Characters / Spider-Man: Love Interests

Elizabeth "Liz" Allan

First Appearance: Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962)

Liz Allan is one of the first romantic interests for Peter in the Midtown High School. Unfortunately (or fortunately) for Peter, she is Flash Thompson’s girlfriend at the time and thinks next to nothing of Peter. However, after she hears an ailing Peter had donned a Spider-Man costume in order to save Betty Brant from Doctor Octopus, she develops a crush on him and clashes with Betty Brant. By this time, however, Peter's interest has waned considerably, as he notes that Liz never showed any real interest in him until he began dating Betty Brant, and assumes that Liz's feelings are little more than a schoolgirl crush. At the graduation ceremony, Liz admits her feelings to Peter, and says she has come to accept the fact that they are unrequited.

Liz would eventually go on to date and then marry Harry Osborn, even having a son with him called Norman (though everyone calls him "Normie" rather than the same name as his grandfather). However, the marriage broke down, even before Harry's death. Liz would shuttle about for some time, before eventually becoming a founder and CEO of Alchemax.

• The Amazing Spider-Man
• Daredevil
• Civil War
• One More Day
• Fear Itself

In Alternate Universes

• The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows
• Marvel Comics 2
• Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane
• Ultimate Spider-Man

Notable Media Appearances

• Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994-1998), voiced by Marla Rubinoff
• Ultimate Spider-Man (2005)
• The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008), voiced by Alanna Ubach
• Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), played by Laura Harrier
• Marvel's Spider-Man (2017-2020), voiced by Natalie Lander

• Alpha Bitch —> Lovable Alpha Bitch: Liz was introduced as one, mocking Peter as much as everyone else, until a boost of Character Development after seeing him in a different light turned her into his love interest.
• Beta Couple: With Harry Osborn for a while.
• Betty and Veronica: Initially played the Veronica to... Betty's Betty. Although it was completely one-sided, since Peter was never truly interested in her that way.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: As the CEO of Alchemax, she is Norman's puppet leader.
• Face–Heel Turn: It is revealed that Liz has been willingly assisting Norman Osborn in order to provide her son with a legacy, and under her leadership Alchemax has engaged in a lot of unethical experiments.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She became considerably nicer to Peter as she got to know him.
• Founder of the Kingdom: Liz collaborated with her father-in-law to found Allan Chemical and became Horizon Labs' main shareholder, making one Tiberius Stone the site supervisor. Under Norman's direction, she would subsequently amalgamate "AlChem" with Oscorp and what was left of Horizon Labs and rename it Alchemax.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: As the CEO of Alchemax, she's been both an ally and an enemy to Spider-Man and Venom. It's particularly egregious in Venom, where she callously oversees the capture of Dylan Brock — who in Donny Cates' run had been living in her house and who she had treated as a second son.
• Hero-Worshipper: During her high school days, she develops a crush on Peter after she mistakenly believed he had tried to pull off some heroics (in reality, he was suffering from Worf Had the Flu).
• More than Mind Control: Norman's been manipulating her by using her desire to provide a legacy for her son.
• Offstage Villainy: While Liz presumably condones a lot of the dubious to outright illegal acts that Alchemax regularly engages in, the comics almost always reframe from actually showing her being involved in them, instead using other Alchemax representatives like Tiberius Stone. There is the occasional exception, though, like when she helped the Green Goblin escape at the end of Superior Spider-Man or when she personally oversaw Dylan Brock and Sleeper being captured in Venom.
• Promoted to Love Interest: As mentioned before, she had a crush on Peter in the comic books, but it was completely one-sided. This changed in The Spectacular Spider-Man adaptation, where she gets together with Peter... and then becomes deeply hurt when he breaks up with her to be with Gwen.
• Secret-Keeper: Not Peter's, but Miguel O'Hara's while he's trapped in the modern day. In fairness, she forced him to reveal himself.
• Spell My Name with an S: Her last name is Allan, not "Allen".
• Spotting the Thread: During Miguel's time infiltrating Alchemax, Liz notes Spidey 2099's sudden appearance when a supervillain attacks Alchemax, and how he managed to get into the building when it was sealed up tight. From there, she figures Spider-Man must be an Alchemax employee. Some digging reveals a few key facts about "Mike" the new guy...
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Since the events of Brand New Day, she's become increasingly cold and ruthless, especially as the CEO of Alchemax.
• Transplant: After Harry's death, Liz became a supporting character in Daredevil, serving as a love interest for lawyer Foggy Nelson. The couple breaks up after Mysterio manipulates Foggy into having an affair in a plot to drive Daredevil insane. Liz feels like Foggy has let her down and ends their relationship.

Elizabeth "Betty" Brant

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #4 (September 1963)

Peter's first girlfriend. She starts off as Jameson's personal secretary, a position she took after her mother's death, which made her drop out from high school. She starts dating Peter shortly after he starts selling pictures of Spider-Man to the Bugle, attracted to his serious and formal, yet sweet demeanor.

However, Peter's life as Spider-Man started to put a heavy strain on their relationship, especially after her brother got killed by accident during a showdown with Dr. Octopus. Eventually, they break up, although they stay on friendly terms and their relationship evolves into a more sibling-like one. A few years later, she marries Bugle reporter Ned Leeds, who at first looked like he could provide Betty the quiet, uncomplicated married life she was looking for. However, her marriage is a bumpy one due to Ned's constant work overseas, and she leaves him during a long assignment in Paris. Feeling alone, Betty tries to get back together with Peter, who at the time had just broken up with Mary Jane (for the first time), but Ned follows her back to New York and puts a stop to it.

Eventually, she manages to work things out with her husband and save their marriage, but their life together gets utterly destroyed during one of the first Hobgoblin sagas, in which Ned died and Betty almost went insane. However, she was able to recover; after that she decided to become a journalist herself.

Currently, she's one of the Bugle's boldest reporters and has a relationship with Flash Thompson.

• The Amazing Spider-Man
• Deadline
• Inferno (1988)
• Brand New Day

In Alternate Universes

• What If?
• Ultimate Spider-Man
• Spider-Man Fairy Tales
• Marvel Noir
• Spider-Gwen
  • Ghost-Spider (2019)
• Spider-Man: Life Story

Notable Media Appearances

• Spider-Man (1967-1970), voiced by Peg Dixon
• Spider-Man (1981-1982), voiced by Mona Marshall
• Mary Jane 2 (2004)
• Spider-Man Trilogy (film series, 2002-2007), played by Elizabeth Banks
  • Spider-Man (2002)
  • Spider-Man 2 (2004)
  • Spider-Man 3 (2007)
• Spider-Man Trilogy (video game series, 2004-2007)
  • Spider-Man 2 (2004), voiced by Bethany Rhoades
  • Spider-Man 3 (2007), voiced by Rachel Kimsey
• The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008), voiced by Grey DeLisle
• Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (2010)
• The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (2010), voiced by Grey DeLisle
• Spider-Man Unlimited (2014)
• Marvel Cinematic Universe (2017-), played by Angourie Rice
  • Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
  • Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
  • Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

• Action Girl: After losing her husband Ned (again) in the 90s Betty reinvented herself Taking a Level in Badass and decided to start packing heat and learned martial arts.
• Alliterative Name: Betty Brant.
• Betty and Veronica: Literally the Betty to Liz's Veronica.
• Clear Their Name: She cleared the name of her dead husband, Ned Leeds, when she revealed that Roderick Kingsley was the real Hobgoblin (Ned was brainwashed in believe to be Hobglobin by Kingsley).
• Clingy Jealous Girl: She was really afraid of losing Peter to other girls during her earlier years. The fact that she got to see and meet MJ before Peter made her gulp since she knew that nobody would beat her.
• Damsel in Distress: She has a habit of being abducted by supervillains. She was also this in an earlier comics issue, when she was kidnapped by the Brainwasher and held hostage alongside her father.
• Despair Event Horizon: Betty suffered a complete mental breakdown after the news of Ned's death reached her and suffered denial believing him to still be alive. In her state, a young recruiter from the Cult of Love was able to persuade her to join their faction under a leader called the Teacher where she was programmed in their ways. The Teacher turned out to be nothing more than a con artist conning people out of their possessions. Fortunately Flash and Spider-Man figured this out and saved Betty, though she lost everything she owned and had to take up residence with Flash Thompson.
• First Love: To Peter. Many people often consider Gwen Stacy to be Peter Parker's very first love, forgetting that Betty Brant dated him long before he met Gwen.
• Important Haircut: Got a page-boy cut after her brother died.
• Intrepid Reporter: Betty's new career and she easily rivals Lois Lane for her skill and fearlessness.

• Lost in Imitation: She's Peter Parker's first girlfriend but don't expect to see that in too many adaptions since the idea of a high school student dating a secretary is a bit squicky (it should be noted that she was younger than Peter in the original comics because she had to drop out of high school to work, but that's not really a thing anymore) though various adaptations play with it. In the Raimi films, she obviously has a fondness for Peter and is sort of his cheerleader while JJJ bullies him(it should also be noted that, in this continuity at least, Peter was in college by the time he met Betty, so there shouldn't have been any problem with them dating. It's just that he had already set his sights on MJ back in high school). Also, Peter has a crush on her in The Spectacular Spider-Man, but she turns him down gently because she's too old for him (in this adaptation, Peter is 16 and Betty is 20).
• Operation: Jealousy: Betty originally started dating Ned Leeds to make Peter jealous, but he was too busy to notice and she eventually fell in love with Ned for real.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Her current relationship with Peter. She considers him her best friend.
• Promoted to Love Interest: While their relationship didn’t last too long in the comics, Spider-Man (1967) had her as Peter’s main love interest. ^note  Interestingly, she’s given red hair in that version, thereby giving her a similarity to Mary Jane.
• Satellite Love Interest: During her relationship with Peter. See the trope below for more information.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: In the early days of the comics, this was her defining characteristic. She didn't want to date any badboys or daredevils (her constantly-in-trouble brother having destroyed any patience she might have had for such nonsense). She just wanted a simple relationship. This was the source of her attraction to Peter. When Peter, from Betty's perspective, started exhibiting bad boy traits, she dumped him.
• Sympathetic Adulterer: She had a brief affair with Peter and Flash Thompson when she was married to Ned Leeds (during this time Ned was much hostile because of the Hobglobin personality).
• Took a Level in Badass: Following her husband Ned's death, Betty checked out for a while. Once she got her head together, she reinvented herself, going from the Bugle's harried secretary to a fearless reporter in her own right, willing to go toe-to-toe with supervillains and monsters if required. Recent adaptations that include Betty tend to start from this characterization, to the point where a lot of newer fans won't recognize her at all if they go back and read her pre-1989 appearances.
  • Demonstrated and momentarily discussed when she, for example, rushed in to save Spidey and Flash from Ero. Using a pumpgun with silver bullets.
  Betty: I figured, y'know, the opposite of unholy might work, so while I was home I grabbed—
  Peter: You have a shotgun and silver bullets at home?!
  Betty: I'm a reporter for the Daily Bugle. I've seen stuff that would freak out Kolchak.
• What the Hell, Hero?: She demanded to know what gave Debra Whitman the right to create that slanderous book about Spider-Man after Peter revealed his identity.

Gwendolyne "Gwen" Stacy

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #31 (December 1965)

Gwen Stacy is a fictional Marvel Comics character created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. She is best known as one of Spider-Man's most prominent love interests, second only to Mary Jane Watson. First appearing in 1965 in Amazing Spider-Man #31, Gwen was introduced as one of Peter Parker's new college classmates along with Harry Osborn. A love square soon developed between the three of them and MJ, but over time, Peter and Harry exclusively dated Gwen and MJ respectively, which segues into the first of two things that Gwen is most famous for.

In Amazing Spider-Man #121, Gwen, who didn't know her boyfriend was Spider-Man, was kidnapped by his nemesis Green Goblin and taken to the Brooklyn Bridge. Spider-Man came to rescue her, and in the ensuing conflict Green Goblin knocked an unconscious Gwen off the bridge. Spidey desperately tried to snag her with his webs, and caught her before she hit the water... only for the whiplash to snap her spine, killing Gwen and leading to one of the most infamous panels in comic book history.

To this day, The Night Gwen Stacy Died remains one of the most shocking stories in all of comics, especially considering that at the time it was published (1973), the idea of permanently killing off a love interest was unheard of. Gwen's death shook the entire industry to its core, marking the definitive end to the innocence of The Silver Age of Comic Books and paving the way for darker, more experimental material.

It's worth noting that, astonishingly, Gwen has actually managed to remain dead since 1973, an astounding feat for a major comic book character. That's not to say she hasn't been around in any capacity. Just a few years after she died, a clone of Gwen, created by the Jackal (Gwen's Stalker with a Test Tube) and lacking any memory her death, appeared to shake things up. The clone was sent packing pretty quick, but this marked the first of several Gwen-clones to be created for lack of a true resurrection. The most notable of these was the one appearing in Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy, which features a corporation headed by the Jackal that had figured out how to "resurrect" people by creating clones of them with all of their memories up to their deaths. Peter Parker was forced to confront a version of Gwen who remembered dying and also now knew he was Spider-Man. Neither of them got much time to angst, though, since the Gwen-clone and multiple others ended up dying at the end of the storyline.

Elsewhere, Gwen has popped up alive in multiple alternate universes, including the second thing she's most famous for: Spider-Gwen. First appearing in Edge of Spider-Verse #2, this character hails from Earth-65, and is a version of Gwen Stacy who was bitten by the radioactive spider instead of Peter Parker, her best friend who she later inadvertently causes the death of. The character gained instant popularity, spawning several ongoing series and becoming an instant mainstay in Spider-Man media outside the comics, making her television debut a mere two years after her creation, and her feature film debut just two years after that. The character would even start regularly fighting crime in Earth-616 (the main Marvel Universe), firmly establishing herself alongside Peter Parker and Miles Morales as the trifecta of Spider-Heroes.

In 2020, a five-issue miniseries called Gwen Stacy, starring the self-titled lady, began publication, showing Gwen's life before she met Peter Parker. However since the second issue nothing more has been released.

• The Amazing Spider-Man
• The Night Gwen Stacy Died
• Spider-Man: Blue
• Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy (as a clone)
• Gwen Stacy (2020)

In Alternate Universes

• What If Gwen Stacy Had Lived?
• Ultimate Spider-Man
• House of M
• Marvel Fairy Tales
• Spider-Gwen
• Spider-Man: Life Story

Notable Media Appearances

• Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1998), voiced by Mary Kay Bergman
• Mary Jane 2 (2004)
• Spider-Man 3 (2007), played by Bryce Dallas Howard
• The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008-2009), voiced by Lacey Chabert
• The Amazing Spider-Man Series (2012-2014), played by Emma Stone
  • The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
  • The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
• The Amazing Spider-Man (2012 video game), voiced by Kari Wahlgren

Gwen Stacy provides examples of the following tropes

• Adaptation Personality Change: Inevitable given that her original character and personality constantly shifted, radically across issues. But none of her more recent adaptations, whether in Ultimate Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man Series, Spider-Gwen, has anything really in common with the character in the original stories.
• Affectionate Nickname: During their relationship and when she was alive, Peter and her friends called her Gwendy. After her death, it's always Gwen.
• Alternate Company Equivalent: To Lana Lang from Superman. They were both the main hero's First Love and had a Betty and Veronica dynamic with another, more famous love interest (Mary Jane, Lois Lane) that the hero did end up with. The major difference, of course, is that Peter's romance with Gwen ended when she died, while Clark simply drifted apart from Lana.
• Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: Even before Spider-Gwen, this was in play, as evidenced by the Age of Apocalypse version (where she's Thor's bodyguard) and Ultimate Gwen (who for a time was fused with Carnage). Likewise, Emma Stone's version of the character was considered the best parts of the highly divisive The Amazing Spider-Man Series.
• Always Someone Better: MJ still saw her as this, even after she died. As she remarks to Peter during their marriage, in The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual 8:
  MJ: When Gwen was alive, I knew I never had a chance with you. After all, she was smart, educated, a lady — And what was I? A cheap date. Emphasis on cheap.
  Peter: Don't say that, MJ.
  MJ: If Gwen Stacy was a beauty queen, then I was a pin-up girl.
• Betty and Veronica: Gwen and Mary Jane simultaneously play this straight and invert it. On the one hand, Gwen was always sweet and down-to-earth whereas MJ was exciting and charismatic. On the other hand, Gwen came from a wealthy upbringing in contrast to MJ who grew up in a poor family, was Peter's literal Girl Next Door, and was preferred by his Aunt May.
• Composite Character:
  • She has a habit of having parts of her characterization (namely being somewhat serious and melancholy at least near the end when she was crying all the time) given to Mary Jane. Hilariously, this began in 1970, during the third season of Spider-Man (1967) where MJ is made Captain George Stacy's niece. The joke is that this cartoon was released when she was still alive in the comics, proving that MJ has been upstaging and usurping Gwen from the start.
  • Of course, turnaround is fair play. Her most famous appearances, The Spectacular Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man Series, have her characters based on Mary Jane (Ultimate MJ in the case of Spectacular). Emma Stone's character in the Marc Webb films, as a warm, funny confidant and partner for Peter who knows his double life and accepts both is entirely MJ and completely the opposite to Gwen in the original (who reacted with horror and shock at the idea of Peter being Spider-Man).
• Daddy's Girl: She's beloved to her police chief father George Stacy, whom she similarly adores.
• Dead Alternate Counterpart: Versions of Gwen from Alternate Universes have appeared years after her death, most notably the Ultimate Spider-Man series and the eponymous Spider-Gwen.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She was initially cold towards Peter. Gradually, however, a romance develops because Gwen, a science major, seems to appreciate Peter's intellectual personality. Their relationship begins almost immediately after Peter stops going out with Mary Jane, whom he starts seeing as shallow and self-absorbed.
• Depending on the Writer: Most obvious than other characters since she never really had a set personality to start with:
  • Her characterization in the original The Amazing Spider-Man years was as a Liz Allan Expy for Peter now that he came to college, repeating the same beats such as outwardly participating with Harry and Flash in hazing and bullying Peter in college but inwardly finding him mysterious and sexy, mostly because Peter's the first guy who doesn't give her the time of his day. She was also a beauty queen Uptown Girl type and implied to have been a serial dater.
  • In the Lee-Romita years, they softened her considerably (just like they also softened up Harry and Flash to make Peter's social circle feel less hostile). They also kept changing Gwen's appearance and character over their run, making her a more elegant and nice ideal girl, implying that she is also Peter's fellow science student and shares an interest (though never to genius levels as later writers attempt it). Her appearance also changed, most notably later issues had Lee and Romita copying Mary Jane's hair style for her albeit with a blonde palette to make her as popular as her rival. Likewise, Gwen as Peter's First Love loved him but hated Spider-Man, blaming him for her father's death which they saw as giving her a tragic arc that mirrored Peter's loss of Uncle Ben.
  • Gerry Conway (the first writer to take over from Lee) simply decided to drop her off a bridge and made her into a Posthumous Character who characters periodically remember in an ideal light until JMS came up with Sins Past which can be understood as an over-correction of the recent tendency. Her most recent Alternate Universe renditions (Spider-Gwen and Ultimate Gwen) are more or less In Name Only original creations. Conway, on seeing Emma Stone's performance in The Amazing Spider-Man Series, noted that it was a Composite Character with Gwen's name and background but with comics!MJ's personality (in that she's warm, light-hearted, and snarks back to Peter and is okay with both Peter and Spider-Man).
  • At various times, Gwen was a popular Alpha Bitch, an academic popular girl, a Teen Genius who knows more about science than Peter, a Goth, or an elegant young woman who despite being popular is secretly a wallflower and is drawn to Peter over Harry Osborn and Flash Thompson.
  • The major one is her exact cause of death. In the original comic, Green Goblin explicitly said that she died because he dropped her and that a fall from that height would have killed anyone. However, Romita and Conway, as a way to create ambiguity and also to make it convincing and realistic, added the famous sound effect of a snap when Peter webbed her body to stop her descent suddenly. In both cases, the intent was to provide Surprisingly Realistic Outcome into a superhero encounter to really sell her Character Death as a real one.
• Desecrating the Dead: Her corpse was one of the many exhumed by Kindred to psychologically torture Peter.
• invokedDie for Our Ship: A rare non-fan example. Gerry Conway, who wrote "The Night Gwen Stacy Died", was very vocal that he thought the character was annoying and uninteresting compared to Mary Jane. John Romita Sr. suggested killing off a long-term supporting character (he pitched Aunt May first), but Conway chose Gwen as it would allow him to move things along to get Peter with the girl he wanted him to be with all along while in his view, allowing Gwen a role and status that made her into an all-time famous comics icon while satisfying Gwen-Peter shippers to regard Mary Jane as simply Peter's rebound girl and runner-up when in Conway's view, Gwen was Peter's False Soulmate.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the classic The Night Gwen Stacy Died, Gwen was tossed off a bridge by Norman Osborn and Peter botched his attempt to save her, snapping her neck. However...
  • Ultimate Spider-Man had Gwen meet her end by Carnage draining her to a husk — but there, she ultimately came Back from the Dead, unlike her Earth-616 and Amazing selves. Speaking of the latter...
  • The Amazing Spider-Man 2 mostly had Gwen die the same way, but the location was changed to a clocktower and her killer was Harry instead of Norman.
• Dude Magnet: When she was alive, she had dated many boys in high school and beat them all with a stick, and in college has Harry Osborn and Flash Thompson wrapped around her finger. The reason why she eyed Peter was because he was the first one who simply didn't fall over her like everyone else. Posthumously, Gwen was revealed to have attracted the eyes of her pervert teacher Prof. Miles Warren.
• Everyone Loves Blondes: Blonde, beautiful, and is desired by many men (seriously, see Dude Magnet above).
• First Love: Depending on the Writer. Peter dated Betty before her, but Gwen is his first serious relationship and many often see her as the girl Peter might have given up Spider-Man for and settle down for good, though none of that was hinted in the pages itself^note Stan Lee and Romita Sr. also hinted that they might have had Peter and Gwen marry, though Lee later admitted that he changed his mind about that and shrugged when he heard Conway's pitch to kill her off since even he realized that he hadn't done enough to make Gwen an interesting character.
• Girl Next Door: Played with. As portrayed in the comics, Gwen came from an upper-class background, her first boyfriend, Harry, was the son of a millionaire and in her first appearance she was introduced as a high-school beauty queen. However, as she became the Betty to Mary Jane's Veronica, she moved into this category and many fans remember her with this status after her death, even if MJ was the literal girl next door handpicked by Aunt May as the right girl for her Peter, although after Peter and Gwen started dating, she supported them too.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Her hair's always been a shade of blonde (from platinum to bright yellow), and initial Ice Queen characterization aside, she's been portrayed often as a passionate and caring individual.
• Hero of Another Story: Giant-Size Gwen Stacy looks at an adventure Gwen had before she even met Peter concerning the circumstances of George Stacy's forced retirement from the police, which includes her dealing with a criminal conspiracy involving the Crime-Master, the Kingpin and the Green Goblin, as well as having a brief encounter with the X-Men (Marvel Girl, Beast and Iceman, to be specific).
• Hysterical Woman: Peter openly calls her this in narration during Amazing Spider-Man #87 where he blurts out he's Spider-Man, which some of his friends see as being evidence of him being crazy (which Peter later runs with) but Gwen actually believes it and her reaction is so over-the-top that Peter swears off telling her his secret ever again. Mary Jane also trolls her for her over-the-top reaction, which becomes even more hilarious if you factor in the Parallel Lives retcon that she knew Peter was always Spider-Man and that she's rubbing it in to her rival about how she can't deal with their mutual crush's double life):
  MJ: Wow Gwendy, you sure can pick 'em. He's either a masked menace or a psycho case, take your pick!
  Gwen: [tears in her eyes] Shut Up! No matter what he is — what he's done — don't you dare talk about him like that!
  MJ: Okay, Tigress! He's all yours!
• Iconic Outfit: Her dying outfit (green overcoat, black shirt, purple skirt, black headband) remains her most easily recognizable outfit.
• Iconic Sequel Character: She debuted three years after Spidey's introduction, but is one of the most notable characters in his mythos.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die: She's the Trope Namer for a reason, having died infamously on Spider-Man's watch, something continues to haunt him and their surviving friends.
• In Name Only: While her personality was admittedly always inconsistent, none of the adaptions have ever come to close to being accurate. The original Gwen was an example of a Hysterical Woman who started out unlikeable before warming up to Peter, while later proving to be a Politically Incorrect Hero by supporting a corrupt authoritarian DA candidate just because she hates Spider-Man. All adaptions of the character remove these elements, often making her a Composite Character with Mary Jane to not only make her more likeable, but to make her the sort of character Peter would more believably fall in love with. Spider-Gwen in particular is the exact opposite of the original Gwen, being based more on how adaptions portrayed her such as the version from The Amazing Spider-Man.
• Killed Off for Real: Shockingly, Gwen has actually managed to remain dead in the decades since her death, likely because the story of her death is so iconic.
• Lady in Red: Famously wears a revealing red bikini in the Savage Land saga. In the entirety of the story.
• Likes Clark Kent, Hates Superman: Despite initially liking Spider-Man, she soon came to hate him after her father died saving a child from falling rubble during one of Spidey's fights with Doc Ock.
• Like Parent, Like Spouse: Potential Spouse in this case (and actual one in AU versions). But she had a close relationship with her father George Stacy, a principled responsible man who wants to stop crime and risks his life in service while her boyfriend has similar qualities (and unknown to her is also a crime fighter who risks his life to fight crime). Captain George Stacy for his part always approved of Peter and in his deathbed admitted that he knew he was Spider-Man and told him he had no problems with him dating his daughter.
• Lost in Imitation: Her iconic death scene via falling off a bridge from The Night Gwen Stacy Died gets adapted a lot — Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Ultimate Spider-Man (2012), the first live-action movie — and they always replace Gwen with Mary Jane and let her live. The child-friendly cartoon series actually came the closest to adapting the tragedy by having Mary Jane fall into a dimensional time and space rift (alive but in an And I Must Scream state of floating through a no-man's-land outside reality and definitely believed dead by Peter, with an arc about grieving her loss). When the The Amazing Spider-Man 2 FINALLY gets the right girl, and kills her off for real, they have to replace the iconic setting with a clock tower because people have already seen the familiar set up with Mary Jane too many times. They also replace Norman with Harry.
• The Lost Lenore: While Peter moved on and found new love, he has never fully gotten over Gwen's death.
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: In the original Steve Ditko era, she was basically the Regina George of ESU.^note Her animated version in The Spectacular Spider-Man is voiced by Lacey Chabert aka Gretchen Wieners herself
• Loving a Shadow: In Tom Beland's one-shot "Web of Romance", Peter actually reflects this about his feelings for Gwen and how it compares to his relationship with Mary Jane (who's always been insecure about being a replacement for Gwen). Peter notes that with Gwen he was always tense, nervous, because of how emotional she was, was never entirely relaxed, and that he was never able to be honest and open with her in the way he is with Mary Jane, and that his feelings for his wife are greater than it was for Gwen. The Sinister Six Trilogy features Peter musing at one point that his relationship with Gwen couldn't have worked out because she wanted peace and he acknowledges that he seeks crusades, even if he still regrets her death.
• Meet the In-Laws: Gwen had a very frosty relationship with Aunt May (unlike Mary Jane who saw her as a Parental Substitute and always remained close and in-touch with her). Most notably, when Peter had a disappearance and May was worried about where she was, Gwen lashed out at her with a speech calling her out for being a smothering mother that so badly affected May that she actually spent weeks away from Peter without talking to her and was considered to have "disappeared". Gwen did feel guilty about doing this, and May and Peter accommodated her, but things were never warm between them.
• Misfit Lab Rat: Back in the 60s she was originally written as a Defrosting Ice Queen Academic Alpha Bitch, but some modern takes (like Ultimate Spider-Man and Spider-Gwen) make her more of a punk outcast. That said, her skills at science tend to vary Depending on the Writer.
• Ms. Fanservice: Gwen is a very beautiful blonde-haired woman who wears outfits (particularly skirts with thigh-high socks and boots as well as dresses) that highlight her very voluptuous body and nice legs. The trilogy in the Savage Land has her wearing a red bikini for the entirety of three issues, showing far more skin than even Mary Jane did until her marriage to Peter and the era of her being a cheesecake.
• My Secret Pregnancy: Was retconned into having had one of these courtesy of Norman Osborn — the man who later killed her — during the Sins Past storyline. When Gwen learned she was pregnant, she decided to raise the children with Peter, so Norman killed her and raised them himself. This was eventually retconned in The Amazing Spider-Man (2018), 15 years after that story was first published, when it was revealed that both of Gwen and Norman's kids were imperfect clones, and Mary Jane was hypnotized to believe that Gwen told her about her affair with Norman, which never actually occurred as part of the larger Arc Welding narrative going on.
• Neck Snap: This was confirmed by Word of God to be her real cause of death.
  Roy Thomas: It saddens us to have to say that the Whiplash effect she underwent when Spidey's webbing stopped her so suddenly was, in fact, what killed her. In short, it was impossible for Peter to save her. He couldn't have swung down in time; the action he did take resulted in her death; if he had done nothing, she still would certainly have perished. There was no way out.
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: One way to really piss Peter off is to besmirch her name. Sins Past by JMS was a story that intended to correct her posthumous adulation by painting Gwen as someone who cheated on Peter with an older man, and Peter's reaction on learning of this was one of rage and disbelief though he ultimately did get over it, especially since MJ, Gwen's close friend who never once brought this up even if it was to her advantage, still loved and missed Gwen. Of course in other stories, such as "Web of Romance", Peter is okay being critical of Gwen such as her dependency and the stress she put him during their relationship.
• Nerds Are Sexy: She was a science geek (Depending on the Writer) while still looking like an absolute bombshell (Depending on the Artist).
• Never Got to Say Goodbye: One reason why her death was so poignant for Peter was that she died before knowing he was Spider-Man, before knowing the true cause of her father's death. Peter also admits to MJ in Sins Past that he and Gwen never had sex during their relationship together and of course if Peter had plans to propose to her, he never told her either.
• Nice Girl: Despite an initial haughty characterization and later variations, she's ultimately remembered as a sweet girl. This has more or less become her default characterization in most adaptations.
• Nostalgia Filter: Not only among fans and writers, but many characters In-Universe latch on to Gwen's memory as a representative of a more innocent time.
  • Spider-Man: Blue is entirely about Peter recording his memories about how the college days with Gwen was a innocent happy era. Harry Osborn in "Best of Enemies" also voices regret about Gwen's death and his father killing her, noting how he feels that their entire generation (himself, Peter, MJ, Flash) all lost something with her.
  • Mary Jane herself punctures holes with this nostalgia at one point pointing out that none of them were actually innocent or that those years were so golden. Peter was Spider-Man and was tearing himself up lying to everyone about his double life, Harry was a drug addict son of a barely-repressed supervillain, MJ was a product of a broken home and runaway trying desperately to hide her real self from her people, Flash fought in Vietnam and came back a veteran (sliding time scale later moved this back and forth), and even Gwen's final years were marked with the death of her father, and her grief over being orphaned.
• The One That Got Away: On account of her death, many fans and later writers grew up thinking of her as this. Some AU versions often show her and Peter as living the dream life, though others such as House of M hint at a very troubled relationship (with an implication that a married Peter was cheating on her with MJ).
• Pietà Plagiarism: Peter is (in)famously seen cradling her lifeless body in the climactic scene of The Night Gwen Stacy Died.
• Pretty Spry for a Dead Guy: It's teased that she's actually alive a couple of times, only for it to be revealed it's a clone or something each time. Interestingly, the First Clone Saga was suggested by Stan Lee (after the fan reaction and backlash over Gwen's death) as a possible backdoor to bring her back just in case Conway's plan to have Peter move on with Mary Jane didn't take with readers. Once it became clear it did, he made the revived Gwen into a clone.
• Progressively Prettier: Ditko's Gwen was beautiful but she also had a colder look and due to her haughty nature, she was a Perpetual Frowner (or as we'd call it now "resting bitch face"). Romita Sr. gradually softened her appearance, and after MJ came along, he redesigned Gwen to resemble a Blonde MJ while also softening her.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: In Amazing Spider-Man #91-92, after her father's death, Gwen, in grief and anger, serves as a volunteer to Sam Bullitt, an authoritarian candidate for the position of DA who wants a "law and order" campaign, solely so he would go after Spider-Man. This despite him having, as Robbie Robertson points out, a past history of being supported by hate groups. Despite the fact that George Stacy detested Bullitt, Gwen works for Sam and willingly supports and gets behind his "law and order" campaign.
• Posthumous Character: Since her death happened in Amazing Spider-Man #122 of a long comics series and is one of the most constantly revisited and alluded to moments in the comics, a good number of later readers encounter her as a posthumous character. Jeph Loeb's Spider-Man: Blue is quite common, even if it has little to do with her original characterization.
• Retcon:
  • The infamous Sins Past story establishes that Norman Osborn and Gwen Stacy had a son and daughter, Gabriel Stacy and Sarah Stacy. The Amazing Spider-Man (2018) undoes this by revealing that the "kids" are clones and Osborn never had the affair, while Mary Jane was hypnotized to believe in it as part of her therapy sessions with a disguised Mysterio.
  • A minor one that changes a character's entire motivations in Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy. The Night Gwen Stacy Died is changed to reveal that, before the Goblin knocked her over, Gwen had woken up and heard the supervillain call Spider-Man "Peter". She automatically hates both because of what happened to her father. In Clone Conspiracy #4, however, when Peter finally confronts Gwen (or rather, another clone with her last memories), she does say that she forgives him and, in a tie-in, admits that she's still in love with Peter, but feels betrayed by him being Spider-Man, though she understands why he does what he does.
• Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: The rich to MJ's poor. She's the only girl Peter has dated to come from a higher social class than him, his previous love interests Betty and Liz were from the same background with Betty choosing to work rather than go to school, while Mary Jane was also from Queens like Peter and was ambitious about moving up.
• Sex for Solace: When she had her one-night stand with Norman, her father had recently died, her boyfriend Peter had become distant, and her friend Harry had overdosed on LSD. The Amazing Spider-Man (2018) retconned this by revealing that the affair never actually happened and ended up being an elaborate hoax designed to mess with Peter's head.
• Sliding Scale of Beauty: Level III(World-Class).
• Spared by the Adaptation: For someone who's best known for being one of the first love interests killed in super-hero history, Gwen always seems to survive outside of the comics (as seen in the Spider-Man Trilogy, Spider-Man: The Animated Series or The Spectacular Spider-Man). The one exception was The Amazing Spider-Man Series and it was considered highly unpopular in that film. This is probably because the nature of superhero film trilogies which generally don't allow for Comic-Book Time removes much of the original reason and context for her fridging.
• Spoiled Sweet: She comes from a wealthy upbringing in contrast to Peter's status as a Working-Class Hero. Despite this, she is portrayed as a good-hearted individual and is fondly remembered by her friends long after her death.
• Surprisingly Sudden Death: Gwen was drugged by Osborn and was still unconscious when he dropped her off the bridge. No last words, no deathbed exchanges (unlike the case of her father's death, Captain George Stacy), no Parting-Words Regret or any literary foreshadowing about her death, which is one reason why it was a huge shock to readers.
• They Killed Kenny: All her clones, created by the Jackal, always end up killed. Even Joyce Delaney (her first clone) who, after many years, started finally a new life... ended up killed by another Gwen's clone, Abby-L, in Spider-Island.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: She is treated this way in retrospect both in the Spider-Man continuity and by the editors. Before her death, her relationship with Peter was a little rocky owing to the latter blaming Spider-Man for her father's death, burdening Peter with guilt and regret. She had actually separated from Peter and gone to London (which revived during the Sins Past story) and she and Peter came off as a non-functional couple. Of course, as a Posthumous Character, she's earned the sarcastic nickname "St. Gwen."
• Tsundere: Her original characterization flips between being concerned and lovestruck over Peter to hating his guts for a minor transgression like him not responding to Harry Osborn's jokes.
• Two First Names: Gwen and Stacy are both common given names.
• Unwitting Pawn: Gwen Stacy to Sam Bullitt. The latter uses her to support his political campaign and venture, even if her father disliked him for his politics.
• Uptown Girl: What the character actually is. While Peter is a poor kid from Queens trying to help his Aunt May pay the bills and make rent, she's a well-to-do high society girl whose father, a retired NYPD captain, hangs around media tycoon J. Jonah Jameson and industrialist Norman Osborn. All adaptations tend to ignore this aspect of the character, though a few such as The Amazing Spider-Man films acknowledge it in little ways by showing Gwen's family living a very nice and clearly expensive apartment.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: She and MJ gradually transitioned into this once the latter realized that she and Peter were serious. They remained friendly with MJ mock-teasing and flirting as a way to josh Gwen. Sins Past revealed how close their friendship was as does Spider-Man: Blue. Notably, MJ never once gives Peter heat over still mourning his first love even during their marriage, making it clear that she loved and misses Gwen as much as he does.
• Woman Scorned: She was initially upset that Peter gave her the cold shoulder upon their first meeting (which he did because he was worried about Aunt May's illness). Furious, she dates both Flash Thompson and Harry Osborn.

Mary Jane Watson

First Appearance: Amazing Spider-Man #42 (November, 1966)

Mary Jane (or MJ) is the most famous Love Interest of Peter Parker/Spider-Man. She was his wife until One More Day retconned this (in other universes, like MC2 universe or The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, they are again married). See her personal page.

Debra Whitman

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #196 (September 1979)

A university secretary who became one of Peter Parker's love interests for a while.

• The Atoner: At Betty Brant's urging, Debra later rescinded most of what was in the book she supposedly wrote about Spider-Man by revealing it'd been largely edited to make Peter look horrible.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: She's one of the few people to deduce Peter is Spider-Man, although she later comes to doubt herself about that.
• Domestic Abuse: When she was married to Mark Whitman. One day her friend Biff Rifkin went to her house and saw Mark beating her. He rescued her and took her to the hospital, but she insisted Mark was a kind and gentle husband, locked in denial. It took some shock therapy to make Debra come to her senses and decide to leave New York to get a divorce.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: She was last seen moving out west with her new boyfriend Biff Rifkin. Considering everything she'd been through before that, the readers can probably take comfort in the fact that she found some happiness with him.
• Extreme Doormat: Debra has a weak personality. This is evident if you consider that she had an abusive husband in past and how Peter treats her, running out on their dates more than any other of his love interests. Despite this, Debra threw herself at Peter issue after issue only to have him push her aside.
• Foil: To both Mary Jane and Black Cat. She is not a supermodel or a person with a particularly strong personality, but just an average woman with a fragile mind.
• Kick the Dog: Well, "kick" may be putting it harshly, but to put it bluntly, Peter was significantly less-than-ideal during their relationship than with any of his other lovers. Aside from the fact that he ran out on her multiple times for Spider-Man related activities-in and on itself not a rarity with his other girlfriends, but ridiculously frequently with her — Peter was remarkably underappreciative of her efforts as a romantic partner ^Example  He once showed up unannounced at her door to be nursed back to health, then after she cooked a massive breakfast for him, he left without saying goodbye or even touching said breakfast . Even while with her, he tended to let his eyes fall on other attractive women to the point of almost forgetting he had a date with her, even if he never actually cheated on her. Towards the tail end of their time together, he took note of this and tried to be more appreciative, up to being willing to reveal his identity to her, but at that point, the ship had already sunk.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Debra's tell-all book was actually edited to make Peter seem worse than he actually did, and Debra wasn't comfortable with the changes made. In fact, she didn't event want to write the book but was convinced by J. Jonah Jameson to use the money to pay for her mom's health insurance.
• Shrinking Violet: Although she's not necessarily shy, her aversion to conflict and reluctance when it comes to taking initiative makes her this in the comics.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: She disappeared completely after being written out of the early-'80s Spectacular Spider-Man book. Every other woman in Peter Parker's dating life tends to reappear from time to time as a member of his supporting cast, except for Debra.
  • She finally reemerged following Peter's unmasking in Civil War, having written a tell-all book about her time dating him, and promptly disappeared again.

Black Cat

Alter Ego: Felicia Hardy

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #194 (July 1979)

Felicia is the daughter of Walter Hardy, the world-renowned cat burglar who, before his arrest, encouraged her to never settle for second best.

Although she was a villain in her first appearances (or rather, an Anti-Villain), she became the third most prominent love interest in the series after Mary Jane and Gwen (some would argue she's more prominent than Gwen at this point, at least plot-wise). She's also the most recurring one outside of MJ. Although she has the particularity that, unlike those two, she was way more in love with the Spider-Man persona than with the Peter Parker persona, which was the main source of conflict in their relationship.

In her backstory in Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do, it's revealed that she was raped by her boyfriend Ryan when she was a freshman at Empire State University. Hating the idea of being a victim, she trained herself in various fighting styles and acrobatics, intent on killing her rapist. Finally, after months of preparing, she set out for revenge, but before she could find him, Ryan was killed in a drunk driving accident. Furious that she was denied the chance for revenge, she decided to utilize her new skills to follow in her father's footsteps. After amassing a fortune in stolen items, Felicia adopted her costumed identity.

She first donned the Black Cat costume in order to break her father out of prison. On the same night, she met Spider-Man. Unfortunately for Felicia, her father died, and she then faked her own death. Despite her antipathy towards men, Felicia felt a kinship with this lone hero; Spider-Man was the first man she felt she could trust and she grew to believe herself in love with him. Felicia looked for a way to earn his trust and continued with the Black Cat persona as a misguided attempt to attract his affection. Seeing the good in Felicia, Spider-Man made every attempt to have her criminal record expunged.

For more information on her, please refer to her page.

Jill Stacy

First Appearance: Spider-Man #76 (January 1997)

The cousin of the late Gwen Stacy, Jill moved to New York City from Hong Kong with her father and brother, Arthur and Paul. She befriended Peter (Spider-Man) and Mary Jane Parker, taking classes with Mary Jane at Empire State University (ESU). Jill sought to understand the events surrounding Gwen's death, and though hesitant, Peter eventually told Jill his side of the story.

• Romantic False Lead: She was set up as a new love interest for Peter after MJ's apparent death. When Mary Jane was found to be alive, Jill withdrew her advances toward Peter and her entire character is put aside.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: During the period of MJ's death, Jill consoles Peter (and/or makes a surreptitious pass) by stating that he needs to move on from Mary Jane's death, that he deserves to be happy and he needs to open his heart and let someone in who cares for him. Peter coldly replies that he already found and married that someone, and he lost her (though MJ returned later anyway).
• Strong Family Resemblance: She was Gwen's cousin, but bore a strong enough physical resemblance to Gwen to remind Peter of her. At one point it was shown that aside from Jill having black hair instead of blonde, the two were almost identical.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To MJ of all people. After the "death" of MJ, her siding up and befriending Peter and consoling him in grief intentionally mirrored how Peter's romance with MJ happened in the aftermath of Gwen's death. It didn't quite work the second time around needless to say.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Jill's last appearance was around Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 2 #31. She disappear without an explanation, but has maybe moved out of New York.
• Women Are Wiser: Compared to her father and brother, who distrust Spider-Man and are less pleasant towards both Peter and Spider-Man (although neither is too antagonistic). That said, her father Arthur was eventually able to get over his issues with Spider-Man and work with him in investigating Norman Osborn, whereas Jill fixated on the idea of Spider-Man as a threat even when he was actively trying to save her life.

Martha Franklin

First Appearance: The Spectacular Spider-Man #263 (November 1998)

The niece of J. Jonah Jameson and Spider-Man fangirl, Martha "Mattie" Franklin obtained super powers from the Gathering of Five and became the third Spider-Woman. She temporarily took Spider-Man's place during one of his brief periods of retirement, and became the third Spider-Woman with the blessing of Jessica Drew. When Mary Jane was assumed dead, Mattie attempted to initiate a romantic relationship with Spider-Man, but was turned down.

For more information on her, please refer to her page.

Caryn Earle

First Appearance: Peter Parker: Spider-Man Vol 2 #30 (June 2001)

Caryn Earle was Peter Parker's neighbor while he lived in New Jersey. They became friendly and dated after Mary Jane Watson returned to Los Angeles. After Mary Jane returned to Peter's life, their friendship distanced.

• Angry Guard Dog: Her dog doesn't like Peter.
• Ms. Fanservice: Her regular outfit is a revealing top that and blue shorts.
• Romantic False Lead: Caryn briefly dated Peter until MJ returned officially in his life. Afterwards, she disappears and is not mentioned again.
• The Tease: She is extremely flirtatious.

Sarah Stacy

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #509 (August 2004)

The alleged daughter of Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn. She and her twin brother Gabriel were raised by "Uncle Norm" to believe that Peter Parker was their father and had killed their mother as Spider-Man. Trained as assassins, Sarah and Gabriel attacked Peter and eventually learned the truth about their mother's death. While Gabriel became increasingly insane, Sarah was outraged and turned against her father, fell in love with Peter herself, and became an Interpol agent.

• Action Girl: Sarah is a good pistol shot and has excellent strength and reflexes due to her Goblin genes.
• The Bus Came Back: Returns late into Nick Spencer's Spider-Man run, revealing her to be the host body taken by Kindred.
• Bus Crash: The Sarah that was present during Sins Past suffered Clone Degeneration and died. Another clone is used as Kindred's body.
• Cain and Abel: When they learned the truth about her mother's death, Gabriel- having been driven insane by a second dose of the Goblin Formula- kept on blaming Peter and became a super villain. Sarah denounced Norman and (after a period of trying to shelter and help him) became an Interpol agent to bring her brother to justice.
• Generation Xerox: She is physically identical to her mother, which gave Spidey a major shock when he unmasked her.
• Half Identical Twin: She and her brother are mostly identical, except for their hair length and the fact that Gabe's a guy.
• Heel–Face Turn: When she learned about the truth of her mother's death, she turned against Norman and her increasingly insane brother, and eventually became an Interpol agent.
• I Hate You, Vampire Dad: She loathes her father for lying to and using her and her brother.
• May–December Romance: She put the moves on Peter◊ after he saved her life, made a little disturbing due to her looking identical to her mother, the extreme age difference between them, and that until recently, she'd believed him to be her father. Made even worse when Mary Jane walked in on Sarah kissing Peter.
• Ms. Fanservice: As an attractive young lady, she's often been drawn in halter tops and other revealing clothing.
• Obliviously Evil: She and Gabriel snuck out of the house Norman had them at and made friends with some local punks who got them to serve a couriers for packages. The twins saw it as a game before realizing that they were moving drugs.
• Professional Killer: She and her brother were trained as assassins by Norman.
• Rage Against the Reflection: She has some moments of this while wrestling over her painkiller addiction early on.
• Rapid Aging: The Goblin Formula she inherited from her father caused her to grow from a baby to a young adult in a few years' time.
• Reformed Criminal: While no longer evil, she was still wanted for criminal activities when Interpol recruited her to hunt down some drug dealers and her crazy brother.
• Rescue Romance: She fell for Peter after he saved her life and helped her apprehend her brother.
• Spotting the Thread: Despite being raised to see Peter as her villainous father all her life, she realises that this can't be true when he goes to the trouble of getting a DNA sample from Gwen's grave to compare it to their own and yet never ran his own. As Sarah explains to Gabriel, Peter would never have gone to that much trouble without testing his own samples as well unless he knew that she and Gabriel couldn't be his children.
• Super Cop: She is a superpowered Interpol agent.
• Superpowerful Genetics: The Goblin Formula in her father granted her superhuman abilities and aged her to adulthood in a few years time.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: She is more or less Gwen Stacy 2.0 with assassin training and superpowers.
• True Blue Femininity: She has a certain innocence to her in some ways, such as coming to believe Peter sooner than her brother, and wears a blue T-shirt for most of Sins Remembered.
• Vapor Wear: She's pretty evidently not wearing a bra under her shirts in most of her appearances (particularly the second half of Sins Remembered).
• What Happened to the Mouse?: While Gabriel reappeared during Dark Reign, Sarah hasn't been seen since One More Day.
• Younger Than They Look: She's only a few years old but looks like she's in her late teens or early twenties.

Carlie Ellen Cooper

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #545 (January 2008)

Carlie Cooper is a forensic specialist who is a friend, since high school, of Lily Hollister. She is one of the first potential romantic interests for Parker after "One More Day" and eventually becomes his girlfriend for a time.

• Alliterative Name: Both her first and last names start with C.
• Birds of a Feather: Attempted. Her interest in science was supposedly intended to make her seem like a natural fit for Peter.
• Black Eyes of Evil: As Monster, her eyes are solid black.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Thanks the Goblin Formula as applied by the Green Goblin, she has become Monster, essentially a Distaff Counterpart to the Green Goblin himself.
  • And... possibly subverted. She was spying on Osborn while still crazy, but she was cured to an extent in the second annual.
• Character Shilling: A lot of her appearances consisted of everyone talking about how super awesome she was — even those who had never met her before. If this weren't bad enough, she appeared in an issue titled "The Many Loves Of Spider-Man" before they were even dating. When they finally got together, Peter declared it was "the rightest thing in the world" (despite the fact she was dressed up as his ex).
• Composite Character: Probably not intentionally, but fans have noted a lot of her personality traits are from previous love interests (the science girl thing is Gwen, the daddy issues are MJ, the "regular girl" thing is Deb, her being a police contact is Jean Dewolff, her conflict of Peter vs. Spider-Man is Felicia etc.)
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: The first major love interest after Marvel's attempt to remove Mary Jane from that position, Carlie was designed to be the "Anti-MJ." Hollywood Homely to MJ's more glamourous Head-Turning Beauty, smart and brainy to compare to MJ's street smarts, and works as a forensic scientist as opposed to MJ's celebrity lifestyle. Unfortunately this worked against Carlie's favor, as while MJ is an attractive character and moderately famous in-universe, she is also a unique presence, whereas Carlie wasn't able to establish a character identity of her own.
• Depending on the Artist: Due to how frequently she falls victim to this, fans still aren't sure how long or even what color her hair is supposed to be. They seemingly eventually settled on her hair being light brown and kept in a similar fashion to that seen in the picture here, but even then it wasn't 100% consistent.
• Disappeared Dad: During the Mysterio arc of The Gauntlet, she finds out that her dad was a Dirty Cop who faked his own death.
• Embarrassing Tattoo: Almost got one of the Green Goblin while drunk. The one she got of Spider-Man subverted this originally, only to play it straight when she found out Peter was Spider-Man and broke up with him.
• Friend on the Force: She was this to Spider-Man.
• Fighting from the Inside: As Monster, after the Green Goblin sprayed the Goblin Formula on her.
• Hollywood Homely: Was meant to be more of a contrast for the glamorous Mary Jane Watson.
• Important Haircut: When Carlie learns that her father was not the good cop he was made out to be, she has him arrested. She then cuts her hair and decides to be more assertive in her life.

• Oblivious to Love: She was not aware that Officer Vin Gonzales, Peter's roommate, had a crush on her.
• One-Winged Angel: Is transformed into "Monster" by the Goblin King. Also a Face–Monster Turn, or at least Brainwashed and Crazy. She is cured, at least temporarily, in Superior Spider-Man Annual #2.
• Put on a Bus: At the end of the Superior Spider-Man saga, she leaves New York to recover and resume her career away from Spidey.
• Remember the New Guy?: A retcon story showed she was best friends with Gwen Stacy and her dad worked with Captain Stacy. This isn't exactly the most consistent either, as Carlie ends up referring to Gwen as "that poor girl" at one point in an impersonal almost unfamiliar way, not by name like you'd expect of a close friend. Then there's that whole "Goblin tattoo" business, which really would have been awkward and inappropriate considering it was both public knowledge that Norman was the Green Goblin and that he killed Gwen.
• Satellite Love Interest: When first introduced. Later issues attempted to broaden her characterization (albeit a characterization that kind of made her a Composite Character of several former love interests). Averted now that she is A) no longer a love interest and B) the books are mostly focusing on her as a Friend on the Force.
• Tuckerization: Named after Quesada's daughter.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: During The Gauntlet, after dealing with the revelation that her father was still alive and a dirty cop, Carlie tells Peter that he couldn't possibly understand what she went through and that one has to go through a gauntlet to truly find out what they were made of. Carlie is saying this to a person who - in just his civilian identity - has lost both his parents, two surrogate father figures, and a girlfriend all before the age of 30. Which doesn't even get into the hardships Peter faced as Spider-Man. The fact that the story tries to paint Carlie as in the right was a point of no return for Carlie's character, with many fans writing her off after that point.

• What the Hell, Hero?: Breaks up with Peter when she realizes he is Spider-Man and assumes their whole relationship was a lie.

Michele Gonzales

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man: Extra! #3 (May 2009)

Michele Gonzales is the older sister of Vin Gonzales who went to represent her brother in court. Later, she becomes Peter Parker's roommate and a potential love interest. She is a criminal defense lawyer and is known for her volcanic temper.

• Derailing Love Interests: She has been mutated into a total bitch and ended up technically raped by Chameleon, just so she could be removed from Peter's "girlfriend material" zone.
• Hello, Attorney!: She is a criminal defense lawyer and is known for her volcanic temper.
• Jerkass: Michele just really crossed the line at this, randomly destroying or selling Peter's stuff. Most people, having such a landlady, would seriously consider living under the bridge. Some would even choose it.
• Kissing Under the Influence: In Amazing Spider-Man #601, she and Peter wake up in bed naked. They apparently had sex after Parker had one too many at his Aunt May's wedding. It's later explained that, as a gag, Michelle kept filling his glass with cider when Peter wasn't looking, so he thought it was wine.

Silk

Alter Ego: Cindy Moon

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man Vol.3 #1 (April 2014)

During the Original Sin storyline, Spider-Man would be exposed to the energies of the Watcher's eye alongside his fellow heroes. As secrets began to flow into his head, Spider-Man saw that the radioactive spider that bit him managed to bite another before it died—a young female student named Cindy Moon.

After she was bitten by the spider, Cindy's abilities manifested but she was unable to control them. Some time later, Ezekiel Sims would approach the Moon family to offer his help and guide Cindy in controlling her newfound abilities. After six years since getting bit and training to use her powers, Cindy is locked up inside a facility by Ezekiel to protect her and the other "spiders" from Morlun and his family: The Inheritors. But she was later freed by Peter Parker, kicking off Morlun's biggest hunt ever.

For more information on her, please refer to her page.

Lian Tang

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man Vol.4 #1 (December 2015)

Designer and Mechanic of the the Spider-Mobile and former girlfriend of Peter Parker.

• Asian and Nerdy: Lian Tang is a Chinese designer at the Shanghai branch of Parker Industries. She co-designed a new Spider-Mobile with Peter Parker.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Despite dating Peter, she disappears after the "Zodiac" arc.
• Easily Forgiven: She tries to kill Spider-Man using the Spider-Mobile, but is talked down and helps him save Shen Quinghao from Mister Negative. Afterwards, she expects to be unceremoniously fired, but Peter explains that if there's one thing he and Spider-Man understand it's that people will go to extreme lengths for family.
• Loves My Alter Ego: Lian is strongly implied to be in an intimate relationship with Peter, but hates Spider-Man to the point where she offers to kill him for Scorpio.
• The Mole: She is in league with Scorpio, leader of the Zodiac, providing him Parker Industries' security codes in exchange for medication for her mother, who was sick with cancer.

Mockingbird

Alter Ego: Barbara "Bobbi" Morse

First Appearance: Astonishing Tales #6 (June 1971)

Barbara "Bobbi" Morse alias Mockingbird is an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and ex-wife of Hawkeye. In the All-New, All-Different Marvel branding, she helps Spider-Man when they pursue the new Zodiac and they develop a bond.

For more information on her, please refer to her page.