she still LIVED in 65. she went home via a dimensional-traveling watch. she just didnt wanna go to school there cuz her identity was outed and wanted a "normal" college experience, so she straightup commuted to 616. the hilarious part is, SHE WAS OPEN ABOUT THAT WHEN SHE ENROLLED. Her being a trans-dimensional transfer student boiled down to having a member of faculty vouch for her (Peter) and filling out a FORM. and this is stupid, but then i thought about all the crazy shit that happens in 616, and. yeah. why not have a form for "commutes from another dimension to go to school"??? it is what I call "Comic Book Dumb", and i personally love it but i fully understand how some may think it's TOO much stupid.

The problem is not the re-using of names - it’s that characters won’t stay dead. Wolverine, Robin, etc. Theses replacements were *supposed* to be replacing dead/retired characters.

They should keep her in her universe, the best aspect of her first run is her relation with her supporting character like her father, Mary jane, Harry. They could try to expand her universe instead of putting her in 616

Im a preschool teacher, and I was super confused when my students would talk about Spiderman and say their favorite character was spin. Like “who the hell is Spin” 😂

Here's my hot take on Miles Morales "spider-man". I think Peter Parker should ALWAYS retain the "Amazing Spider-Man" and "Spectacular Spider-Man" taglines. HOWEVER, I think moving forward, Miles should be the ONLY spider who gets the "ULTIMATE Spider-Man" tagline since he is the last remnant from the ultimate universe. So whenever you hear "amazing" or "spectacular" it should refer to peter, but when you hear "ultimate" it should no longer ever refer to peter anymore and ONLY to miles. Thoughts? Keep in mind, this is just for tagline branding, aka just brand association for the reader. It is not for naming purposes; would not be the in-universe name for the character (similar to how spider-gwen is a tagline and not the actual name, however, I would have named her "The Spider" since she is the only spider in her universe. Adding "girl" or "woman" is always derivative and dismissing in naming schemes, exception being invisible woman).

It's funny that you mention Gwen, but Silk has the exact same problem, and she's IN the 616 universe! Constant mini-series reboots for Cindy Moon, and almost no advertisement for her. She could've been Peter's substitute in the MCU during the 5 year blip, but Marvel never considers it

The poor gwens... They never know what to do with them. Spider Gwen Gwenpool both good character ideas. The biggest issue I see with having a family of heroes like this is you get the outcasts.

I’m mostly upset that Spider-Gwen is getting the most attention compared to other spider women, especially Spider-Girl (Mayday Parker)

I like Spider-Gwen a lot, but it makes me pretty sad that she's essentially taken the role of (and completely replaced) Ultimate Jessica Drew, who was probably my favorite of the reimagined characters in the Ultimate universe.

One of the best comic book movies I’ve ever experienced was watching Into the Spiderverse with my kids in the theater. The minute Gwen popped up her full costume and pulled that mask off my, at the time, 5 year old daughter’s eyes widened and face lit up. She’s been a massive Ghost Spider fan ever since. Spider-Man was my favorite comic book growing up, so getting to share that with her has been great and frustrating. Great to have a connection with my kid over a shared interest, frustrating because she is so damn under marketed. Across the Spiderverse hits and there’s no Ghost Spider/Spider Gwen/Spider Woman merch in sight. I dragged my old *** into a Hot Topic after seeing AtSV the other week looking for something, and the people working there said that they don’t get much stuff with Gwen on it and it always sells out immediately. There’s a bunch of fans, both new who love the character as her own thing and old who enjoy the inversion of the Peter/Gwen destinies, who want to see more of the character. But Marvel, Sony, and Disney don’t have any real plans for her.

I’m dreading yet excited for a long long episode of this series for Barbara Gordon. Keep up the great work

Very well put-together discussion and well-researched. Another Benny banger 😎👍

Love this series ❤. Keep it going. Also I just really hope they dont somehow force her into the 616 main universe because as nice as her relationship with Miles is it would be annoying to see the pattern of forcing characters into the main universe especially when its Gwen died.

I’m loving the Problem with series, please keep them coming.

The original Jason Latour run of Spider-Gwen was great and Matt Murdock of earth 65 was a great villain. Following writers after Latour don't seem to know what to do.

When the panels for Gwen-65 in Peter's high school / university was pulled up, I remembered those panels during the original Spider-Verse event when they comforted and/or empathised with losing their versions of each other. I think that moment was partially why I got into her world. Watching her struggle made me think that there was a disconnect with the current versions of Gwen-65. My first impression was a more mature Gwen who was basically 616 Peter but replaced, then she became her own character in her own world, like Kamala being in New Jersey for most of her run. Now, Gwen's just everywhere and nowhere, and the first two iterations of her, which I enjoyed, seem so far away.

I've loved Spider Gwen ever since she was first introduced. Such a cool character.

Throwing Spider-Gwen through the multiverse to keep her in print and give her something to do smacks of what DC did with that storyline where Jason Todd, Donna Troy, and Kyle Rayner (three notoriously misused characters at DC) went on a big, wild adventure for no reason at all.

What you described was all the reasons that she isn’t well fleshed out. That there is a million different ways they’ve tried to flesh out her character. All of that to then say that she has been fleshed out and we know for certain she isn’t trans💀 like this is not a hot take. Queerness has been written into the subtext of media for decades which you would probably know better had you looked at literally any examples of this happening. You’re right that outright saying she was trans would’ve been a front page headline, it also would’ve distanced the huge number of fans who are not LGBT supportive… ie profit and ticket sales. I don’t feel like you have a well rounded understanding of queer representation vs diversity marketing tbh. All of that said, I do still support having your own interpretation of characters, that is what makes it art so I won’t disqualify the other things you HAVe done a good job pointing out in this. Across the spider verse is such a good film for a number of reasons, but the number one in my book, is that they have centered good representation without spoon feeding a diversity starved audience.

I hope they never get rid of the symbiote. I think it makes her standout more from the other spider people.

I think the reason people aren’t talking about miles maybe being gay or any other character but are talking about Gwen being trans is because Gwen is constantly surrounded by the colors of the trans flag in her universe as well as the “protect trans kids” flag on her room and her dad having a trans flag in his uniform. The spider verse movies are more subtle than other media so it being a part of her that their making different without throwing it in your face does make sense. Also if they did mention she is trans people would say that their training lgbt and some stuff in the audience’s face

I think part of the larger issue is that Marvel wants more legacy characters so that they can have the illusion of finality with characters like Captain America, Iron Man, etc. But don't have the established history of familiarity with the concept in a way that audiences understand. Because of this, naming patterns go all over the place because they try and distinguish legacy characters from the OG but dont want any confusion for licensing and production. Ironically, the best approach that can be seen is the one DC takes where legacy characters just go by their name. When fans discuss Green Lantern, Robin, Flash, Atom, Blue Beetle, or any multiverse character, all these characters have their identities as apart of their characters. (See Jon Stewart, Damian Wayne, Wally West, Ray Palmer, Ted Kord, and Thomas Wayne) Sure, some less popular characters will get traits and plot-points confused for a different version (see Hourman, Black Canary, or really anyone in JSA) but ultimately it's the best naming function to be used because at the end of the day, the character has more personality and can maintain more relevance if you just keep them associated with their original title in place of giving them some new "hero name" that will be forgotten and passed to the wayside (Sorry Tim Drake.)

The naming issues that miles and gwen and other legacies have could be its own video. While i consider miles his own spider-man, the fact that the red and black costumed hero never became scarlet spider III is beyond me cause for a while ben and kaine werent up to much lmao

This was a great video, thoroughly enjoyed it

Gwen was already my favorite love interest so Spider Gwen is easily my favorite Spiderwoman especially because she is also a drummer

gotta say, my favorite moniker for her is definitely Ghost-Spider. It makes her feel like more of her own thing imo

Honestly I never considered how mishandled Gwen is, I didn’t even know her powers at some point are symbiote based which is cool. I have a series on my channel called A Better Fit For a Better Story series inspired by you Benny! Ideally I focus on where to place these characters who I feel are mishandled and have no permanent place in there own universe to set roots and make a unique difference in there world. I’ve made videos on Dick, Tim, and Jason while working now on Miles. I feel like since Gwen doesn’t even have a place in her own universe and that marvel is show horning her into the main 616 without a plan is crazy to do. A little bit of what I think should happen to help her is to get her to live peacefully in her own world again. An idea I have would be to get the help of Spider-Man Noir to help clear her name. Something needs to happen to help clear her name, then she needs to develop her rogues gallery a bit more, expand on her personal life, something that gets her story to live and breathe without feeling like a side piece of the main 616 universe. She has nothing to do in 616 and interesting storylines I think would better shit her universe, daredevil is now Kingpin?! Punisher is a regular ol detective?! That’s fucking awesome, imagine seeing Gwen dook it out with Matt Murdock at the top of there tower in a big ol finally? It would be amazing to see the 616 punisher side of Gwen’s version of Frank castle in a storyline where he is framed for murder?! That would be sick!!

Love the problem series keep it up and i hope your message gets across bigger heads

I love these rant videos

I feel like people suggesting whether or not Spider-Gwen is trans not because "people don't know who she is in the comics" and more because of the movie versions are always separate from their comic portrayals so you have more leeway because it's not the prime version of her (like how 616-Peter can be himself in the comics while 616-Peter in Spider-Verse, because yes his world is Earth-616 in the Spider-Verse films, is a man in his 40s who's life changed for the better thanks to Miles) Similarly I feel like they shouldn't advertise if Gwen came out as trans because (and admittedly this is absolutely based on past experience with Disney doing this shit) it'd absolutely only be for the headlines and not because Lord and Miller want to go that direction with the character because more often than not it's only so companies can make money off of headlines of being "their first LGBT+ character" and it doesn't matter in the film(s) themselves

Spider-Gwen is by far my favourite spider person and it always depresses me how she gets shafted by marvel a lot. I like the idea of her being one of the few people to be able to travel the spiderverse but they just constantly bring in 616. Either keep her in 65 and make new stories there or send her to a wide range of different universes to give some flavour please

Great Job!

Great video. Sums up what I was telling my cousins who have not read any comics in sooo many years

Only thing I knew about her was she was "Spider" and she was "Gwen" and she wore white

It's a problem that Marvel has where they (specifically the individuals who initially made these characters) make great starts to these characters, but they (mainline Marvel) dont really let them "run", which only slows the pace of what they could be doing or attention these characters could gain. Just like what happened recently with what they did to Kamala, or rather what they didn't know what to do with Kamala. Personally i do think she will pick up even more traction as time goes on, but it will take time and the movie has served as a jumping on point, she just need more of those in different mediums. Just like how even though Miles was around since 2011, people are just now no longer considering him as "a new character", he has been a bit more established in the public view.

I work at a movie theater and we had a Spider-verse combo with little figurines of Miles, Miguel, and Gwen. I whole-heartedly believed that Gwen would have sold out before the other two but to my surprise it turned out that Gwen was the last set of figurines to sell. Prior to watching your video I had no idea that Spider-Gwen wasn't a super well-known character but I witnessed proof of that first-hand!

Following along with a concurrent timeline story that has lasted this long is kind of nice, reminds me of reading Mayday Parker back in the day

You know somethings that annoys me? The fact that there are now multiverses within multiverses makes things so much more confusing. Earth 65 has 2 different version of events. The MCU universe is both Earth 199999 and 616. The whole point is that it makes all your favorite versions of the characters possible to co-exist, but the comic and movie versions of Earth 65 literally cant co-exist. Also, i feel like an insanely easy fix for the name issue is to do what Shattered Dimensons did: Call 616 Peter the "Amazing Spider Man" and Miles "Ultimate Spider Man". Thats all they have to do.

I love Ghost-Spider. Loved her since her appearance since Edge of the Spider-Verse. However I have four issues with her series. First, I want her to get her original powers and not need the Symbiote. Second, I want the issue of Jackal in Earth 65 RESOLVED! Third, what happened to the Storm siblings? You know! Earth 65 Johnny and Susan Storm. The ones who FORCED Gwen to leave New York. And finally my fourth problem, are we sure that Earth 65 MJ isn’t still infected with the Carnage Symbiote. Seriously! Why won’t Marvel resolve these problems?

Honestly, the great thing about art is the subjectivity. You can read it as you want, and honestly, being specific about comics, the best thing is that even for these super peaople that can lift cars with one finger, even they have internal struggles , so for us "normal peaople" is ok to have them too.

"People don't question if Robert Pattinson Batman is secretly gay" Oh we run in very different circles

Where are the amazon links? Did u mean gwen epic collection?

Pretty good video, and the naming shenanigans are really annoying, especially ghost spider because it has nothing to do with her, but i would like to point out that in 15:40 the 'flag' on her dad's uniform is actually a common badge and you can clearly see it in every other scene, but in that scene it looks weird because of the lighting, like most things Twitter misconstrued that for their own message

I think now is a great time for Marvel to pick Spider-Gwens solo run back up with the release of Across the Spider-Verse, it would give them the best opening to get high sales for them finishing the story they set up with her being forced out of her universe under threat of those close to her being killed

We just need a modern remake of Japanese Spiderman made by Toei

Spider Gwen and Miles worked best in their own independent Peterless universes. It's cool seeing Miles with Peter but that's a huge legacy to compete against.

Marvel needs you. You’d be like Jiminy Cricket, serving as their common sense. They’re out of touch.

Thanks for explaing this.

Benny breathe, cuz!!! Breathe

I really like the idea that when Gwen is in 616 or in a universe where Gwen Stacy is gone, she can just call herself "Spider-Gwen". Also, I like to give readers credit (though I have been wrong to do so in the past). I don't think it's so completely confusing to have 2 guys named Spider-Man running around in New York. I say this because, to address the Miles in the room, I think it would set a bad precedent to be like "Like, I know the black-latino kid has lived in New York his whole life and earned the name 'Spider-Man' in his universe or whatever...but I think he should be the one to change his name/move away." Leaves a bad taste in my mouth for whatever reason.

7:00 to be fair that cartoon avoids calling Peter Parker Spider-Man too. They just call him Spidey for the same reason, but that makes more sense than Spin.

Great Vid! Yes Yes and Yes!

Ben always spittin 🫡

Since there's a lot of superheroes with the same name example: Spider-Man (Peter Parker) and Spider-Man (Miles Morales) have the same name but by using nicknames referencing the places their from Queens being Peter since he's from Queens and Brooklyn Being Miles since he's from Brooklyn or where they live you can easily identify who's who and as for why they have same superhero name it's because they have the same powers their Spider-Men this also applies their counterparts in another dimensions such as those who have Spider-Woman and Spider-Girl as their names.

Her problem can be summed up in ONE word..."Gwenverse". Seriously...the fact they did that AFTER Milesverse goes to show that Marvel is creatively BANKRUPT at this point They have NO IDEA what to do with her or ANY of the Spider People. These alternate reality characters can't really have long running events anyway since theyre based on anotuer more prominent character, so realistically they'll never get THAT much attention. And in my personal opinion having longrunning stories that DONT end...has caused SEVERE DAMAGE to these companies. So let Gwen's have an ENDING. Hell 2099 had bit of an ending and it tied up nicely I never gave Gwen much attention at all because I thought she was just some random what if like the multiple Flash Thompson, Betty Grant spider people... BUT from I know they actually made so many MEANINGFUL changes to the lore that she feels mostly her own Spider- Gwen is IRONICALLY more of an original character than Miles😭💀. She has her OWN villains, OWN stories from Origin to Motivations. And she isn't some SUPER SMART genius...she's a rockstar drummer😂. And when they noticed her powers were too similar to Peter's they gave her a pernanent controllable symbiote I might actually give her comics a read now😂🤷‍♂️

I believe the name Ghost-Spider came from the Spider-Man cartoon Disney put out that kept adding more and more characters from the comics. They also dropped the ball on the big story in Erath 65 with the Storm siblings driving Gwen out of her universe. From what I remember, she was going to go get back up and come back to finish the fight, but then the book was canceled, or a crossover event happened and they never went back to that story. Also, I think it was implied that Jackel was a clone that escaped during the Clone Conspiracy event.

IMO, you're Agent Venom episode is 1 of the best u ever posted.. ..but i am biased being an Army Vet too. Thank you for your service brother. 🤘🏽👍🏽👊🏽🤜🏽🤛🏽✊🏽

The issue with most heroes is that they dont have interesting interpersonal relationships, or villains that really sell the story

They keep leaning into her being super interactive with the multiverse. I personally think the restructuring of the universe is really cool, Matt Murdock being King Pin, S.I.L.K. being an organization rather than a person. Its like Jojo part 7. Then Gwen being all these heroes came like Gwenpool or the dumb Gwenverse. Earth 65's scramble is interesting on its own. I like that Gwen is now a symbiote user. I like that Venom isnt a klyntar. The universe she is in feels refreshing having us guess where every characters at.

comics from the 80s & 90s did have one pages for other comics, and even just normal magazine adds in comics

I think the current Gwen run is Shadow Clones, where it’s like Gwenverse, but with villains, but they’re clone hybrids of Gwen and their respective villain counterparts, but they’re still calling her “Spider-Gwen” on the cover and “Ghost-Spider” in the book, so like, nothing has changed on that front

I think most people know of her, but just like you said its really hard to KNOW her (if that makes sense) because of all the reboots.

I haven't read the story, but... Uhm.... unless it still bonded with Cletus Cassidy first, why would the Carnage symbiote with MJ be evil? It was the bonding with Cletus Cassidy that made it insane in the first place. Actually, the idea of a Carnage multiversal counterpart being a hero would be interesting.

the same could be said about how Miguel O'Hara will always be Spider-Man 2099

I too love me a comic that has an ending, especially cause it's so easy to talk about certain stories when you can say the Geoff Jonns Green Lantern or Jonathan Hickman Avengers it's kinda hard to not know what you're talking about

The way Peter Parker was made a villain in the Spider Gwen arc was confusing. I primarily liked the series. One other challenge was the way they tried to add the venom suit into the comic.

This is what happens when writers and artists don't talk or lay out rules when creating characters.peepee 616 Spiderman has rules, thats why his plot has a bit more to it. And it not just spidergwen/gwen. This is an issue for all throwaways that someone get more than they should have. Its like the creators go into panic mode

Anything outside of the comics can be handled with grace and meanwhile the comics keep getting rebooted story and story restart after restart it's annoying to deal with.

Ghost spider was the original name for the spider slayer in the ultimate spider man cartoon First Appearance (Spider Gwen 2014) (Ultimate cartoon ghost spider 2012)

So, if I wanted to follow SpiderGwens story, how would I start? (as in original story, not the dimesnion jumping one)

Tbh I dont Spider-Gwen would have been that obscure without the movie because Disney also started to randomly push her into their animated shows while funny enough killing off the orginal idea of gwen stacy being a spiderman love interest. Also funny enough Marvel got tired of the name thing so they made it canon that the people in her world know her identity so she can be known officially as Spider-Gwen 😂. Speaking of which the only name change I think you can give Miles is to call him Ultimate Spiderman or name him after a specific spider which would still be clunky tbh.

Benny 😂😂 you right..

Just ordered the omnibus because of this video. Will have it sometime next month :)

They don’t always immediately make headlines for situations like this, especially for media for kids. Like how Dumbledore was “gay” in hindsight, or Korra in LOK. Not saying Gwen is trans, but there’s nothing stopping this version from being one

Honestly, Benny...you're NUTS. I'm talking tin foil hat worn in church on a Sunday kinda Crazy. But, when it comes to Spider-Gwen and what you said in this video? I 100% agree with you. This was a job well done and something you should be proud of. I also appreciate how you identify and resonate with Agent Venom. And in mentioning that, I've never taken the time to say it and that's my bad, but with admiration and respect Thank you for your Service, Benny. I'm grateful for what you did before Comicstorian and the content you've shared with the world since then.

That rant felt personal....

Man Spider Gwen and Gwenom designs are fkn amazing 4rl

There is NOTHING wrong with Spider-Gwen.

Spider Gwen Is Cool

He's back to Expand my mind with facts

Which video did you talk about X-23 being named Wolverine? I don't see that you have it linked withe other videos in the description.

I feel sorry for both spider-gwen and miles morales.

*Symboite spider woman from another universe* sounds like the name I would use. Even traveling universes… lol I really love the King of Black event. If you know me I love the Gwenom suit. I know less about Gwen besides what the movie and event. That’s all… Here something: I was playing with a game with a friend. It was a guessing game and I was thinking Spider-gwen, I was thinking Ghost Spider, and my friend said Spider Woman. When I thought I got them, technically we were both right… We both know her Gwen but the name thing is annoying.

Jackal ALWAYS has another Clone. Its just what happens

@comicstorian Gwen was spider woman for a long time, but then in spidergeddon she was left behind in a desolate wasteland universe with no web watch to get back, she is gone for almost the entire rest of the story, but when she did get back, brining a cavalry of spiders with her, cosmic Spider-Man was like, “is it really you, and not some weird ghost or something?” And she was like “I kinda like that, GHOST SPIDER!” Yes, it was kinda shoehorned in, but it also fit for the ver major circumstance of the name’s origin.

I want mayday parker back

I kinda like her. My favourite Spider-Woman.

I wish we could've seen the Flash Thompson from the Amazing Spider-Man universe become Agent Venom and just connect it to the Venom movies.

In the name of deadpool, I cared so little for gwenpool that i thought for 4 years that gwenpool was a variant of gwen stacy.