No, Really…Who Is Gwen Stacy?

Hi. This video documents my descent into madness as I try to validate or confirm two short sentences on Wikipedia concerning the inspiration for Gwen Stacy.

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CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Introduction
02:38 - The Stan Lee Variant Edition
05:00 - What Joan Had To Say
08:16 - Search Results And A Montage!
10:09 - Let’s Not Forget John Romita
13:27 - The Long And Winding Road To Knowhere
16:01 - Answering The Question
17:52 - Credits And Thanks

SOURCES:
Joan Lee, Inspiration Behind Spider-Man’s Gwen Stacy by Alice Vincent. July 07, 2017. The Telegraph.
Joan Lee 2002 Interview
Stan Lee - Married Life With Joan
Stan Lee - Meeting The Beautiful Girl I Always Drew
Gerry Conway Blasts Gwen Stacy…by Russ Burlingham. October 03, 2012. Comic Book Resources.
Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe. HarperCollins. 2012.
The Art Of Eric Stanton edited by Eric Kroll. Taschen. 1997.
John Romita by Jim Salicrup. Comics Interview #89. 1990.
John Romita Sr.: Spidey’s Man by Jon B. Cooke. Comic Book Artist #6. Fall 1999.

MONTAGE SOURCES:
Comic Book Resources:
Screen Rant:
Looper:
ABC News:
The Washington Post:

TIMELINE:
1965: Gwen Stacy is created by Steve Ditko. There is minimal or no input from Stan Lee.
1965-2001: No article or interview mentions a connection between Joan Lee and Gwen Stacy.
2002: Joan Lee is interviewed. She doesn’t state Stan Lee based Gwen Stacy on her.
2012: Gerry Conway believes Gwen Stacy was Stan Lee’s wish fulfillment.
2017: Joan Lee passes away. Telegraph article states Gwen Stacy was inspired by Joan.
2020: Wikipedia summaries on Gwen Stacy and Joan Lee are edited to include the connection between the two.
2021-Onwards: It’s reported that Gwen Stacy was inspired by Joan Lee.

#gwenstacy #spiderman #peterparker #stanlee #steveditko #johnromita #joanlee #ericstanton #gerryconway #marvel #marvelcomics #wikipedia #comicbooks #comics #silverage #silveragecomics

[albion]

It seems like ever since "One More Day" in 2007 there's been this campaign to elevate Gwen to the position of Peter's one true love over Mary Jane. Misinformation like this has become sadly very common, people even say Gwen was Peter's first girlfriend in the comics which is of course false as that was Betty Brant (who incidentally resembles Joan Lee in her original brunette look). This can also be seen as a extension of the beatification Gwen underwent after she died and became a symbol of the lost innocence of the Silver Age of Comics. Her death changed her from a somewhat one note (loved Peter/hated Spider-Man) character into this perfect woman. This has been reflected by modern writers who have revisited her time in Spider-Man's history.

[molr]

And this is just comics, imagine the misinformation that is currently being regurgitated online for more 'important' topics!

[hank]

This is a really fun little deep dive into how the comic community (okay, not just the comic community) can take rumors or bits of speculation and run with it.

Also kinda dovetails with how Lee liked to tell little stories about creating characters that presented them as coming out of single moments of inspiration, instead of slowly developing and going through multiple iterations with his collaborators. Hell, Kirby did that some, too. It’s satisfying to hear simple stories that explain how a character jumped into someone’s mind, fully formed. But I think all of us have a habit of mistaking satisfying for true.

[nirman]

This is the only interesting video about (616) Gwen Stacy video I have ever seen. Well done

[joecrockett]

A small point: Gil Kane was the artist on Spiderman when Gwen Stacy died. Romita was doing some of the inks though. I believe he was art director at Marvel by this point, so he kinda had his hand in everything, including touching up a LOT of covers (not always a good thing). Not long after that Kane became the cover guy at Marvel, the way Adams was at DC. Those two made some great covers that sold some not-so-great books.

[ctbinary]

I think this can be summed up in a simple few words: Don't believe everything you see on the internet. What a wonderful piece of journalism you have created!

[aldinbaroza]

Also, the interview clip of Joan is odd in which she talks of Stan "drawing her face" innumerable times. It's as if she didn't know that Stan was a writer/editor and not an artist. Either that or she was actively contributing to the myth that Stan was the full creator of Marvel's characters, as a lot of non-comics fans still believe that Stan also drew the books he scripted...

[marvelprince]

Really goes to show the importance of proper research. Good stuff

[carloscrecelius]

You really went all Batman on this one, lol. As always, great job. Yours are still consistently my favorite videos.

[Briaaanz]

I wasn't too interested in the topic when i saw the video title, but good job, you roped me in and i thought you did a great job

[mediabaron]

This truly showcases the sad state of comic book news coverage. This one video on its own has more research and effort put into it than the last fifty or so articles to spring up in my recommendations. All they'll do is read a couple of wiki articles, maybe look at a page or two of an actual comic, somehow work the letters M C and U into their title, then call it a day.

[SEAWORRIER]

Just found out about this channel through this video being shared on Twitter. Really through stuff, instantly subscribed

[SmithMrCorona]

To be fair, it seemed like Joan Lee thought the interviewer was talking about a real person named Gwen Stacey, and then quickly realized her mistake.

[constantinegarganta]

Thank you for being one of the best comic book commentators on YouTube. I hope you have more viewers come in the future

[PaceFilmsProductions]

I don't think I'm ever going to get used to the lack of the old intro music in your videos.

[davidbjacobs]

New Mythbusters just dropped. Well done!

[luciferfernandez]

“I think any marvelous female character he (Stan) wrote was based on me” - Joan Lee, although in the same interview about her voicing Madame Web in the Spider-Man animated series she doesn’t say anything about Gwen. Comics Scene #55, march 1996, for fact checkers.

[Vicshade]

Ditko said at a certain point, he didn’t get input from Stan at all. He said this when Stan tried to take credit for the lifting sequence in the Master Planner storyline. Stan didn’t know what was in the book until he got the pages. Stan may have named the character in his role as dialoguer and editor. So the Gwen Stacy and Sweeter Gwen could be a coincidence.

[marcelo-ramos]

Great, great, great work. I'm going to share this whenever somebody gives me a badly researched article.

[walterhoward]

This went in a completely different direction that I thought it would.