Stephanie Phillips Teases Spider-Gwen’s New Powers, Legacy Villain, and Why Gwen Joined the Main Marvel Universe (Exclusive)

Spider-Gwen has found herself trapped in a very drama-filled web as of late. The Gwen Stacy of Earth-65 is no stranger to Spider-Verse adventures and teaming up with her fellow Spider heroes from the Marvel Prime Universe on Earth-616, but she would always return to her original Earth once those stories concluded. However, that is no longer the case, and Gwen is now making Earth-616 her permanent home. The reason behind Gwen changing Earths is one of the many mysteries writer Stephanie Phillips has spun in Spider-Gwen: The Ghost Spider. But as readers have learned early on in the run, Phillips has plenty of surprises in store.

ComicBook spoke to Stephanie Phillips about Spider-Gwen: The Ghost Spider. Some of the topics of conversation included her initial thoughts about penning an ongoing Spider-Gwen series, why Gwen isn’t telling Peter Parker, Miles Morales, or Silk why she left her Earth, the development of new powers for Spider-Gwen, building up the all-new Black Tarantula as a legacy villain, what she has planned once the Black Tarantula story arc comes to an end, and more. We can also exclusively reveal interior pages from Spider-Gwen: The Ghost Spider #7 by Von Randall, plus two variant covers for Spider-Gwen: The Ghost Spider #8 by Ernanda Souza and Edwin Galmon.

ComicBook: You’ve cooked up a fast-paced opening story arc for Spider-Gwen: we have Gwen moving to a different Earth under mysterious circumstances, the discovery of new powers, and a threat in the all-new Black Tarantula. We’ll get to each of those plot points individually, but looking at the series as a whole, what has excited you the most about working on Spider-Gwen: The Ghost Spider?

Stephanie Phillips: Moving Gwen to Earth-616 means a host of new (classic) Spidey villains that we’ve been able to play with, as well as the entire cast of Earth-616 Spiders for her to interact with. That’s all been really fun while building her relationships and new cast throughout the series. I was also super excited to work with artist Paolo Villanelli again. We have a really great relationship and I think that strengthens the series when you have an artist and writer who just really like the process of creating together. Plus, having more space to work on Gwen as an ongoing series means that Paolo and I have only been strengthening that partnership, along with some really great guest artists we’ve been lucky enough to have on the book, like Von Randal and Federica Mancin. 

Gwen making Earth-616 her new home has come up a few times, but she’s always managed to sidestep the conversation. What can you tell us about Gwen’s choice to relocate? What kind of trouble is Gwen running away from back on Earth-65?

I can tell you that the conclusion of the next arc will start to give you the real answer for Gwen’s relocation, but we have been leaving clues along the way since issue 1. I think the answer might actually be somewhat unexpected, which is why no one has guessed it yet. When Marvel asked me to consider Gwen relocating to Earth-616, this was honestly the very first thing I pitched and wanted to do with the series, and I’m really excited that everyone was so on board with it. I think it will help us take Gwen in a direction we haven’t seen before and challenge her in an all-new way. 

I like the addition of Gwen’s new powers. It reminds me of Miles Morales turning his venom blast into a hard construct blade. These abilities seem to show up in extreme moments of stress for Gwen, but where did they come from? And has she always had these powers and they’re just now coming to the surface?

I will say that the powers are related to her move to 616… and I will say nothing more than that! They WILL be explained… in time. But as far as having them show up in moments of stress, I wanted to treat them like a panic attack. Everything Gwen is going through is incredibly stressful and there are a lot of threads (webs?) that she is trying to balance throughout the first two arcs. That all comes to a head as we move through arc two and Gwen has to realize that those threads all actually converge at one point… the end of Issue 10 – it all comes together. Any thread readers might think is disconnected or a side thread… they all connect. It’s a web! (Spider metaphors abound!). 

The all-new Black Tarantula is a perfect antagonist for Gwen, and continues the legacy villain’s tradition of passing the mantle down the family tree. Why  have Fabian and his father taken an interest in Gwen? It can’t merely be because she stopped the Black Tarantula gang’s bank robbery in the first issue.

It started with Gwen stopping the bank robbery, which put Gwen on their radar. The more they learned about her, however, the more our new Black Tarantula has his own interest in Gwen… and it’s personal. He will reveal why he’s so interested in Gwen in the next arc, but it has a lot to do with one ghost recognizing another – a mutual understanding of what being a ghost feels like. For Gwen, being a ghost means living on an Earth where she doesn’t really exist. It’s not her home and the Gwen Stacy of Earth-616… well, we all know that tragic ending. Gwen is out of place. Fabian recognizes that in Gwen and believes that they are connected in a way Gwen isn’t ready to admit to. Their relationship will also challenge Gwen to consider her place on this new Earth. What is her role when there are already so many different spiders protecting the NYC of this Earth? 

To wrap up, what can Spider-Gwen fans look forward to once the Black Tarantula arc concludes?

A really big, unexpected character makes an appearance and launches us into the next arc, something we’ve been building towards since issue 1 and I can’t tell you how excited I am that we’re about to reach this point in Gwen’s story. This is a big character that I’m also excited we got permission to bring into Gwen’s story. It will tie the threads together and I think it will be interesting to give Gwen a story unlike any we’ve seen from her before. Did I say LAUNCH? Can I emphasize that word even more? *cough cough*