5 Easter Eggs from Earth-65, Home of Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider

Exploring secrets from Ghost-Spider’s home universe!

After the deep dark events of SPIDER-GEDDON—Gwen barely survived with her life and many of her Spider-friends weren’t so lucky—Ghost-Spider is back home on Earth-65 and ready for a little peace. But alas, Gwen is quickly reminded that this is simply not part of the deal when you’re a Super Hero. With her band in turmoil, her dad hounding her about school, plus, you know, saving the world, our hero’s got her work cut out for her in SPIDER-GWEN: GHOST-SPIDER #5 by Seanan McGuire and Takeshi Miyazawa, available Wednesday, February 13!

While Gwen tries to decompress, let’s take a stroll down the streets of Earth-65 and get to know her home sweet home a little better. Here are some things you might not have known about Earth-65!

Did you know that Earth-65 wasn’t always called Earth-65? Before Gwen’s reality was identified as Earth-65 for the first time in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (2014) #9, her reality (backed up by the Marvel Appendix at the time) was listed as Earth-14211. Chalk that one up to the multiverse exploding and being reborn in the SECRET WARS event that very same year. If Miles Morales can have his whole timeline and memory altered, retroactively always have lived on Earth-616 with his resurrected family, then maybe a little name change for Gwen Stacy’s universe kind of isn’t that big of a deal.

Writer Dan Slott wrote approximately 164 issues of SPIDER-MAN over the course of his illustrious career, not including one-shots and mini-series. During that time Slott spearheaded events like SPIDER-ISLAND, SPIDER-VERSE, THE CLONE CONSPIRACY, and Doctor Octavius’ run as Superior Spider-Man. Without SPIDER-VERSE, Spider-Gwen as we know her would not exist!

All of that is just a preface to let you know how much weight this guy’s words have. In this November 2014 tweet, he revealed that Earth-65 is named after the very first appearance of Gwen Stacy in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #31 in December 1965!

STARK LIKES BUCKS

The Tony Stark of Earth-616—the one who is also not-so-secretly known as Iron Man—runs and operates Stark Industries, later known as Stark International, Stark Innovations, Stark/Fujikawa, Stark Enterprises, and Stark Resilient. It has traditionally been known as a defense company, developing and manufacturing weapons and other military tech (which is how the Iron Man armor came to be).

What you might not know is that Tony has a counterpart in Earth-65. Anthony Stark of Earth-65 isn’t too different from the 616 version. He is the son of an Earth-65 Howard Stark, became a billionaire industrialist and weapons manufacturer as head of Stark Industries, and even owns a mercenary unit that serves as his private army, dubbed War Machine. Although he isn’t Iron Man in this reality, Earth-65’s Mr. Stark knows of an insidiously diabolical weapon Iron Man has never before attempted to harness... coffee. Anthony Stark is also a coffee magnate, head of Stark Bucks coffee. It looks exactly like you’re imagining it, and no, they do not spell his name right on the cup.

Some people might think that Ghost-Spider’s proclivity for drumming comes out of left field compared to the Gwen Stacy of Earth-616 and her apparent lack of artistic ability. It’s possible, however, that Spider-Gwen’s desire to perform music has something to do with the spider that gave her such amazing crime-fighting powers in the first place!

Is it just a coincidence, then, that Peter Parker was bitten by the very same bug (er, spider)? Peter’s first move after getting his powers all the way back in 1962 was not to fight crime, but rather to go into show business as an actor! Indeed, we discovered in “What If Spider-Man Had Never Become a Crimefighter” that Spidey’s acting career would have blossomed into stardom had Uncle Ben not been murdered, spurring on the web-slinger to change his tune. We’re not saying that having spider powers makes you more artistically talented, but just about every single Spider-Person has amazingly poised and gorgeous dancer-esque moves when they’re swinging around town. Those calves were made to boogie, care of the Web of Life and Destiny.

There has been some speculation that Earth-65’s Mary Jane is or was crushing on bandmate Gloria “Glory” Grant. We can neither confirm nor deny such developments, though we will just put this tweet right here from the writer of SPIDER-GWEN (2015-2018):

Suggestions of queer representation of MJ isn’t new, however. Just take a look at the Mary Jane of Earth-8545 and her epic love affair with Earth-2109’s Mariko Yashida in EXILES (2001-2008). As Spider-Woman and Sunfire, the two had a whirlwind romance until the pair were forced apart by circumstance and then later on Mariko’s death. The decision to bury her on Earth-8545 was made so that Mary Jane could visit her grave. Hopefully Earth-65 Mary Jane’s love life doesn’t have such tragic circumstances ahead, but the door has been open to the character exploring her orientation ever since and Earth-65’s version is the first we know of to go for it.

SPIDER-GWEN: GHOST SPIDER #5, written by Seanan McGuire with art by Takeshi Miyazawa, goes on sale Wednesday, February 13. Reserve your copy today online or at your local comic shop!