Gwenpool
Gwenpool (Gwendolyn "Gwen" Poole; colloquial: "GwenPool" or "Pink Slayer") is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. A girl from the real world transported to the Marvel Universe, her physical design originated as an amalgam of Gwen Stacy and Wade Wilson created by Chris Bachalo for a variant cover of "Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars" #2, which was one of twenty such variant covers published due to the popularity of Spider-Gwen from June 2015. Marvel initially produced two stories featuring Gwenpool as a character, created by Christopher Hastings, Heather Antos and Jordan D.  White: a backup story in the series "Howard the Duck", and a one-shot "Gwenpool Holiday Special", illustrated by Gurihiru. Following the publication of the one-shot, an ongoing series titled "The Unbelievable Gwenpool" by the same creative team was announced, primarily illustrated by Gurihiru (with Irene Strychalski), which started in April 2016 and concluded in April 2018. "The Unbelievable Gwenpool" #0, collecting Poole's appearances from "Howard the Duck" and the first "Gwenpool Holiday Special", was later released, as well as the limited series "Gwenpool Strikes Back". Publication history. In June 2015, following the popularity of Spider-Gwen, all  Marvel titles being published had alternate covers with Gwen Stacy reimagined as other characters, such as Doctor Strange, Groot and Wolverine. One of those was Deadpool, featured on Chris Bachalo's variant cover for "Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars #2". After seeing how many fans were cosplaying as a character who was not even featured in any comic, Marvel editor Jordan White approached writer Christopher Hastings and editor Heather Antos with the task of creating a story around her. They would introduce the character with a three-issue backup story in the ongoing volume of "Howard the Duck" (November 2015 –January 2016) and then a one-shot comic "Gwenpool Special #1" (December 2015). After a meeting with White and "Howard the Duck" editor Will Moss, Hastings came out with the idea of a character aware of the fourth wall, "but it comes from this place of knowing she is in a comic book because she is from a world where the comic books actually exist", which would also initially lead to a cavalier attitude towards the world in which she inhabits "because she doesn't believe there [are] any consequences to her actions", something Hastings summed as "she decides to  [initially] use that [comic book] knowledge like she's in "Grand Theft Auto" or something". A contrast would be that Gwenpool lacked any of the training or superpowers expected of Marvel characters. The "Howard the Duck" arc, from November 2015 to January 2016, was drawn by Brazilian artist Danilo Beyruth, and the holiday special, published in December 2015, had art by Japanese duo Gurihiru. Once Marvel decided to make a Gwenpool ongoing series (named "The Unbelievable Gwenpool"), starting in April 2016, Hastings asked for Gurihiru's return to the artwork team, with the title being edited by Antos. "The Unbelievable  Gwenpool" solo series ended at issue #25. Gwenpool would then join the Fresh Start incarnation of the West Coast Avengers in 2018. After that book ended, the character starred in the 2019 limited series "Gwenpool Strikes Back", written by Leah Williams and drawn by Spanish artist David Baldeón, and appeared in the 2020–21 promotional limited series "MODOK: Head Games" by "M.O.D.O.K." showrunners Patton Oswalt and Jordan Blum (with art by Scott Hepburn) as a supporting character. Fictional character biography. Backstory. Gwendolyn "Gwen" Poole arrived to the Marvel Universe from what she claims to be "the real world". In her home  reality, Gwen had been a comics superfan as an escape from her life as an unemployed 18- (or 19-)year-old high school dropout. Unwilling to be an "extra" in the Marvel world, she went to a tailor for superheroes and requested her own costume. The tailor (named Ronnie) complied, but misread Gwen's application form, and thought Gwen went by the alias of "Gwenpool", leading to a costume similar to Deadpool's. Upon gaining the ability to manipulate the borders of the fourth wall from an attempt to return her to reality, allowing her to travel in time, Gwen retcons  the Marvel Universe into believing her to be a mutant after being given the idea by Kamala Khan, allowing her to enter the gates of Krakoa. Solo series. Gwenpool's first appearance as a character was in "Howard the Duck" Vol 6 #1 (later republished in "The Unbelievable Gwenpool" #0), 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. When she revealed to Howard the Duck 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. In the 2015 "Gwenpool Special", Gwenpool is hired on her first mercenary job, to kill a villain. After completing her mission, Gwenpool attends a Christmas party hosted by She-Hulk, where she's seen talking to Ms. Marvel. Following the events of "Gwenpool Holiday Special" #1, Gwenpool becomes a full-time mercenary. While trying to deposit the money she made killing Orto , Gwen stops a bank robbery by killing all of the robbers, except for the gang's hacker Cecil, whom she enlists as a reluctant sidekick. After a mission revolving around extraterrestrial arms dealers where she killed MODOK Superior's best agent and took credit for his work, MODOK tracked Gwenpool down. He murdered Cecil in order to persuade her to become his henchman and an agent for his Mercenary Organization Dedicated Only to Killing. Gwenpool joins MODOK's elite squad, which also includes the alchemist Mega Tony, the magician Terrible Eye, and Batroc the Leaper, who gives Gwen basic combat  and firearms training. Gwenpool then arranged 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. Doctor Strange agreed to transfer her history from Gwen's original world to create a fake background for her in the Marvel Universe, so that she could get her Social Security number, driver's license and other essential documents. However, this allows MODOK Superior to discover Gwen's ordinary, powerless background, and he swears to destroy Gwen for lying to him and having no credentials  to be a mercenary. Gwen and MODOK then engage in battle, and she defeats him with the hacking assistance of Cecil, who returns as a ghost. Without MODOK, Gwen becomes the new leader of the MODOK organization, but learns she is wanted by the alien arms dealers, who are known as Teuthidans. Assisted by a rogue Doombot named Vincent Doonan and MODOK's other agents, Gwenpool's team defeats the Teuthidans, but destroys the MODOK base in the process. Without a base or funding, Batroc and the others decide to disband MODOK. During the "Civil War II" storyline, Gwenpool appears  in Georgia attempting to earn the bounty on an alien smuggler named Chammy, only to discover that Rocket Raccoon and Groot are also after him. The three end up fighting another alien named Reeve, 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, allowing him to kill her. Gwen refuses to help at first, under the logic that Captain Marvel, being one of most important "characters" in the current "story", would not be killed off in  a comic about a talking tree and raccoon. However, after coincidentally running into Kitty Pryde, Gwen falls under the mistaken impression that the comic she is currently in was being written by Brian Michael Bendis, a "big-deal comic book writer" with a fixation on Pryde who would have the authority to kill Captain Marvel. Convinced that Captain Marvel's life is actually in danger, Gwen accompanies Rocket & Groot to the Triskelion, where they and Chammy help defeat Reeve, and Gwen realizes that the real writer put Kitty Pryde on the street to trick her into helping. After short team -ups with the Champions, Blade, Deadpool, and the duo of Ghost Rider and Kate Bishop, Gwen meets her brother Teddy, who drags her back to her world (or a close facsimile). Here Gwen loses her memories of her time in the Marvel Universe and resumes an ordinary life, but she gradually becomes once again aware that she is in a comic book. Gwen then begins experimenting with the fourth wall again and learns to interact with the comic book medium by erasing the walls between panels and even climbing out of the panels, finding herself looking in on her life . Watching the past from outside the borders, Gwen sees the "extra pages" of her "Holiday Special", in which when her brother Teddy was sucked into the Marvel Universe, he ended up working for Orto the snake swordsman. Upon seeing her kill Orto's henchmen, Teddy runs into versions of Spider-Man, The Terrible Eye, and Vincent Doonan, who claim to be from a future where Gwen becomes a huge threat and destroys their lives. They offer him the chance to "return home" with his sister and fix things. Being concerned for Gwen's mental health, and having had a terrible  time, he readily agrees. On finding this out Gwen, with her memory and costume restored, re-enters the borders, confronts Teddy for trying to undo the past and steal her dream of living in a comic, and shows him that their "parents" aren't real, and they never even left the comic. Terrible Eye explains that their attempts to send the Pooles to their home dimension created a pocket dimension from their memories that was almost identical to their real one. The three realize that trapping Gwen was what led to her gaining her powers over reality in the first  place. When Spider-Man narrates a flashback sequence of the future evil Gwen's misdeeds, the evil Gwen herself travels through the flashback's panels to follow him to the present. Future Gwen battles Spider-Man, Terrible Eye, and Doonan, while each side tries to convince the present Gwen to join their cause. Future Gwen turns out to be weakened by Present Gwen's doubt, but still effortlessly kills Doonan, Terrible Eye, and Spider-Man, horrifying Present Gwen, before explaining to her past self that she became a villain because she was tired of her good deeds being undone as  the plot progressed, so she turned to committing evil that could always be undone on characters that "matter", demonstrated when Spider-Man's death is retconned a moment later because he's too important in the story to be killed. However, Present Gwen is disgusted at the idea of hurting the characters she's grown to love, and wipes her future self from existence. This comes at the cost of erasing all of the Evil Gwen stories and thus dramatically shortening Present Gwen's lifespan. Learning that the universe is attempting to make her into a joke villain, Gwen wants  to make sure her evil self never comes to be. To catch the attention of the Avengers she visits Latveria in an attempt to face off with Doctor Doom, thinking him to still be evil, as she hasn't read "Infamous Iron Man". It is revealed that she and Cecil, now in his mystical monster body, share an apartment and since she has given up killing people is hacking to pay the bills. A short time later after rescuing Vincent Doonan from Paste Pot Pete and throwing him into the void between comic panels as a demonstration of her new  superpower, Gwen asks Vincent where to find the real Doctor Doom so she can defeat him and prove herself to be a fameworthy hero. Vincent leads her to Doom, who explains he's reformed, but Gwen still attacks him, releasing an evil version of Doctor Doom from within him. After a brief fight in which she realizes she can't kill the Doom doppelganger, the real Doom comes to her aid and destroys his evil past self. He and Gwen have a chat about why she wanted to kill him, which turns out to be because since destroying her evil  destiny self, her comic pages are running out and she believes she is doomed to be cancelled. With only a few pages left, once Doom is gone, she wonders if she has to become a super villain. In the final chapter of "Unbelievable Gwenpool", a Gwen from the future appears to her and explains that while her first comic series has ended, she's already in several other comics, toys, games, fan works, and so on. Even if her current book ends, she and her side characters will return in future stories. Meanwhile, in between these pages, Gwen enlists the  help of Stephen Strange and her friends to restore Cecil to human form. She is given a watch that counts down the issue's remaining pages and she uses the rest, one page at a time, to see old friends, team up with new superheroes, rescue her brother from Hell, meet the Marvel Universe counterparts of her parents, and chase off M.O.D.O.K. one more time. Future Gwen then says goodbye to the audience and goes back to where the chapter started to talk to her past self, creating a loop. Section::::"West Coast Avengers" Vol. 3. After recently having been beaten  up by a clone of Squirrel Girl, and later attending the funeral of a separate Skrull duplicate of Squirrel Girl, Gwen visits Kate Bishop in Los Angeles, before being drafted to join the accidentally reformed West Coast Avengers. She instantly enters into conflict with one of the members, Quentin Quire, but their clashes and shouting matches eventually evolve into passionate kisses. However, Gwen later informs the camera crew following the team that she started a relationship with Quentin partly because she felt a romantic plot would make her less of a supporting player and thus less likely to die, having  also considered establishing a romantic relationship with America Chavez. Along with the other Avengers, Gwen helps stop giant monsters created by the original M.O.D.O.K., adopts a baby land-shark she names Jeff, and faces an alliance of villains headed by Madame Masque. Later, during the War of the Realms, Gwen and the West Coast Avengers assist Otto Octavius in protecting San Francisco, and she uses her perspective as a Marvel Universe outsider and a fellow B-list hero to help him come to terms with his lack of a star role in the event. Section::::"Gwenpool Strikes Back" (2019). In this  miniseries, after breaking up with Quentin and using encounters with Peter Parker, Wade Wilson, and the Fantastic Four as filler for its first two issues, Gwen uses a new ability to create flashbacks to things that had previously never happened (allowing her to manipulate reality) to acquire a fortune from Tony Stark post-"Civil War II" to allow her to pit the heroes of the Marvel Universe against one another in a battle royale. After accidentally setting herself to combat the Immortal Hulk, Gwen pulls previous versions of herself, as portrayed by different writers and artists, from the Gutter, forming a  six-Gwen team known as the GwenHive. Gwen leaves the GwenHive to enter combat with the Hulk while she dives into continuity, leading to the death of the Gwen from "Champions". Gwen returns, having stolen Mjolnir and the severed arm of Thor Odinson, and uses them to defeat the Hulk. Gwen then finds herself facing Kamala Khan as the tourney's final battle. Fearing for her continued existence, and upon being accidentally inspired by Khan, Gwen uses the retcon ability to convince Khan and the wider Marvel Universe that she is a mutant, hoping that as a "mutant" resident of  Krakoa she will remain "in continuity"; upon arriving, she encounters James "Logan" Howlett and Quentin. After leaving Jeff with Wade while dressed in her original Chris Bachalo design, Gwen later avoids participating in a "Fortnite" tie-in while drinking with Kwannon, Mystique, Storm and Domino. After being hired by A.I.M. Scientist Supreme Monica Rappaccini to kill MODOK (being accredited for having briefly killed him when she first launched him into space), Gwen assumes that she has been given a new ongoing "Gwenpool" series and happily kills MODOK, only to realize with a sigh (upon viewing his projected memories of a  family) that he is being humanised, and she is merely a guest star in his book—the villain of his story. Entering the Gutter, Gwen proceeds to rearrange the comic's pages and retcon MODOK's death to having been merely knocked out by an EMP. Gwen helps MODOK discover his family's home from his memories, and MODOK grants Gwen his respect. Gwen is later seen wearing cosplay for a fan convention, and is also seen in Los Angeles celebrating the repeal of Kamala's Law with Robbie Reyes and the West Coast Avengers, and leaves a mug with  her face on it to Kate as a parting gift. Other versions. Section::::"Venomverse" (2017). An alternate universe's version of Gwen merges with a Venom Symbiote that has unique medium awareness and knowledge of the Marvel Multiverse, but is killed and absorbed by the "Poisons" of "Venomverse". Section::::"Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe Again" (2017). An alternate version of Gwen appears in the third issue of this miniseries. Gwen is hired by Moon Knight and the Punisher to find the location of definitely evil versions of Magneto, the Red Skull, the Abomination and Doctor Doom, who are controlling Deadpool to kill  that Marvel Universe's heroes. As Gwen sends the photos, the Abomination proclaims ""I've got her"", leaving her fate unknown. Losing reception, Moon Knight remarks: ""Until we hear from her again, we should assume Gwenpool's DEAD." In the same issue, it is revealed that the series takes place in a reality similar to that of "Old Man Logan", as Deadpool comes across the X-Men's Mansion after Mysterio tricks Laura Kinney / Wolverine into slaughtering the X-Men. Old Man Logan realizes that this is what is happening over the course of the issue. Later, in the fourth  issue, Gwenpool is revealed to be alive, asking the Tinkerer to ask her ""a few quick questions". Gwen proceeds to torture the Tinkerer, realizing that her "superhero pals" aren't answering any of her texts and calls and that the Tinkerer's masters have been using Deadpool to kill them. Gwenpool threatens the Tinkerer with more torture if he doesn't tell her how to break Deadpool's trance to stop him from killing everyone. Gwenpool then comes across Deadpool as he kills Nova, the last remaining superhero other than Gwenpool, and attempts to knock him out of his trance . Deadpool mocks Gwen as simply being a "variant cover knockoff" and "a Deadpool -- in pink!". Gwenpool, suddenly impaled, uses her last moments to reverse Deadpool's trance, redirecting him towards the supervillains using the trigger phrases she learned from the Tinkerer. Gwenpool begs Deadpool ""don't let them get away with it"", as he proclaims: ""Bring on the Bad Guys"". Powers and abilities. Gwenpool originally had no real superpowers, having vast knowledge of the Marvel Universe from comic books in her universe, such as every secret identity of both heroes and villains. She has used this information to take down  Black Cat's criminal empire and to stop Thor from attacking her. She is able to exploit her fourth-wall knowledge to her advantage, understanding when comic-book tropes will allow her to avoid unpleasant or life-threatening consequences. Gwen has repeatedly demonstrated that she can't be arrested for long due to her superhero status and has also, on several occasions, survived falls that should have killed her. In fact she specifically told Howard the Duck that one of her favorite things was leaping from tall things and not dying. Things that should injure her sometimes have no effect , and when she is injured she heals quickly. She can also jump from high places and grab a moving train without serious injury, has hefted/thrown several large bags of gold bars (each bar weighing roughly fifty pounds or more), and demonstrated that as long as she perceives herself to be a hero it makes her enemies look like idiots who cannot seem to shoot her or land any serious blows. Gwenpool is trained in hand to hand combat by Batroc during The Unbelievable Gwenpool Vol. 2. Apparently, Batroc trained her in Savate and some swordplay. She continued to  train after she left Batroc and with her skills much improved, she was able to take out a group of minions by herself while on the West Coast Avengers by jumping, kicking, and using her Katanas fluidly. Blade also offered to teach her to fight vampires. Gwenpool is fully-aware that she is in a comic, meaning she can step out of and into comic panels, alter fictional characters (such as she does to Doctor Doom), dump characters into the "gutter space" between panels, interact with word bubbles or use her knowledge of the Marvel Universe to determine characters' weaknesses . In West Coast Avengers, Gwen notes she is not fully able to exploit the comics medium with her powers as she did in her own title, making her think it was part of a character reboot. Later she says it does not work as well when people watch, but Ms. Marvel did admit that Gwen obviously has powers and came up with a theory that Gwen is a mutant based on everyone's (with the exception of other characters who can interact with the fourth wall) disbelief that they live in a comic. Gwen is independently wealthy, having had run  a successful career as a mercenary, and later having stolen a large number of gold bricks from an illegal casino run by Chance. She recently used her reality manipulating abilities in Gwenpool Strikes Back to rewrite history so before one of his deaths Ironman gave her a large sum of money that she put up as a prize in a winner take all brawl with other superheroes. Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan) won but it is unknown if she got the money. In the end she solidified her status as a recurring marvel character and gave a list of permanent facts  about herself along with an addendum that the authors could not control her and she would never die. Relationships. Teddy Poole: Gwen's brother who was also brought to the Marvel universe. He is less prone to seeing the world as a comic book and has yet to show any of Gwen's powers, but seems immune to her ability to alter reality. He briefly took work for a snake man named Orto before Gwen killed him. On seeing her slaughter the villain's minions he was horrified and could not bring himself to talk to her before she rushed  off to the She-Hulk X-mas party. Almost immediately he was contacted by some future versions of Gwen's friends who had seen her destroy their future. They had no problem convincing Teddy they were right and he helped lure Gwen into a tap, only to have it not work as the two cannot be returned to their real world. Later, after she escaped, Gwen looked for him and finally found Teddy in Hell being tortured by Mephisto, for no apparent reason. She and Squirrel Girl rescued him and then, as she was dealing with the end of  her series and was afraid she would be forgotten, forgot about him. In Gwenpool Strikes Back she did mention him and that the whole thing was still unresolved. Her "Parents": Copies of her parents were found living in the Marvel universe. At first they showed up at Officer Gray's Police precinct thinking Gwen might be their daughter. Then it turned out they rented their home to Gwen's future friends and Teddy, completely unaware of their existence and joking about how the renters of their house were probably supervillains using it as a lair. Later Gwen introduced herself to  them and told them about Teddy right before Moon Girl and The Power Pack broke through the wall. They took it in stride and even seemed happy, though slightly worried that their house would be blown up a lot more in the future. Gwen probably paid to have the place fixed, since she is quite wealthy these days. Big Ronnie: A woman who sells "battle spandex" costumes and runs a mercenary for hire business. She made Gwen's suit and gave her her superhero name by accident. Cecil: The son of rednecks who ran away to the city to be  a hacker and got forcibly inducted into his uncle's gang, Gwenpool killed the gang and basically took Cecil hostage as her helper. He was briefly killed by M.O.D.O.K. only to be brought back first as a giant monster and then himself by Gwen because she felt bad for getting him killed. He's an elite hacker and has a giant purple dog monster for a loyal pet. Terrible Eye: Gwen's only girl friend on the merc crew they were all forcibly forced to join she has a mask that allows her mystical access to knowledge beyond the ken  of man. She has to take breaks from it though because she starts going mad if it is worn too long and having long conversations with rocks. She usually casts spells with rhymes but a future version of her who was one of Dr. Strange's eventual replacements did once say "Are you there Hoary Hosts of Hogath? It's me, Sara." Free from her previous unwanted employment she now has a small apartment and is attending a school for witchcraft in New York. MegaTony: An Alchemist former team member of Gwen's. He had a hard time adjusting to  life in the super community when their mercenary team fell apart, but Gwen helped get him a job working for Peter Parker. Batroc the Leaper: A semi-major supervillain and sort of a big brother to Gwen, in her comics he's reasonably nice and helpful at least to her and her friends. But only in her comics. Elsewhere he's a dangerous killer. When Gwen expressed a desire for supervillainy he helped her Robin Hood some gold from an illegal casino, making her independently wealthy and no longer needing to worry about money, at least for a while. Vincent  Doonan: A rogue Doombot who first hired Gwen when she defeated M.O.D.O.K. and then turned against her when he decide she was the biggest threat to his quiet small town life style. This resulted in him getting credit for saving his neighborhood from the alien arms dealers he was actually working with and unwanted attention as a hero. After trying to take out Dr. Doom together the two seem to have reconciled and become friends. He's allowed Squirrel Girl to access his systems for her computer class and helped resurrect her friend Cecil. Officer Gray: A policewoman who tried  to arrest Gwenpool, despite the rogue Doombot attacking her at the time. Gwen, not wanting to see her dead, asked her name and declared her no longer a mere extra, so she wouldn't be easily killed. Later she tried to arrest Gwen for fighting an evil snake man only to be told by the other cops that they were letting her go. She seemed to hear Gwen mention that they were in a comic and unlike other characters in Marvel, actually seemed to believe her for a second. She also briefly tried to get Gwen to do some community  service, but was again thwarted since the universe would not let Gwen do anything that boring. Various Heroes and Villains: Gwen has made friends and enemies among various heroes and villains. So far however they only seem to remember her in her actual presence and she has surprisingly not yet got a main nemesis, though she tried to make Dr. Doom into one and ended up befriending him instead. None of them believe Gwen when she tells them she is in a comic and Ms. Marvel even suggested she might be a reality altering mutant, ending in Gwen getting rewritten  into that role, even though Gwen does not really believe it and only accepted it because it opened up a lot of paths for her comic to continue. Pool-Boys: More all male mercenaries working for M.O.D.O.K. they were the backup squad and rarely used by him as Gwenpool's team were the A-listers. After Gwen dressed them as her in order to keep them invulnerable as a funny and unique one-time fight against the alien arms dealers. They were subsequently arrested. Later they met up with Gwen and her friends in the park, still wearing her costume , and helped drive off their former boss. It is unclear what eventually happened to them. Gwen-Pig: To fool the aliens who were after her Gwen dressed a pig up in her costume. The pig was later adopted by MegaTony and apparently insists on still wearing the costume.--> Collected editions. The Japanese release of the first volume came with a different trade cover.