Amazing Spider-Man #121
The Night Gwen Stacy Died
In the previous issue Harry Osborn had taken LSD, which made him fall into a clinical Psychosis. This issue begins with Peter as Spider-Man now watching through their apartment window as Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson are at Harry's bedside. The Osborn's family doctor Ray tells Gwen and Mary Jane that Harry has been taking drugs again. He gives Harry a shot of Thorazine, a tranquilizer to offset the effect of LSD. Spider-Man decides to do a quick change on the rooftop and go inside where he is then confronted by Norman Osborn.
Norman blames Peter for what has happened to Harry and later in this issue cracks under pressure returning to the Green Goblin persona.
Peter on his way to the Daily Bugle building feels a cold coming on from the change of climate between Montreal and New York. While talking to Robbie Robertson at the Bugle dropping off some pictures of the Hulk from his Montreal assignment, J. Jonah Jameson walks in and tells Robertson about Parker to "get this disease ridden menace out of my building. Before Peter leaves he points out that Robbie should have Jameson send him a bonus check for about two hundred dollars for the pictures.
When Norman leaves his son's bedside he begins to think how he has failed him as a father. Then he starts to hallucinate and sees his enemy Spider-Man coming at him, soon he flees from the apartment out into the street until he gets to Manhattan's lower east side.
There in a place he had almost forgotten lies his Green Goblin paraphernalia. Then after returning to the Goblin persona, he decides to kidnap Gwen. She is standing at the window of Peter and Harry's apartment wishing there was some way she could do to help Harry when the Green Goblin comes flying into view.
When Spider-Man finally swings back to the apartment all he finds is a pumpkin lantern and satchel left behind by the Green Goblin. He soon realizes that Gwen has been kidnapped and that he must rely on his Spider-Sense to lead him to where the Goblin is. His Spider-Sense leads him to the George Washington Bridge as it is Norman Osborn's favorite President where he spots the Green Goblin standing next to a motionless Gwen Stacy. At the bridge Spider-Man attempts to get to Gwen but must fight the Goblin with everything he has. Both Spider-Man and the Goblin fight until the Goblin swoops down knocking Gwen off the side of the bridge. Spider-Man then goes to save her and as his Webbing catches her, her neck breaks and she dies instantly.
Spider-Man praises himself as he cradles the lifeless body of Gwen until he realizes that she is dead. The Goblin taunts him saying that "she was dead before your webbing reached her! a fall from that height would kill anyone before they struck the ground".
Holding the lifeless body of Gwen in one arm Spider-Man raises his fist into the air vowing to destroy and make the Goblin pay for the death of the woman he loved.
Continuity Notes
Spider-Man, Green Goblin, Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborn, Mary Jane Watson, J. Jonah Jameson, Joe Robertson
Continuity Notes
Harry Osborn suffered from a drug addiction from Amazing Spider-Man #96-98.
Norman Osborn learned Spider-Man's secret identity in Amazing Spider-Man #39-40, however, selective amnesia had prevented him from remembering his memories of being the Green Goblin, including Peter's double-identity.
In Amazing Spider-Man #509-514, it was believed that another reason why Norman went after Gwen was because they had a secret affair that produced twin children. However, it’s later revealed that this was all part of a complex revenge scheme by Norman’s son Harry. In order to sell the deception, Norman was brainwashed into believing that affair was true. See Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 5) #73-74.
Gwen's death is told from her perspective in Clone Conspiracy #1.
Continuity Errors
This story identifies the bridge that Spider-Man and the Green Goblin are fighting on is the George Washington Bridge. However, the bridge depicted is actually the Brooklyn Bridge.
