I recently wrote a
review of the new Spider-Man film, it turned out reasonably well but as I was
writing it I did come across a slight hiccup… I couldn’t stop talking about
Gwen Stacy. Those of you that have seen the film this might not be all that
shocking, Emma Stone is amazing in the part but I was reluctant to fall in love
with this character, as any one who is familiar with the comics might
understand.
WARNING there are
possibly spoilers in this post… but then again maybe not. Enter at your own
risk!
Spoiler warning: in
the comics Gwen Stacy dies. But she doesn’t just die, she is killed by whiplash
caused when Spider-Man catches her leg with his web… that’s right Spider-Man
kills his own girlfriend. It’s cruel but it’s also epic. Poor Gwen Stacy gets
stuffed in the refrigerator to give Peter Parker just a little more angst and,
of course, to make way for that fiery redhead known as MJ.
Yes it’s sad, and not
just because of all the anti-feminist implications (killing off the female just
so you can further the plot of the male hero = not cool), but the whole event
never really upset me all that much. I mean Gwen Stacy’s death was just
something that happened long ago. I didn’t even know about it until I got into
comic books, she was completely left out of Spider-Man: The Animated Series (where I was introduced to the hero).
Sure Gwen Stacy’s
death meant something – it was a huge part Spider-Man’s past and the history of
comic books in general – but it didn’t directly affect me. Still when I heard
that they were rebooting Spider-Man with Gwen Stacy as the love interest I was
actually pretty excited. Her death didn’t affect me on an emotional level but
it the potential angst excites me to no end.
I know, I know. I am
supposed to be angry when they kill of the female characters to further the
plot of the male ones. I should probably have been fighting for poor Gwen
Stacy’s life before now… but although I am a feminist I also happen to love a
good bit of angst and nothing is more angsty than Gwen Stacy’s death. Besides,
I grew up with Joss Whedon, I pretty much expect someone to die if they’re in a
happy relationship so from a narrative perspective, I get it – in fact I would
be totally OK with killing of love interests if they killed off male ones as
often as they do with female ones… but I guess that would mean we need more
female heroes, which is a whole other problem.
The problem is I had
never really thought about Gwen Stacy as a person (bad feminist). Something
that I was forced to recognise when I went to see The Amazing Spider-Man last Wednesday. Because there she was, in
all the glory of big screen 3D, Gwen Stacy, all flesh and blood and nicely
shaped. About 15 minutes into the film I realised that this whole watching Gwen
Stacy die thing was going to be a lot harder than I had previously thought.
For starters Emma
Stone is adorable on any day, and she’s pretty much perfect as Gwen Stacy. Then
there’s the small matter of the chemistry between Stone and Garfield, which is
electrifying. And Garfield himself, his face is so expressive I can’t even
imagine what it will look like after... I can’t, just thinking about it makes
me want to cry.
Even though I kind of
guessed they wouldn’t kill Gwen Stacy in the first film of a series reboot I
was still in a constant state of fear for the whole movie… flinching every time
Gwen Stacy was in even the slightest amount of danger. My poor little heart
almost could take it – there was one scene where Peter Parker throws Gwen Stacy
out the window and catches her with his spidey-string. I nearly died. Sure it’s
all fun and games until someone breaks their neck.
The thing is… when
Gwen Stacy’s death was simply an angsty part of history I was totally cool with
it, even excited by it. Now that I’m actually confronted by the reality of the
situation I don’t know if my emotions can handle it. Of course, I don’t know
that they are actually going to kill Gwen Stacy. It’s a new universe after all,
which means pretty much anything goes – at least within reason (you don’t even
need reason if Spiderman 3 is
anything to go by). So all this worry is probably a tad premature; there is
still a chance, in this universe anyway, that Gwen Stacy could be saved… but
should she be saved?
Sometimes I hate the
fact that I know things. Part of my wishes I was one of those people getting
introduced to Gwen Stacy for the first time, with no knowledge of her possible
(if not probable) fate. Then I could just enjoy the ride as it happened… but
alas I have been burdened with way too much time and a abundance of pop culture
trivia so I will sit here and angst about poor Gwen Stacy until the sequel
comes out in 2014.
Have you ever had an
experience like this? Maybe when watching a TV show or movie that you had read
the spoilers for, so you knew a certain character was destined to die, but then
their death affected you way worse than you imagined.
Anyway, sorry for the
wangst…
Infinite X’s and O’s,
UndieGirl
P.S this also happened
to me when I was watching Lost (about
5 years too late), with Charlie’s death.
