Gwenpool

Publication history

Gwenpool first full appeared in Howard the Duck #1 and was created by Chris Bachalo.

Backstory

Through means yet to be revealed, Gwen Poole arrived to the Marvel Universe from what she claims to be "the real world." Unwilling to be an "extra," she went to a tailor for super-heroes and requested her own costume to stand out. The tailor (named Ronnie) complied, but misread Gwen's application form, and thought Gwen went by the alias of "Gwenpool". Ronnie chose pink because of Gwen's pink highlights, but also wanted her costume to stand out and get rid of her excess pink fabric. So far she has yet to reveal the details of her old life, though she told Rocket Raccoon that in this comic universe she's not lactose intolerant. So there may have been some physical change between her old self and the new Marvel version, since superheroes are usually good looking as a rule. So far aside from being similar to the "real world" all we know is that she felt erasing herself from her old life and her parents' memories was "for the best".

Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars #2

The character design that eventually would become the character of Gwenpool originated as an amalgam of Gwen Stacy and Deadpool from a variant cover of Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars #2 by Chris Bachalo.

Meeting Howard the Duck

Gwenpool's first appearance as a character was in Howard the Duck Vol 6 #1, when she was involved in stealing a humanity-destroying virus from Black Cat and selling it to Hydra to get money easily, believing that the Avengers would simply deal with any consequences. In order to prevent Black Cat's Gang from finding her, Gwenpool killed a corrupt member of the NYPD whom the Black Cat was going to ask for help. Believing (correctly) that Black Cat was going to resort to blackmailing Howard the Duck into helping her, Gwen broke into Howard's office and hid under his desk. Gwenpool then revealed herself after Hardy left, and attempted to assassinate Howard, reasoning that as Howard was a fictional character, he would most likely come back even from death. When she revealed the item she had stolen from Hardy and to whom she had sold it, Howard scolded her and informed her that the Avengers were not available to save the Earth from the virus. Guilt stricken, she then set out with Howard to retrieve the virus from a Hydra base. Gwenpool and Howard assaulted the Hydra base storing the virus and made their way to a laboratory where an agent was testing on it, with sights on releasing the virus. Gwenpool took the virus' container and drank it all, mistakenly believing it was the mumps, a virus she had been vaccinated from in her home reality. The virus started to mutate Gwenpool, and the Hydra agent gave her the cure to prevent her from infecting the base. When Howard met up with Hardy to return the box that supposedly contained the virus, Gwen appeared dressed up as one of the members of the organization that had sold the virus to the Black Cat, pretending to desire the box back. Using the money obtained from the transaction with Hydra, Gwen bought the box from Hardy, preventing her from discovering it was empty.

Gwenpool's Holiday Special #1 (2015)

During the Gwenpool Holiday Special, Gwenpool is hired to kill Orto, a snake/human hybrid assassin. She encounters him in his building and then kills him with a bomb. Gwenpool then attends a Christmas party hosted by She-Hulk, where she's seen talking to Ms. Marvel. They later go to the karaoke machine.

Gwenpool's Holiday Special: Merry Mix-Up (2016)

A second Gwenpool Holiday Special made its debut in December 2016. After Gwenpool notices that the reality of the Marvel Universe has been altered, replacing several holidays (set during her time leading MODOK's former henchmen), she set out to find out what was wrong. Gwenpool discovers that Santa Claus is responsible for the changes, having erased himself from Christmas to have a vacation: Gwen was unaffected due to her being from another dimension. Gwen explains that as a side-effect of Santa's magic holidays, new holidays such as "Pantsgiving" and "Namor's Feast of Fish" have replaced the usual ones, with Christmas being replaced by "The Coming of Galactus, The Bringer of Gifts". Santa reveals that he was planning to restore the holidays after the New Year, but offers to restore them now instead. Although Gwen initially considers waiting until after New Year to have the holidays restored, as the new holidays would allow her to visit her family in her home dimension, she ultimately decides to restore Christmas, and returns to her headquarters to celerate with her friends.

Solo series

Following the events of "Gwenpool Holiday Special #1", Gwenpool becomes a full-time mercenary, getting the news of different freelance jobs from her tailor, Ronnie. When she attempted to open a bank account with the money she earned from killing Orto, she was unable to do so due to lack of proper identification. When the bank is assaulted by robbers, she springs into action, killing all the robbers. After getting arrested along with Cecil, a hacker who was with the robbers, the cop who was transporting them attempts to take Gwenpool's money to start a new life, being fed up with his job. They then take the cop's car and she enlists a reluctant Cecil as her sidekick. After taking the credit of a job from MODOK Superior's best agent, during which she killed said agent, M.O.D.O.K. tracked Gwenpool down and murdered Cecil in order to force her to become his henchman and an agent for his Mercenary Organization Dedicated Only to Killing. MODOK Superior then sends his squad to find and kill the Seed of Pains, an evil Asgardian wizard who was under police custody. Upon getting the wizard away from the cops, they're ambushed by Thor, who needed him to save a dying elven colony from a rare root that infected them. During the battle, Gwenpool attracts her attention by yelling her real name (Jane), causing Thor to question her about it. While Thor was distracted, Gwenpool killed the Seed of Pains by blasting him with a bazooka. Her teammate, Mega Tony, extracts the wizard's powers, places them in a spray bottle and gives it to Thor, who leaves to save the elves. While MODOK Superior and his squad celebrate, an upset Gwenpool is approached by Batroc the Leaper, who discovers that she doesn't have superpowers or training and threatens to expose her to MODOK Superior. Gwenpool then got Ronnie to set up a meeting between herself and Doctor Strange, in which she explained to him that she was from a reality where all Marvel characters are fictional characters in comic books. Amused to find out that Benedict Cumberbatch was playing him in a film about him, Doctor Strange agreed to create a fake background for Gwen in the Marvel Universe, so that she could have a driver's license and a passport. However, MODOK Superior, researching Gwen's background at this moment, seeing the ordinary fake background, swore to destroy Gwen. Gwen continues to be trained by Batroc the Leaper and starts buying weapons online. After discovering that Gwen is just a normal girl, MODOK Superior sends the other mercenaries on a mission, refusing to allow Gwen to go. When she questions why, he reveals that he knows who she is and demands to know how she killed his finest assassin. MODOK Superior attempts to kill her with a laser, but is blocked by a shield generator. Gwen and M.O.D.O.K. then engage in battle, with Gwen using the skills she learned from Batroc to gain the upper hand. Eventually MODOK Superior activates a rocket chair and sends a barrage of weapons against Gwen. MODOK Superior is defeated after Gwen reveals that Doctor Strange had enchanted Cecil's skull and brought him back as a ghost, allowing Cecil to hack into MODOK Superior (who doesn't have ghost defense) and sending him into space. She then heads to a meeting with MODOK Superior's mysterious client until she meets Miles Morales, the second Spider-Man, in the subway train. After an awkward introduction, Gwenpool follows Miles to his school until an explosion happens in one of the classrooms. Gwen and Spider-Man manage to rescue the students in time. Returning home, Miles finds Gwen in his house, who convinces him to investigate the explosion. Meanwhile, Batroc and the others receive a call from aliens, who seem to be looking for Gwenpool. Gwen then tries to convince Miles that she's from another universe, though he thinks she's crazy. They later go to the home of Damian, the kid who blew up the classroom. After confessing to Spider-Man, Damian tries to escape only for Gwenpool to appear in front of him with a gun. When she tries to kill him, Spider-Man saves him, accidentally knocking him unconscious. Spider-Man scolds Gwen for trying to kill Damian and, after a brief fight, he webs her and leaves her for the police. While in jail, Gwen is busted out by Batroc and reunited with the others, who worry about losing the client Gwen was supposed to meet. Later, the aliens, known as Teuthidans, attack New York while chasing a pig wearing Gwenpool's costume. It is then revealed to be a trap that Gwen set up so she can meet the mysterious client, who lives in an ordinary suburban house, while the others remain hidden in the base, which they moved. After entering the office room, she talks to Cecil, who has trouble accepting his current status as a ghost. The client, named Vincent, enters the room and asks Gwen to assume command of the organization and kill the Teuthidans. Meanwhile, the Teuthidans force the Captain of the NYPD to reveal Gwenpool's true identity. After the meeting, Gwen goes to the subway and sees cops looking for her. She puts her mask on and tries to fight them until some of the aliens arrive, forcing her to retreat. During the confrontation, Gwen discovers that the NYPD have joined forces with the Teuthidans to catch her and escapes by jumping on a moving subway train. Back at the base, she forms a plan to defeat the Teuthidans: while the others distract the cops with a fake crime wave, Gwen will kill the Teuthidans. Arriving at Times Square, Gwen tries to call the others until Vincent appears behind her. When Cecil arrives and tells Gwen that the others were captured by the Teuthidans, Vincent reveals that he told them, believing that the M.O.D.O.K. mercenaries were the real problem with the world and is somehow obsessed to learn about Gwenpool's world. Gwen then grabs her gun and shoots him in the face, revealing that Vincent is a Doombot who survived the events of Secret Wars. After revealing his background story, revealing his full name to be "Vincent Doonan", Vincent attacks Gwenpool, who escapes with Cecil on their cop car. In their base, Gwenpool and Cecil discover a group of M.O.D.O.K. agents in a hidden room. Gwenpool then transports the base to Vincent's house, where the Teuthidans are hiding. After a brief battle, Vincent arrives, attempting to convince the Teuthidans to release Gwenpool's friends, but Gwenpool forces him to fight the aliens by threatening to shoot his neighbors. Gwen then sends the M.O.D.O.K. agents to fight the Teuthidans, but their base gets destroyed in the process. After escaping, Batroc and the others decide to disband, despite Gwen's attempts to keep them together. Gwen is then hired to kill a vampire in a small town, until she discovers that the mayor is a necromancer who was resurrecting the town's dead citizens and the one she was hired to kill was Blade. After a brief fight, Gwen manages to explain everything to Blade, who leaves after giving Gwen his cellphone number. She then calls Blade when she discovers that the mayor is actually killing children to keep his undead citizens alive. She then wakes up in a castle and reunites with her teammates, who were also captured. They later discover that Arcade is responsible for their capture. After arming up and fighting through an army of giant frogs, Gwen and the team encounter Deadpool. After an intense fight, Gwen, Deadpool and the others are able to defeat Arcade and escape from Murderworld. Gwen then helps Mega Tony get a job at Parker Industries and rescues Cecil, who was being chased by his frightened family members.

Rocket Raccoon and Groot: Civil War II

During the Civil War II storyline, Gwenpool appears in Georgia attempting to catch an alien smuggler named Chammy, who was living in a rural neighborhood under the name Chandler and was trying to leave Earth, only to discover that Rocket Raccoon and Groot are also after him. After an intense fight between them, they manage to catch up to him and end up fighting Reeve, an alien that can absorb memories out of heads, who put the bounty on Chammy. After Reeve defeats them and escapes, Chammy tells Rocket, Groot and Gwen that Reeve is looking for a formula that could temporarily neutralize Captain Marvel's powers. At the Triskelion, Rocket, Groot and Gwen manage to catch up to Reeve but he knocks them down. Just when he's about to kill Captain Marvel, Reeve is defeated by Chammy. While Chammy returns home with his human girlfriend Ruth, Rocket, Groot and Gwen part ways.

Champions

Gwen appears in Champions Vol. 2 #5 along with Ms. Marvel, whom she met and befriended at She-Hulk's Christmas party in "Gwenpool's Holiday Special #1", and every Champion minus Spider-Man, whom Gwenpool says (and whom Gwenpool assumes is absent as their conflict has yet to be resolved, considering that she: threatened to out him as Spider-Man, revived his memories of the Ultimate Universe, showed no regard for the lives of "extras", and had to be knocked out) hates her. She claims she's joining the Champions, attacking the police officers (and blowing up their cars) who were ignoring hate crimes in the area due to their sheriff being responsible. Gwen assumes that these dirty cops will turn out to be super villains, as that is usually the case in comics like these. Her attempts to use comic book logic run up against the other's realistic expectations of non-super villain racism and bigotry being the cause. They demand proof that the dirty cops are controlling people's minds, only to be provided with "the air of fear" as an explanation by Viv Vision. Gwenpool and the Champions eventually convince the sheriff's deputy to expose him.

Powers and abilities

Gwenpool has no real superpowers, but has vast knowledge of the Marvel Universe from comic books in her universe, such as every secret identity of heroes and villains. She has used this information to take down Black Cat's criminal empire and to stop Jane Foster (Thor) from attacking her. Although the downside is that she is also subject to the rules. For example, when using Thor's secret identity openly she nearly gets killed by Thor as "an assassin who knows her identity" and may be subject to amnesia, death, time travel to undo the damage and other mishaps that tend to happen to people who learn of such things and are too free with sharing them. So while she can get away with shooting a man who is monologuing, her knowledge is also dangerous to herself. In addition, most people just flat out refuse to believe anything she says, on the grounds that she is clearly crazy. It doesn't help that while she does break the fourth wall and talk to the readers, unlike Deadpool and She-hulk she cannot actually see and interact with it and merely assumes it is there. Deadpool on the other hand was able to use his Fourth Wall Breaking abilities to overshadow hers since she's less popular, listing off all the things he's been in. Until she pointed out that she was not the bad guy and he was beating up a teenage girl.

It is unclear how long Gwen's information will remain up to date the longer she remains in the Marvel Universe since she is no longer in her home reality with access to comic updates and presumably while Marvel comics are published in the Marvel Universe and even considered legal documents (see She-Hulk) they may not contain things like secret identities and other miscellaneous information that is considered top secret. On the other hand Peter Parker was a teenager for some thirty years and still looks barely into his twenties, so who can say? She also may not be 100% on comic characters she is less familiar with. For example while working with Groot and Rocket Raccoon she kept referring to Rocket as a squirrel. Though that may have been a joke since Guardians of the Galaxy was a major motion picture. She admitted to MegaTony that she does not read Deadpool when they were fighting and knew so little about him that she was surprised to be compared to him.

She had also recently been trained by various super villains and possibly Blade in weapons, hand to hand techniques including French martial arts, and vampire hunting.

While physically powerless, or at least merely a teenage human, she does take jobs for a great deal of money and tends to spend it on weapons, including a personal force field.

Doctor Strange has stated that as evidenced by her pink voice bubbles, Gwen still resonates with her home universe while being subject to the rules of the Marvel Universe. For example when Santa Claus tried to get a vacation by changing reality she was fully aware that things were not right as Christmas was replaced by other holidays such as Pants-giving.

Gwen has repeatedly shown that she is right about not being able to be arrested for long due to her superhero status and has also, on several occasions, survived falls that should have killed her, whether it's from the Black Cat's town house thirty stories in the air or by leaping face first from a helicopter and landing on her face on the unbreakable glass of an alien arm's dealer's secret submarine. This may be because she is not on the Marvel Universe's Death's list and thus cannot actually die. She was even punched by Spider-man, attacked by Sentinel robots, nearly killed by MODOK with an arsenal of missiles and lasers, shot by Deadpool (with no visible blood), and run over in a car by Groot all without getting so much as a bruise or scratch though her costume does get damaged. She also attempts and pulls off stunts that she should not be able to, which she sees as further proof that she's inside a comic book. For example she will jump off a moving motorcycle, leaving it still going, and land on the hood of a chasing police car and point out that she should have died.

She can also designate ordinary citizens as "not an extra" by learning their names. She did so with a policewoman who tried to arrest her, saving her from being killed by a crazed Doombot. The effectiveness of this is debatable though as her temporary sidekick was killed by MODOK, only to be returned as a ghost.

Gwen is a brilliant tactician, outsmarting a giant snake sword master (first by killing his minions/body guards easily and then abandoning swordplay in favor of explosives), MODOK, Thor, the police, Arcade, and an Artificially Intelligent Doombot just for starters and for all her goofing off has yet to fail in any mission she has set out to do. Whether she gets paid for her hard work is another matter.

Equipment

Gwenpool's knowledge of the Marvel Universe and its unique, fictional nature makes her reckless and irresponsibly violent. Thus, she prefers to use large guns and other extreme weaponry. For example, she has used rocket launchers and katanas in the past.

Relationships

Gwen tends to make friends despite her tendency to casually murder people and has contacts with both heroes and villains including Howard the Duck, Doctor Strange, some of MODOK's former henchmen (MegaTony, The Terrible Eye AKA Sarah, and Batroc), Blade, Deadpool, Ms. Marvel, Rocket the raccoon and Groot (who she refers to as Squirrel and Tree), and Ronnie the woman who makes costumes for superheroes including, it is implied, Dare Devil, and Ms. Marvel and the Champions. She was refused entry into The Champions, but has Miles Morales on speed dial and may be able to call them for help. Provided they are near a phone and available. She has repeatedly assumed that superheroes were available to help her with her messes only to find that they were off planet or otherwise unavailable. Possibly because they have caller ID. Many are annoyed by her "this is a comic book mentality", which is only made worse by the fact that they can't prove her wrong, as well as her lack of empathy for everyone who thinks the world is real.

Friendly nature aside though when establishing her identity she has shown no interest in returning to her original world and in fact knowingly allowed Doctor Strange to cast a spell that would establish her ID in the Marvel Universe, but make it so that those who knew her in her original world would mostly forget about her. It is uncertain whether this is because her parents were disappointed in her (she does seem to have spent her life on comics, games, movies, and so on...) or merely because she knows that, like her friend Howard the Duck, once you're in the Marvel Universe getting back to your original is likely impossible, possible only for a temporary time, or a good way to drag all the super-villains and enemies she's made into a world unable to cope.

Gwen had been shown to have mild crushes on both Spider-man (Miles Morales... until he punched her in the face and left her to be arrested) and Doctor Strange, but no concrete romantic interests. She also apparently tried to get She-hulk to kiss her under the mistletoe. It is unsure whether she succeeded. Or who else she met at that party.

People Who Believe Her

Gwen has stated in a fourth wall break (which may have only happened in her head) that while she can and does work alone she prefers to work with other characters. Probably because her "I'm in a comic" thing only works if there's someone around to tell and prove it to by revealing information about other marvel residents, or because it's funnier if people think she's crazy but cannot prove it while the reader knows she's right. Like when Deadpool or She-Hulk break the fourth wall. Something Gwen likes to do even though she, like most Marvel characters, cannot actually see it and just assumes someone is reading as she explains things or makes jokes to apparently thin air. So far she is known as "The Unbelievable" Gwenpool mostly because very few people, including close friends and people who have seen her demonstrate her "luck", believe she is from another universe, let alone that she has been sucked into a comic book universe. So here is a brief list of the people she has managed to convince and how.

Howard the Duck (Who is also from another universe)

Doctor Strange (Who saw her universe and helped erase her from her old one to establish her identity in Marvel)

Santa Claus (Omniscient)

Batroc The Leaper (Still a little on the fence)

Mega Tony (Desperate from being attacked by Deadpool)

Deadpool (Totally believed her/broke her fourth wall stuff and used it against her/teamed up with her)

Video games

Collected Editions

The series has been collected into trade paperbacks: