The Night Gwen Stacy Died, and Other Essential Marvel Moments

At the turn of the 1970s, Marvel marched into a new decade by making some big adjustments to their storytelling style. The pop optimism and quick one-shot stories of the Silver Age gradually gave way to the Bronze Age, which was known for more nuanced, darker stories and longer-running story arcs. An influx of fresh talent like Gerry Conway, Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin took the many characters and concepts Marvel introduced over the past several years in bold new directions, giving them the definition they needed to stay relevant in a rapidly changing socio-political climate.

The early period of the 1970s is critical for showing how the Marvel Universe adapted to the sensibilities of a new decade. Today we’re taking a look at some of the most important of those developments as Marvel moved from the Silver Age to the Bronze Age of comics — from the death of Gwen Stacy to the Kree-Skrull War and beyond. Join us for our fourth look at the essential issues of Marvel!

The Black Widow Becomes Her Best Self (Amazing Spider-Man #86)

The Black Widow may be one of Marvel’s most famous female heroes now because of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but she first got her start as a villain back in the Silver Age. First popping up in Tales of Suspense #52 along with the second Crimson Dynamo, Natalia Alianovna Romanova (anglicized to the far less cool Natasha Romanoff nowadays) started as a Soviet spy and antagonist to Iron Man, had a romance with Hawkeye, and then defected to the United States as a sometimes ally of the Avengers, if not a formal member. However, her guest appearance in ASM #86 is where Natasha finally started resembling her modern self. This was the debut of her skintight black combat suit, and her resolution to finally stop being a second-stringer and commit to being a superhero in her own right after testing her skills in a fight with Spider-Man. This story would then lead to a brief solo comic in Amazing Adventures and Black Widow being a regular heroic fixture in the Marvel Universe ever since. All of Natasha’s subsequent stories, from being a member of the Avengers, to her partnership with Daredevil, to her long-standing association with SHIELD, and pretty much everything about her MCU counterpart played by Scarlett Johansson, built on the changes made to the character in this issue.

The Falcon Officially Becomes Captain America’s Partner (Captain America #133)

Sam Wilson, a.k.a. the Falcon, was a major Marvel milestone in 1969 as the first African-American superhero in American comic books. He became even more prominent after the turn of the ’70s because he became Captain America’s crime-fighting partner, starting with issue #133, where he helped Cap take on a giant robot built by MODOK that threatened to destroy Harlem. As an individual issue, it’s nothing to write home about, but it was a critical juncture for both characters. One of Cap’s long-running subplots before this point was his inability to accept help from a new partner because of his grief at the death of his old partner Bucky in World War II. Finally realizing that he needed the help Sam could provide was a major turning point for Steve’s development, and led to Sam becoming the book’s co-lead with the next issue. The book would be retitled Captain America and the Falcon with #134, a status quo that lasted from 1971 all the way to 1978. Falcon would be one of Cap’s most prominent supporting characters from here on out. He made his MCU debut in 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, played by Anthony Mackie, and took up the Captain America mantle himself in All-New Captain America #1 the following year.

Firebrand Shows Iron Man’s Changing Philosophy (Iron Man #27)

In basically every incarnation, the core story of Iron Man is about him trying to make up for past mistakes and become a better person than he used to be. But as discussed in Part 1 of this series, Iron Man’s solo book in the 1960s was unfortunately mired with pro-military and pro-government sentiment at the height of America’s anti-communist paranoia, commonly featuring caricatured Chinese and Soviet antagonists (Black Widow started as one!) that Stark thoroughly trounced. This issue, where Stark has his first confrontation with Firebrand, shows a different perspective. Firebrand may be a villain with a battlesuit that gives him heat and flight powers, but he’s also portrayed as a sympathetic protestor who was hardened by years of trying to help the disenfranchised and being stomped on because of it. He says as much in his own words: “I sat in for civil rights, marched for peace, and demonstrated on campus… and got chased by vicious dogs, spat on by bigots, beat on by ‘patriots,’ choked by tear gas!”

The true villain of the issue turns out to be Lyle Bradshaw, a corrupt councilman trying to enrich himself at the expense of his minority constituents. Iron Man saves Bradshaw from Firebrand, but turns the councilman in and allows Firebrand to escape at the end, and when asked by the police about it, he says “It’s not Firebrand’s escaping that bothers me! It’s wondering where the rest of us went wrong that someone like him should have to come into being at all!” It’s hard to overstate how much of a shift this was for Stark’s portrayal. Being openly critical of American institutions and being sympathetic to someone who challenged his worldview pre-dated Stark expressing regret for his participation in the Vietnam War in later issues.

Harry Osborn’s Pill Addiction Changes the Comics Code (Amazing Spider-Man #96-98)

The “Green Goblin Reborn!” storyline, as the title states, is literally about Norman Osborn once again becoming the Green Goblin, having been struck with amnesia since his last battle with Spider-Man. However, the reason the story is important for our purposes doesn’t really have anything to do with the Goblin but with his son, Harry Osborn. This three-issue arc was a landmark moment because it showed Harry engaging in substance abuse, something that the Comics Code Authority did not allow. Stan Lee refused to capitulate to the CCA’s demands that the drug subplot be removed, and so those issues were published without the Authority’s seal. The story wound up being a major sales success, and while Marvel did continue to publish most comics under CCA guidelines, this story led to the Code’s rules being relaxed on depictions of many things that used to be considered taboo. The wide-ranging effects of this are too numerous to get into here, but the short version is that mainstream American comics were allowed greater leeway when it came to violence, sex, nudity, blood, profanity, ambiguous morality, and also werewolves and vampires (yes, really). Marvel would finally wash its hands of the Code entirely in 2001, and the CCA was dissolved in 2011.

The Kree-Skrull War (Avengers #89-97)

Roy Thomas was the first long-term Avengers writer to give the book a strong sense of its own identity outside of being the place where characters from various other books hung out together. One of the most commonly agreed-upon highlights of his tenure is the Kree-Skrull War, which ran for nine issues across 1971 and 1972. A single story arc going for this many full-length issues (not in the split book format that Marvel frequently used in the mid-1960s) was unheard of for Marvel, creating the company’s first proper epic-length storyline. The Kree and Skrull empires, both introduced in Fantastic Four, had their mythology fully developed in this story, which, beyond the Avengers themselves, also starred a large cast including Captain Marvel, Rick Jones, Ronan the Accuser, the Supreme Intelligence, Super-Skrull, and even the Inhumans. Marvel’s interest in further developing the cosmic side of their universe would only increase from here on, leading to more characters and event stories set among the stars in the coming years. This story also seeded the Scarlet Witch and Vision romance, which would be one of the Avengers’ longest-running subplots. The Kree-Skrull War was adapted in the Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes cartoon, and was also an inspiration for the 2019 film Captain Marvel.

Luke Cage Makes His Debut (Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #1)

Many of the major Marvel characters who were conceived in the 1970s were grittier, ground-level heroes, and that trend started in 1972 with Luke Cage, the first Black hero to have a solo self-titled comic at Marvel. Created to capitalize on the popularity of the blaxploitation film genre, Luke was written as a man convicted of a crime that was actually committed by his friend Willis Stryker, aka Diamondback (not to be confused with William Stryker of X-Men fame). While incarcerated, Luke is given an experimental procedure that grants him bulletproof skin. He subsequently escapes from Seagate Prison, gets his revenge on Diamondback, and establishes himself as a “Hero for Hire,” willing to do superheroics on anyone’s behalf so long as they are ready to pay. He would take on the moniker “Power Man” with issue #17, with the book changing its name to match. Luke’s solo comic struggled to maintain interest after a strong origin issue, which comes down largely to never really finding great villains or supporting characters, but he has stayed prominent over the decades because of his partnership with Iron Fist, as well as his later association with the Avengers. Luke Cage was portrayed by Mike Colter in the Marvel Netflix shows Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and The Defenders.

The Night Gwen Stacy Died (Amazing Spider-Man #121-122)

If there’s a most famous Spider-Man story outside of his origin, the title would certainly have to go to “The Night Gwen Stacy Died,” the height of Gerry Conway’s run on the book. Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin, who knows Spider-Man’s identity, kidnaps Peter’s then long-running love interest Gwen Stacy and tosses her off the Brooklyn Bridge. Despite Spidey’s attempt to save her, Gwen is killed, and Norman accidentally kills himself during the subsequent battle with Peter. While this wasn’t the first time that a Marvel hero’s love interest was killed off (just ask poor Janice Cord or Lady Dorma), it was incredibly shocking, especially since this was Marvel’s flagship hero and Gwen had been a supporting character for many years by that point. Gwen’s death was undoubtedly the most tragic failure of Spider-Man’s life since the death of Uncle Ben. 

This was a major status quo shift not just for Spider-Man, but for comics in general, and is commonly considered to be one of the major markers that the medium had shifted from the Silver Age to the darker and gritter Bronze Age. The story has been referenced multiple times with Mary Jane Watson substituted in, happening in both Spider-Man: The Animated Series and the 2002 Spider-Man film, although she survives in the latter and is sent to another dimension (?) in the former. The story received a more straightforward adaptation in 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, resulting in the death of Emma Stone’s incarnation of Gwen Stacy.

Suicide Bombers Attack Avengers Mansion (Avengers #113)

Steve Englehart took over writing duties of the Avengers book after Roy Thomas, and although his long story arcs on the title are more well-known, one of his best is this single-issue story from 1973, titled “Your Young Men Shall Slay Visions!” The issue deals with Scarlet Witch and Vision’s romance becoming known to the public, and a group of right-wing anti-android extremists deciding to kill Vision out of fear that his public love affair with a human will normalize androids as citizens. To that end, they launch a suicide attack on Avengers Mansion to try to kill him before he and Wanda can get married. It’s incredibly nihilistic, and also sadly still relevant to this day, featuring bigots willing to kill themselves to destroy an “other” they have a completely irrational hatred towards. The ultimate deaths of the attackers are as utterly pointless as their goal, and it’s doubly prescient because suicide terrorist attacks, while not unprecedented, were a rare phenomenon before the 1980s. Although it may not have the same cultural staying power, this issue feels akin to “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” in that both are emblematic of the types of stories that superhero comics could tell in the 1970s that they couldn’t before. This story is also an early indication that Englehart would become one of Marvel’s top talents of the decade.

The Avengers/Defenders War (Avengers #116-118/Defenders #8-10)

Anybody who reads modern comics knows it’s basically impossible to avoid “event crossover” storylines, where characters from multiple books, or possibly the entire universe at once, all end up in one giant storyline. They market is severely oversaturated with them nowadays, but there was a point when they were unheard of. That changed for Marvel in 1973 with the Avengers/Defenders War, where Loki and Dormammu team up in a scheme to trick the two superhero teams into fighting each other. It’s a fairly simplistic story as this type of event goes, essentially being an excuse to create various pairings of Marvel heroes in wrestling-style title fights (they even have on-page “versus” logos for each pair of characters), but it was the company’s first attempt at this sort of thing. Naturally, the heroes realize by the end that they’ve been duped and team-up to go after the villains, although the sheer number of heroes on page isn’t as impressive as Scarlet Witch managing to defeat both villains by herself with a single attack (strongest Avenger!). This story hasn’t ever really been adapted, likely because the original Defenders team has largely been relegated to history, but the story is still influential for pioneering the event story template that would be popularized a decade later with 1984’s Secret Wars.

Blade Steps Into the Spotlight (Tomb of Dracula #10)

Remember a few entries ago when we mentioned that “vampires” was one of the things Marvel was allowed to include in their comics after the CCA relaxed its rules? We mentioned it for a reason! After 1971, Marvel launched several horror-themed comics that became a significant chunk of their business in the early- to mid-’70s. One of those titles was Tomb of Dracula, which established the Lord of Vampires as part of the Marvel Universe. The title took some time to find its footing, introducing a handful of not very interesting lead characters determined to kill Dracula. But the book got a shot in the arm with issue #10, which featured the first appearance of Blade, the vampire hunter, who gets into a battle with Dracula on a cruise ship. Blade’s outfit and power set in his debut are quite different from how most would recognize him today, rocking an afro and a green jacket (bring this fit back, in my opinion), and only being immune to vampire bites, not actually having vampiric powers himself. That change wouldn’t be made until he was adapted for Spider-Man: The Animated Series and the 1998 Blade film starring Wesley Snipes. Tomb of Dracula isn’t a great book, but it still gave this prominent Marvel hero his start.

The Thanos War (Captain Marvel #25-33, Avengers #125)

There sure are a lot of “Wars” in this era, aren’t there? The original Captain Marvel’s comic was one of the most lackluster books coming out of Marvel for years, but that all changed when Jim Starlin took over the property and introduced one of Marvel’s all-time greatest villains: Thanos, the Mad Titan. Thanos made his first appearance in Iron Man #55, but he didn’t really fit in there and it wasn’t immediately clear who or what he was supposed to be. The Thanos War arc is where the Mad Titan truly came into his own, establishing himself as a next-level threat that required Captain Marvel to team up with the Avengers in order to defeat him. Thanos sought the Cosmic Cube, which MCU fans will recognize as the Tesseract, in order to become an all-powerful being as a tribute to his love, Mistress Death. Thanos beats the tar out of the heroes across the story, and is only barely defeated by Captain Marvel destroying the Cube, ensuring that readers would remember him as something truly special out of Marvel’s supervillain lineup. Starlin would bring Thanos back for future stories involving Adam Warlock and the Infinity Gems, as well as his seminal 1991 event The Infinity Gauntlet, which was the primary source material for Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, where Thanos was played by Josh Brolin. Thanos is a prime contender for the ultimate villain of the Marvel Universe, and these early issues made it clear why he deserves consideration for the title.

Carlos Morales writes novels, articles and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Twitter.