The Death of Gwen Stacy in Amazing Spider-Man #121 is one of the most shocking moments in comic book history! So shocking, in fact, that it is cited by some comics historians as the end of the fairly innocent Silver Age of Comics. Since we have both ASM #121 and #122 coming to auction next weekend, Back to the Past is looking back at just how out-of-left field these two issues really were!
Taking Over For Stan Lee
Marvel Comics’ experienced runaway success introducing its superhero line in the 1960s. It went from a company circling the drain to, well, one of the Big Two in the comics industry. At the center of that success, both creatively and as a human mascot, was Stan Lee. As the company grew, Lee’s role as its creative leader took him away from day-to-day writing duties but there were two titles he refused to give up: Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel’s flagship books. It was only upon his promotion to publisher in 1972 that he would give them up.
Enter nineteen-year-old Gerry Conway! Gerry was one of a new breed of comic book writer, one who had grown up as a comics fan. Having gigged around various Marvel titles for a couple years, Editor-In-Chief Roy Thomas gave him the unenviable task of filling Lee’s shoes on Spider-Man. Conway’s tenure began with Amazing Spider-Man #111, though he did collaborate with Lee for the first few issues of his run.
Ending the Silver Age of Comics
As his first year on the title came to an end, Conway was coming into his own as a writer. He decided it was time for a big shakeup, the kind of thing heretofore unseen in comics history. The result was “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” in Amazing Spider-Man #121. Gwen had debuted some ninety issues earlier and grown to be Spider-Man’s steadiest girlfriend in the years since. She was Spidey’s Lois Lane or Iris West, a longtime love interest defined by her being the hero’s perfect match. Having a supervillain murder her, on panel no less, was an unprecedented move for a superhero comic.
https://hibid.com/lot/188488194/amazing-spider-man–122-death-of-green-goblin?ref=catalog
Compounding the shock of the moment was the villain who did it. Introduced in Amazing Spider-Man #14, The Green Goblin’s original reign of terror had ended in ASM #40. The sinister split personality had remained largely dormant in the mind of Norman Osborn, emotionally distant father of Spider-Man’s roommate Harry, ever since. While not the first time the Goblin had re-emerged, it WAS the first time his campaign of crime was so deeply personal. It would also be the last: Amazing Spider-Man #122 saw Spider-Man hunt down The Green Goblin, unsure if he sought justice or vengeance. Their knockdown, drag-out fight would end with a failed attempt at stabbing Spidey in the back costing him his life. In just two issues, Spider-Man’s best girl was dead, and his best friend was orphaned. In a medium known for its devotion to the status quo, this was nearly unthinkable.
The Bronze Age Begins
“The Night Gwen Stacy Died” was a watershed moment for American superhero comics. Ten years earlier, Marvel had revolutionized the genre by adding the pathos and angst that had defined sci-fi/horror comics to it. With Amazing Spider-Man #121-122, they pushed the envelope of what could be done in superhero stories even further. The Green Goblin would stay dead for nearly 25 years and remains Spider-Man’s deadliest, most personal foe. The “original” Gwen Stacy has yet to return, but her memory remains a key part of Spider-Man lore.
While many issues have featured supporting characters and arch-villains dying in dramatic fashion in the decades since, few have had the impact of these two issues. When you’re ready to sell your collection of key issues, let Back to the Past help: Turning collections into cash with no hassle for our consignors is our specialty, and we’ve got the testimonials to prove it!
Who’s your favorite Spider-man writer? Let us know in the comments below or on social media @b2pcollect.
There can be no doubt the “Death of Gwen Stacy” story was very impactful when published in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 121, cover-dated June 1973. And then the further impact when Green Goblin died in issue 122, July 1973.
Honestly, when I read these two issues back in the day, I was disappointed and unimpressed, maybe because the punch line in both cases (121 and 122) was already known to me. And I think the writing quality in comics, at both Marvel and DC, had already advanced so far beyond what was in these two “death” issues. In the 1970-1990 period, there were a lot of great writer/artist teams, all doing heir own great and innovative work, in many new directions. What a great era to be reading.
And even while these two Gwen Stacy and Goblin issues were published, I don’t think Gerry Conway, at age 19, had reached his full development in comics writing. But still, an ambitious writer, who broke into writing professionally at a very young age. Conway was 16 when he created Man-THING in SAVAGE TALES 1 in May 1971. But Conway at that point (1972-1973) already captured well and expanded on the the established Stan Lee brand of deadpan melodrama (as did Roy Thomas, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Chris Claremont, and so many others at Marvel) .
For me some of the most well-done “death” issues (while acknowledging that this Gwen Stacy story is he one that cracked the ice, and maybe made the subsequent ones possible) are :
* Jim Starlin’s death of Warlock (in AVENGERS ANNUAL 7, and MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE ANNUAL 2),
* the death of characters in AMAZING ADVENTURES 34 (Killraven series, by Don McGregor and Craig Russell),
* the many developments with Jean Grey/Phoenix, and her eventual death in X-MEN 137,
* Starlin again with Marvel’s first graphic novel THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN MARVEL
* (and in his EPIC ILLUSTRATED 1-9 “Metamorphosis Odyssey”, and THE PRICE, and DREADSTAR graphic novels, 1980-1983).
* And Frank Miller’s death of Elecktra in DAREDEVIL 181, that had further ongoing impact in issues 182 and 190, among others, as well as an alternate happier ending in WHAT IF 35, Oct 1982.
These were the high end of the “death stories” trend.
I frankly felt by the 1980-1990 period that “death” stories quickly became an uneventful and exploitative marketing ploy, and in many cases done cheaply by writers who didn’t have the talent to do something more interesting with the characters. And with “death” issues, or drug stories, or other gimmicks, just became a contrived marketing event to generate interest and sales.
On the DC side, the deaths of Karate Kid, and then Blok, in LEGION (in 1984, and then 1989) I found very cheaply done and insulting to readers. Likewise the overblown “Death of Superman” and “Funeral for a Friend” wankery in the early 1990’s.
At least the Starlin and Aparo “Death of Robin” story in BATMAN 426-429 had an interesting pairing of the Joker with the Shah of Iran had some wild twists. But I recall Starlin in the COMICS JOURNAL quoted saying he was ticked off with DC, because he felt he was writing an eventful story, but then (for licensing reasons) DC executives immediately launched another Robin (“Hey, we have to, he’s on a million toys and lunch boxes”) to replace the character just killed.
Reducing what was a pretty good story, to just another fake event and marketing tool.
I take some minor issue with labelling the Gwen Stacy death story a “Silver Age” story. Since it occurred in 1973, I think that one occurs pretty solidly after the Silver Age had already ended.
But once you get past the “Golden Age”, “Pre-Code” and “Silver Age” periods, the labelling of comics eras becomes rather unclearly defined and subjective. Even the exact end of the Silver Age is a bit of a gray area.
As I recall, the Overstreet Price Guide labels the end of the Silver Age as the point where the industrywide comics cover price went from 12 cents to 15 cents, that occurred in June 1969 at DC, and in August 1969 at Marvel.
But for me, the criteria for the change should be THE STORY CONTENT that defines the change, from the more whimsical Silver Age storytelling, to a more sophisticated writing and art, and a more socially conscious realism in the 1970’s era that followed.
For me, the defining moments of transition from the Silver Age era to the next are :
1) the move of Jack Kirby from Marvel to DC, with JIMMY OLSEN 133, in Oct 1970
2) the dropping of DC’s “SUPERMAN, NATIONAL COMICS” logo, for a more modern cover design.
Both of these happened with the Oct 1978 issues at DC.
3) The Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams/Giordano series work that began in DETECTIVE COMICS 395, Jan 1970, and GREEN LANTERN 76, April 1970, that ushered in an era of detailed art, realism, current events and social conscience, that undeniably transformed subsequent comics storytelling by virtually all other comics writers and artists beyond that point.
Examples including Wein/Wrightson SWAMP THING, Goodwin/Simonson MANHUNTER, Englehart/Brunner DOCTOR STRANGE, Englehart/Rogers DETECTIVE, Claremont/Byrne/Austin X-MEN, Moench/Sienkiewicz MOON KNIGHT, Alan Moore/Alan Davis MIRACLEMAN, and Moore’s other work on SWAMP THING, V FOR VENDETTA and WATCHMEN, Miller’s DAREDEVIL, RONIN, DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, and BATMAN: YEAR ONE, and pretty much any writer and artist who comes from the “realism” school of comics for the last 50 years.
And
4) The creation of CONAN THE BARBARIAN, the first issue also cover-dated Oct 1970, that brought in a wave of pulp writer adaaptations and characters into comics form, such as Solomon Kane, Kull, Bran Mak Morn, H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptations in TARZAN by Kubert, KORAK, and WEIRD WORLDS, beautifully adapted by Kaluta, Thorne, Weiss, Anderson, Amendola, Green and others. And later O’Neil and Kaluta’s THE SHADOW, O’Neil’s JUSTICE INC. with McWilliams and then Kirby. Over at Marvel, DOC SAVAGE, and many others adapted and expanded in comics form.
And pulp-inspired sophisticated magazines beginning with SAVAGE TALES and then SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN, and ultimately for me EPIC ILLUSTRATED, that were inspired by pulp writing, pulp illustrators, and other mainstream book illustrators. With SAVAGE SWORD portfolio sections, that led to published portfolios, posters and prints, often advertised in SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN and other fan magazines.
And expanding on that, Windsor-Smith’s Gorblimey Press posters and prints, Steranko’s HISTORY OF COMICS and other Supergraphics posters and prints. And the 1979 book THE STUDIO of gorgious work by Windsor-Smith, Kaluta, Jones and Wrighson, that like EPIC ILLUSTRATED, remains one of the most impressive representations of the comics field.
I’m resistant to terms like “Bronze Age”, “Copper Age”, “Modern Age” and so forth. (The term Modern Age is one I find particularly laughably problematic: What happens as the Modern Age, moving becomes 40, 50, 60 years into the past, itself an obsolete era, is no longer “modern”?)
The declining qualities of metal implies a declining quality of published material.
“Modern Age” generally/subjectively is seen as marking the rise of the comics direct market of the early 1980’s. Or alternately by some, seen as beginning in the early 1990’s with Image Comics and the like.
Beyond “Silver Age”, I prefer to just label subsequent eras by their decade, that is more specific of the time and material discussed: the 1970’s era, the 1980’s era, the 1990’s era, the 2000’s era.
Although I gain a certain pleasure from use of the term “Dark Age” o describe the current dominant trend in comics published since the late 1980’s, following in the styles esablished by Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Howard Chaykin, Neil Gaiman, the Vertigo line, and the Image guys.
See Alan Moore and Don Simpson’s story “Pictopia” in ANYTHING GOES issue 2, in 1986. An editorial in the form of a comics story, on the updated “realism” of characters we love, into gritty, dark sociopaths we no longer like or recognize. A great commentary, ironically penned by one of the foremost architects of that Dark Age comics have descended into.
Moore expressed in a COMIC BOOK ARTIST magazine interview his regrets that his work was a major part of reigning in that Dark Age. I largely stopped buying new comics altogether, around 1994, when dark cynical “grim and gritty” became the industry standard.
I keep hoping that era will end, and be replaced with the playfulness and fun that comics had, from the Golden Age up till the mid/late 1980’s when the darkness set in. Incredibly, i’s been over 30 years, and that era sill hasn’t passed.
Gah !!
No mater how well you ry to proofread, these things slip by.
This:
“Both of these happened with the Oct 1978 issues at DC.”
Should actually read…
Both of these happened with the Oct 1970 issues at DC.