Who killed Gwen Stacy?
Was it Norman Osborn, the criminally insane businessman who liked to fly around on a motorised bat, dressed in a green and purple Goblin costume? He was the one who tossed her off the Brooklyn Bridge, laughing maniacally as she plunged towards the icy waters of the East river.
The Daily Bugle, of course, would immediately claim that Gwen was killed by Spider-Man... and for a while, the evidence did point towards him. Grief stricken, the young man behind the mask appeared to admit his culpability to police before fleeing the scene. And there are still those who believe it wasn't the fall that killed Gwen, but the sudden jolt of being caught by Spider-Man's web as he desperately tried to save her.
In truth though, Gwen's killer was neither of the above. It was 21 year old comic book writer Gerry Conway, the young man given the daunting responsibility of taking over from Stan Lee on the Amazing Spider-Man comic back in 1972, when he was still a teenager. Some say comics grew up when Gwen Stacy died, and while that's a little too dismissive of the work that preceded this issue, it's certainly true that they were never the same again.
Gerry Conway went on to create The Punisher, Ms. / Captain Marvel, and many other important characters for both Marvel and DC, before moving on to work in TV. The Spider-Man stories he wrote, both in the 70s, and when he returned to the character in the late 80s, are such a big part of my life, it's hard to express their impact. Thank you, Gerry... and I've forgiven you for killing Gwen, even if some people still hold it against you.
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