Gwenpool (2025) # 1

By Mark Rodriguez

Gwenpool is a 'real world' Marvel fan named Gwendolyn Poole that somehow ended up in the Marvel Universe. Fearing that she might be killed off as a random extra as collateral damage, she chose to become a superhero popular enough to stick around. While she had some fighting skills, Gwen's biggest weapons are being incredibly genre-savvy and able to break the fourth wall. But now there's a deadlier and darker Gwenpool running around. What will happen in this new series?

 

The issue opens in a Weapon X Facility: Beta as some armed soldiers are looking for their target. One of them hears that the target is in the vicinity and activates her night vision. She asks Calloway if she has eyes on the target. Their target says that agent Calloway has such beautiful eyes. The target shows the agent Calloway's decapitated head. The agent opens fire and mows the person down.

The agent declared the target to be down. The target says she's wrong and asks for her name. The agent says her name isn't important and the target agrees. The bullet holes start to close up and the agent realizes the target has a healing factor. The target gets back to their feet and tells the agent the same can't be for them. The person smacks the gun out of the agent's hand and runs her through with their sword. The agent dies and the person walks off saying 'agent down'.

The person asks if they passed their test. The loudspeaker says they passed with flying colors and calls her Gwenpool. The person says not to call her that. The loudspeaker asks X-31 if her name isn't Gwen. X-31 says that's not her name anymore as she shoots and kills a third agent that was hiding in the shadows with a knife. X-31 calls the voice behind the loudspeaker 'Great Architect' saying he used a lousy trick on her.

The Great Architect says X-31 has one final test before she's unleashed upon the world. Several screens appear in front of her and the Architect explains that three Deathloks have escaped and it's up to her to take them down with extreme prejudice. X-31 says it's her kind of mission and asks if he thinks she's ready. The Architect says he's not worried about X-31, but rather, everyone else.

 

 

Elsewhere, Spider-Man is down, badly injured as the giant dragon Fing Fang Foom is on a rampage. Kate Bishop and Jeff the Shark are the only heroes standing, alongside the wall-crawler. Kate fires off an explosive arrow... that does nothing to the dragon. Spider-Man says not to beat herself up about it since the dragon has already taken down the combined forces of the Avengers, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. He's not too sure what else they can do.

Suddenly Gwenpool arrives, declaring herself to be the cavalry. Spider-Man tells her this a serious 'Earth Shattering they're all going to die' type of bad situation. Gwen says they seem to have forgotten that she is the one and only Gwendolyn Poole, as she cheerfully rushes into battle with her swords drawn. The dragon stomps on her. 

 

Kate is shocked and Spider-Man says there's no way she could have survived that. As the dragon raises his foot, Gwen is nowhere to be found. Spider-Man says she might have gotten stuck under the monster's foot, but she isn't there either. As Spider-Man wonders where she went, his Spider-Sense suddenly hits him hard enough to send him to his knees.

The scene pans out as Fin Fang Foom starts boasting about how it will crack the Earth's crust like an egg and drink its molten core to become the most powerful being in the cosmos. Just then the dragon turns to see a giant sized Gwenpool, towering over him. The dragon says this is impossible and Spider-Man agrees. Spidey asks Kate if she's ever done this before. Kate says this is new and terrifying. 

Fin Fang Foom says he crushed Gwen like a bug. She says that's difficult to do to someone that slip into the white space in between panels. All she had to do was wait until the artist went for a pan out shot, and she slipped back in, now looking giant-sized when compared to everything else. The giant sized Gwenpool kicks the dragon out of sight. She says that's a way to kick-off a new mini series. As she leaps off panel she says they're still ten pages to left to go as her Poole Pack, Gwenegades and Pooligans go wild. She says she needs to work out a cute name for her fanbase. 

Gwenpool puts her arms around Spider-Man and Kate and asks if they want to celebrate with some post-credit shawarma. Jeff runs off. Gwen asks what's wrong. Spidey says that Gwen just kicked a 225-foot apocalypse event into orbit. Kate says that's normal, not even for Gwen, and she can't blame Jeff for running off. Gwen says she's the same old Gwen and runs after Jeff. Kate asks if Spider-Man is OK. She says she can run after Gwen and Jeff while he helps the others. As she leaves, Spider-Man is still in great pain and says the danger hasn't passed and it's only getting worse.

Kate looks for Gwen when it suddenly starts raining. She sees some guys duking it out among themselves and she tells them to cool down. The guys tell her to mind her own business and ask if she hasn't done enough. Kate is confused but then she hears the screaming landshark. She runs off to find Jeff and leaves the guys to keep fighting each other.

Gwenpool is under attack by three Deathloks and she thanks Stan Lee's Soapbox that Kate showed up to help. One of men blasts Gwen from behind and Kate hits him with an electric arrow. One of them pulls a flamethrower on Kate, who barely gets out of the way. Kate asks what happened. Gwen says the two Deathloks appear out of nowhere once everything turned a tad Frank Miller. Kate is confused and Gwen explains the tone has changed. One of the Deathloks socks Gwen in the face. Gwen says the level of violence has changed. They're not in Teen + anymore and were now under parental advisory bordering on red label. As Gwen falls, one of the Deathloks says Gwen is making even less sense than usual and aims his gun at her.

Spider-Man leaps in and kicks the gunman down. Spider-Man and Kate point out the attack of the giant dragon, the random guys fighting in the streets and now they are being attacked by Deathloks. Spidey says it's like the world woke up and decided to choose insanity. One of the Deathloks shoots Spider-Man through the shoulder and says he has no idea.

Gwen is surprised that Spider-Man was shot and says that the Amazing Spider-Man never gets shot. The Deathloks says the age of heroes have passed and the Great Reboot has begun. They prepare to shoot the defeated heroes... when suddenly someone shoots all three of them through the head. Gwen says that was brutal. An off-panel voice asked if she expected a slap on the wrist. We see X-31 as she says the Deathloks were going to kill them, so she killed them first and Gwen should thank her.

Gwenpool charges towards X-31 saying Spidey's Spider-Sense is probably going off due to the 'clearance rack cosplayer'. X-31 extracts a long adamantium blade from her wrist and swings it towards Gwen. The impact causes one of Gwen's swords to shatter and knocks her down to the ground. Spider-Man tosses his webs at X-31's mask and yanks it off. Gwen hopes it's not some evil future version of herself. Peter sees the woman's face and says 'Gwen'.

Gwenpool thinks Peter is referring to her and she says she's too busy trying to figure out who this doppelganger is. She says it might be someone so bad even the 90's would be embarrassed like the 'Gwenforcer' or 'Cash Grab' or even 'Dark Gwenpool'. X-31 calls Gewnpool a mindless parody and says she's not Gwenpool, never Gwenpool. Rather, she is Gwen Stacy. Gwen Poole is confused.

 

My Thoughts- 

I haven't much exposure to Gwen Poole directly. She hasn't appeared in any of the major Marvel crossover events that I have encountered so far. I know that Gwen had the ability to break the fourth wall to the point that she can hop in and out of the comic book panels, but apparently this time she has 'gone too far' to the point that Spider-Man and Kate Bishop were freaking out.

So it seems the Weapon X program has somehow brought Gwen Stacy back as some sort of super assassin that is most likely packing adamantium in those blades. I'm curious as to why Gwen Stacy in particular. Sure, the comic readers know Gwen as the love of Peter's life and all that, but within the Marvel Universe she should just be some girl. Not only that but Gwen was a regular person, not a fighter by any means. So I guess Weapon X trained her from scratch. Not only that but I'm surprised there are still Weapon X facilities currently active. We still need to find out who this Great Architect person is too.

I do like Gwen's sense of humor as she talks and acts like a Marvel fangirl, which is her thing. Both Deadpool and Gwenpool break the fourth wall a lot but in different ways. While Deadpool is a comic book character aware that he is one, Gwendolyn is a 'real person' that is now living in a comic while being aware of all of the tropes. I don't remember Deadpool going to the extent of hopping in and out of comic book panels, but I'm open to hear any examples. We get a lot of references from her like a shout out to Frank Miller and Stan Lee's Soap Box. I miss Stan Lee's Soap Box.

I'm curious to see where all of this will go. The story is off to a good start. I am curious in the 'sudden shift in tone' as the Deathloks mentioned a 'Great Reboot', so maybe there is more reality warping at play than just Gwenpool's usual hijinx. The fact that some guys were just randomly duking it out and how Kate Bishop brought that up also has to mean something. 

I was not expecting Jeff the Shark to be in this, even if just for a little bit. His appearance in Marvel Rivals has really helped him show up all over the place.

So Gwen Poole meets Gwen Stacy, who I assume knows who she is since she's a big Spider-Man fan. I'd just imagine if they went all out and tossed Spider-Gwen into the mix. The cover of the next issue shows that things won't exactly go well for Gwendolyn.