Spider-Gwen: Gwenverse #1

History

The series was announced in late 2021 and released on March 9, 2022, with a May 2022 cover date, written by Tim Seeley — known at the time for Heroes Reborn: Marvel Double Action — with interior art and inks by Jodi Nishijima, fresh from United States of Captain America. Federico Blee colored the interiors and Ariana Maher of Virtual Calligraphy lettered; the main cover was painted by David Nakayama. The premise — Ghost-Spider tumbling through time to encounter alternate versions of herself modeled on other Marvel heroes — was built explicitly on the character's multiverse-hopping history, threading through the broader Earth-65 mythology established across several prior series while introducing a self-contained team dynamic that culminated in the 'Gwen-Vengers' grouping by the series' final issue.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Released March 9, 2022 (cover date May 2022); a five-issue limited series written by Tim Seeley with interior art by Jodi Nishijima, colors by Federico Blee, and letters by Ariana Maher (VC).
• Main cover by David Nakayama; the issue launched with an unusually large variant cover program including covers by Peach Momoko (1:100 design variant), Leonardo Romero (1:25), Derrick Chew, Ivan Tao, Greg Land, Mike Mayhew, Natacha Bustos, and others.
• First appearance of Thorgwen (Gwendolyn Janus, Earth-22656) — a Gwen Stacy composite with Thor Odinson — who becomes the second member of the eventual 'Gwen-Vengers' team assembled across the miniseries.
• First appearances of the villain group the Terminal Six and its members as introduced in this issue: Finale the Ultimate Artist (the primary antagonist, a precognitive multiversal narcissist), Doctor Cephalopod (Cecil Cephalopod), Fossil (Vincent Stegron, an Earth-65 skeleton variant of Stegron the Dinosaur Man), Black 13 (Calypso Hardy, a composite of Black Cat and Calypso), Glam Goblin (Barton Hamilton), and Roach-Man (David Doughty).
• First appearance of Nightbird (Gwen Stacy of Earth-21798), a heroic psychiatrist-turned-villain due to Goblin Gas exposure, who joins the antagonist side before eventually being redeemed across the series.
• The issue's plot engine: Finale murders her entire fanbase to power a multiversal device intended to project herself into the past as new superheroes; the energy collides with Ghost-Spider mid-transit, accidentally generating the alternate Gwen variants she must then recruit.
• The series received a second printing of issue #1 with a new cover by Jodi Nishijima, and the story was later reprinted in the UK anthology Miles Morales: Spider-Man (Panini UK, 2023 series) #2.
• Iron Gwen (Toni Stacy, Earth-97279) and Wolvergwen (Gwen Howlett, Earth-72699) are introduced in the series but their full first appearances are confirmed in issues #1 and #2 respectively; Gwen Rogers (Captain America, Earth-19785) first appears fully in issue #2, though all are foreshadowed in issue #1's framing.

Cast · 27 characters

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Variants (27)