We’re here! We have reached the most famous Spider-Man story of all, THE NIGHT GWEN STACY DIED! Before this, killing off a superhero’s girlfriend would have been unthinkable. Gwen’s death changed everything, and ushered in a new and darker era of comics. Heck, you can probably argue that without Gwen’s death, we wouldn’t have gotten Harry’s death later on.

And it’s Harry we’re looking at now. He plays a pivotal role in this story. In fact, it starts with him in withdrawal, in pain. But by the end of the story, everyone’s gonna be in pain.

Peter was previously in Montreal, fighting the Hulk. Gwen called Peter there to let him know Harry was using drugs again, but Peter had business to take care of before he could come home.

Norman is keen to keep his son’s overdose quiet – because, of course, it would mean embarrassment for him. Even though Harry would be better off in a hospital, Norman’s reputation comes first.

MJ’s expression here… she looks exasperated and angry more than concerned. I’m pretty sure she knew for a while that Harry was taking drugs.

This is without doubt one of the most important moments in Harry Osborn’s story – his schizophrenia diagnosis. Though he’s not really capable of hearing it, so I wonder if he heard it later from Norman. Wait – this suddenly made me think – does Harry actually know he was diagnosed with schizophrenia? The actual word “schizophrenia” is never actually said by Harry at any point in the 616 comics I think, despite Harry’s symptoms of it. Huh.

Peter is, rather sadly, not sympathetic to Harry’s plight. There is a link between LSD and schizophrenia, by the way. Though stress is another thing that can trigger it, and Harry has certainly been stressed. Later comics would make it clear that he’s carrying a lot of childhood trauma around, but as well as that he just went through the end of his relationship with MJ.

Peter, honey… You think the son of a supervillain is ever gonna be together? You’ve seen the way Harry and Norman interact!

Peter enters the house (wearing green, the colour of danger in Spider-Man comics) and gets lost in his thoughts.

But Norman is there and he’s not happy.

Norman blames Peter for Harry’s overdose. But based on his famous misogynistic streak (more on that in the next part) I’m surprised he didn’t blame MJ, to be honest.

Peter worries, because he knows Norman is always just a hair’s breadth away from becoming the Green Goblin again. Poor Peter, all his worst fears are about to come true.

Outside on the street, Peter and the girls talk.

“What could have happened to him, to make him become so – so desperate?” asks Gwen. The others don’t know. But us readers would eventually find out it all comes down to Norman, and years of emotional (and sometimes physical) abuse.

MJ sounds like she’s blaming herself. She doesn’t have to, though.

Ah yes, here’s the narrative telling us: it’s Norman.

Norman’s financial issues are worrying Harry, too, even though he’s got more than enough to worry about. He dragged himself out of bed to try and help. Norman is actually quite compassionate to him here.

Harry is really, really sick. Norman puts him back into bed…

…but he still won’t send Harry to hospital.

Norman’s mind is starting to go now.

Norman thinks of “enemies” who are trying to “corrupt” Harry, and that sounds like someone terrified their absolute control over their child is starting to slip.

Here it comes…

The Green Goblin is back! Norman runs from his home like a man possessed (which I suppose he sort of is) and dons the famous green costume once more.

“Peter Parker must die!” he declares.

It’s so very sad that Gwen’s last thoughts are wishing she could help Harry. The two of them were always connected – they even made their debuts in the comic at the exact same time – and Gwen’s death spells the beginning of the end for Harry. (There’s a great tumblr post here about Gwen and Harry throughout the multiverse, by the way, that may make you sad again.)

Peter returns to the apartment to find Gwen’s handbag and Norman’s calling card, and he’s horrified.

I bet no-one reading this comic back in 1973 expected what would come next. They probably assumed Peter would swoop in, rescue Gwen, send Norman to prison and Harry to rehab. But no! Instead, a tragedy is about to play out that still haunts the Spider-Man mythos to this very day.

That’s not the George Washington Bridge, that’s the Brooklyn Bridge!

Well, we know how it goes from here. Norman and Peter trade banter, as the superhero and supervillain are wont to do, and then…

Peter goes to save Gwen, but… BUT…

From this moment, Peter has to live with the knowledge that his action technically caused Gwen’s death, even though she would have died anyway. Alright, Norman says otherwise –

-but later revisits of the story make it clear that yes, it was the webbing that broke her neck. And in issue #125 of ASM, editor Roy Thomas writes, “It saddens us to have to say that the whiplash effect she underwent when Spidey’s webbing stopped her so suddenly was, in fact, what killed her. In short, it was impossible for Peter to save her. He couldn’t have swung down in time; the action he did take resulted in her death; if he had done nothing, she still would certainly have perished. There was no way out.”

Let’s finish with the famous ending panel:

Man, WHAT a story. Even now, it smacks you around the head with the tragedy of it all.

Obviously, the Death of Gwen Stacy has been revisited many times. In Spider-Man (2002) Norman drops Mary Jane off the Brooklyn Bridge, and she lives, and in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) Harry drops Gwen from a clock tower and she dies the same way as her 616 counterpart. But I hate, hate, hate that Harry is the killer in that movie! What a way to miss one of the points of the story: that Gwen loved Harry and it wasn’t enough to save her.