It has been 11 years since Marvel’s most beloved fourth-wall-breaking heroine debuted in Marvel Comics, and she showed up in the perfect title. Fourth-wall-breaking characters have been around for years, with She-Hulk as the original and then Deadpool becoming the most famous. However, one of the best arrived in 2015 when Gwenpool made her Marvel Comics debut. What makes Gwenpool so different from She-Hulk and Deadpool is that she breaks the fourth wall because she comes from another Earth, one where all of Marvel’s heroes are comic book characters that she knows everything about thanks to being a comic fan herself.
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This also makes Gwenpool someone who has a distinctive character arc since she didn’t understand when she ended up on Earth-616 that these were real people and not just characters in comics. This made her in-story debut in Howard the Duck #1 (2015) a perfect place for her to enter the Marvel Universe.
Gwenpool Debuted in Howard the Duck Comics
Gwendolyn Poole debuted in the first issue of the Howard the Duck series that launched in 2015 from Christopher Hastings and Danilo Beyruth. As a reminder, Howard the Duck is an anthropomorphic duck from Duckworld (Earth-47920) who ended up transported to Earth-616 in the pages of a Man-Thing comic. While this seemed like the strangest place for Howard to debut, since Man-Thing guards the Nexus, it actually makes sense. In a similar mode of thinking, it also makes sense that Gwenpool would debut in a comic like Howard the Duck, since neither character fits into the world of the mainstream Marvel Universe.
This happened in the second story in the issue, “Ms. Poole if You’re Nasty (Part One of Three),” in which Black Cat shows up to hire Howard the Duck, saying he stole a necklace from her and owes her. She then explains that she was conducting some of her illegal business when someone on a motorcycle showed up, started shooting at everyone, and then took what Black Cat was dealing with. Howard wondered who this “monster” could be, and Black Cat responded, “Some kind of pantsless Arctic ninja or something.” Black Cat hired Howard to find this person. This was the first appearance of Gwenpool in Marvel Comics.
This all came to a head when Gwenpool murdered a corrupt cop who was on Black Cat’s payroll. See, the big twist here is that Gwenpool is from a world where all Marvel Comics characters are fictional and live in comics. When she arrives in the Marvel Universe, she just assumes she is now part of a comic book story and that killing is no big deal here since people come back from the dead all the time in comics. In fact, her first adventure with Black Cat involved her crashing into a truck full of ducks, which put her immediately on Howard’s bad side. Despite this, Gwenpool was also at Howard’s office hiding, and Black Cat didn’t know.
This led to Gwenpool trying to kill Howard, making her a true villain in her first appearance, but the problem is that she just didn’t understand. In fact, she said it wasn’t a big deal if she killed him because he had already disappeared from publication for years at a time. She had no idea that what she was doing was bad, and this is where her fourth-wall-breaking took a very different turn from other characters. Black Cat was buying a doomsday device from a mysterious group, and that is what Gwenpool took. The fact that she sold the doomsday device to Hydra because she needed money, but excused it because the Avengers would handle it, showed her naivety.
Gwenpool Has Since Become a Hero in the Marvel Universe
Howard the Duck, one of the most unlikely of heroes, is who helps try to teach Gwenpool that these characters might be fictional where she comes from, but they are very real in this world. When she and Howard went to fight Hydra, she even tried to exploit the weaknesses of her enemies, although she struggled to tell some characters apart. Despite this, Howard and Gwenpool saved the day, got Black Cat off Gwenpool’s back, and the character began to move toward her new life as a superhero on Earth-616.
It took a little while for that to happen, though, as Gwenpool decided to become a mercenary to make some money and eventually was forced to work for MODOK. This was where Doctor Strange helped transplant every trace of Gwen’s existence from her original universe to the new reality so she could actually get paid. She trained with Batroc, improved her fighting skills, and eventually took over MODOK’s organization for a while. Finally, she began to turn over a new leaf, and this was completed when she joined the teenage superhero team, the Champions, and became a genuine hero.
What are your thoughts on Gwenpool in the Marvel Universe? Let us know your favorite Gwenpool moments in the comments below.
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