Latest / Vigilante Vibes Podcast / Ep. 119. Who is Gwenpool from Marvel Comics?!

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Ep. 119. Who is Gwenpool from Marvel Comics?! · Vigilante Vibes Podcast

• 0:19
  Hi guys, it's Megan from Vigilante Vibes and I come to
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  you today with another character breakdown and to keep the theme
• 0:26
  of Pride going. It will be another character of
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  the LGBTQ plus community. So today we have Gwen Pool.
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  She is. Gwen Pool is such a weird
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  character all around, but in the best way.
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  Just to make it clear, she has no relation to Gwen Stacy, and
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  she's not a mash up of Deadpool and Gwen.
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  Her name is actually Gwendolyn Pool.
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  And when I say she's a weird character, I mean that in every
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  sense of the word. I'll get into it, you'll
• 1:01
  understand. I think so.
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  Gwen Pool's first appearance was in Howard the Duck Volume 6 #1
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  and was released in November of 2015.
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  Specifically in a variant cover was not even in the story
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  itself. The variant cover was produced
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  in a comedic series depicting Spider Man's deceased
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  girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, and a variety of different personas
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  based on known characters. That cover featured a mash up of
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  Gwen Stacy and Deadpool, part of a series of Gwen themed variant
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  covers Marvel released at that time.
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  So the cover itself was a mash up of Gwen and Deadpool, but
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  Gwendolyn Poole is her own character.
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  Her first in story appearance came shortly after in Howard the
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  Duck Volume 6 number one second printing bonus story, and then
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  more prominently in Howard the duck #2 from 2016 where she
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  appeared as an actual character. Her first real comic series, The
• 2:03
  Unbelievable Gwen Pool by Chris Hastings, is generally pretty
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  well liked. It starts off with Gwen Pool, a
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  regular woman from the real world, our real world, who ends
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  up stuck in the Marvel Universe, and over the 1st 10 or so issues
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  it turns into the surprisingly thoughtful take on comic books
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  as a medium with a weirdly heartwarming look at things like
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  identity and existential dread. In that run, it is revealed that
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  she actively dislikes Deadpool and the style of humor that
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  defines his comics, but chose the name simply because, well,
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  she is Gwendolyn Pool, she is Gwen Pool.
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  How does she fit into Pride Month you ask?
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  Well, in Love Unlimited, she reveals that she is asexual and
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  then in Marvel pride #1 she is a romantic or Arrow ace, which
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  means that she experiences little to no romantic attraction
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  or sexual attraction. She may or may not feel a need
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  to act on these attractions and she also may experience some
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  other forms of attraction like platonic or aesthetic
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  attraction. So Gwen Poole used to live in
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  our world, the one where superheroes are just comic book
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  characters, movies, and video games.
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  Because our world is so lame when you say it that way, but
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  whatever. After struggling to find a job
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  thanks to not finishing high school and watching her friends
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  move away, Gwen kind of checked out.
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  She buried herself in fiction to escape reality, which didn't
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  exactly thrill her parents. At some point, no one's really
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  sure how it happened, but Gwen and her brother Teddy got pulled
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  into the actual Marvel Universe. They got separated during the
• 3:45
  jump and each thought the other didn't make it.
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  Gwen, not wanting to be just some background character in
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  this new world, went to Big Ronnie's to get a custom fit
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  superhero outfit. The Taylor misunderstood her
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  name, thought Gwen Pool was her alias, and it just kind of
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  stuck. Her first big move?
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  Stealing a virus from Black Cat and selling it to Hydra for fast
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  cash. Gwen figured no big deal, The
• 4:13
  Avengers will clean it up, but when she tried to off Howard the
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  Duck who was tracking her for Black Cat, he called her out.
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  That was Gwen's wake up call. The people in this world might
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  have been fictional where she came from, but here they are
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  extremely real. She made things right by teaming
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  up with Howard to take down the Hydra base and destroy the
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  virus. So Gwen needed some cash, right?
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  She ended up becoming a mercenary, snagging gigs from
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  this tailor named Ronnie, the one who gave her the suit one
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  time she was supposed to take out a toothed in squadron
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  stationed on Earth, but someone else had already did the job.
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  Gwen being Gwen, she just killed that mercenary and took the
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  credit. Which is like, I know she
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  doesn't like Deadpool, but that's the most Deadpool thing
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  I've ever heard. But I digress.
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  Turns out the guy she offed worked for Modoc, who's
• 5:10
  basically a giant floating head with a mean streak.
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  We all if you're unfamiliar with the comics Modoc, you can't miss
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  him. And Ant Man and the Wasp Quantum
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  Mania. You, you know who I'm talking
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  about. Modoc tracked Gwen down and get
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  this, forced her to join his super exclusive mercenary
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  organization dedicated only to killing.
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  He named it after himself to really twist her arm.
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  Modoc even killed Cecil, a hacker Gwen had befriended who
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  was her Mission Control, which is rough.
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  Anyway, her new team mates were Batrock the Leaper, Mega Tony,
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  and Terrible Eye. All of their names are so
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  different. Very different.
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  At first, Gwen was pretty terrible at the whole mercenary
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  thing. Batrock noticed and actually
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  helped her get better at fighting.
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  The thing is, Gwen had no real background, which meant she
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  couldn't get paid, so she went to Doctor Strange for help.
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  He basically zapped her whole existence from her old universe
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  into this new one. Look, it's like just that's so
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  kind. Now, Gwen was getting paid and
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  getting awesome training from Batrock.
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  But here's the kicker, With her record showing up, Modoc figured
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  out that she was just a regular person with 0 actual skills.
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  He confronted her, ready to end her, but thanks to some dumb
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  luck and Batrock's training, Gwen actually fought him off.
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  And Cecil's ghost, the hacker that Modoc killed, even showed
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  up thanks to Doctor Strange to help her finally take Modoc
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  down, which is wild. With Modoc out of the picture,
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  Gwen ended up becoming the point person for the team's new
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  client, a seemingly average guy named Vincent Doonan.
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  He used to send missions to Modoc to quietly wipe out
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  threats that didn't fit into his dream.
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  A boring, peaceful world. Turns out Doonan was actually a
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  doombat in disguise. When a bunch of alien Tuthidians
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  showed up looking for revenge. Blaming Gwen for wiping out one
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  of their squads, Doonan tried to throw her under the bus and hand
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  her over to calm them down. That plan completely flopped.
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  Gwen escaped, rescued her fellow mercs, and with no client left
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  to work for, the team, decided to call it quits.
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  Gwen went back to picking up jobs from Ronnie, but didn't get
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  far before she was captured and tossed into the Negative Zone by
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  an evil clone of Squirrel Girl named Aline Green.
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  Thankfully, the real Squirrel Girl showed up and busted her
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  out just in time for the second Superhero Civil War 2 breakout.
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  Since Gwen saw herself as a comic book character, she
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  immediately recognized what was happening as a classic Marvel
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  event, and in her mind, those usually mean bad news for side
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  characters like her. So she pieced out and moved to
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  rural Georgia, hoping to stay off the radar and avoid getting
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  killed. You can say many things about
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  Gwenpool, but that was a smart thing to do.
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  Like, that's more thinking than any comic book character you
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  ever did see. So Gwen teamed up with Rocket
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  Raccoon and Groot to track down an alien fugitive named Chammy
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  and cash in on the bounty. But then they found out that the
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  bounty's real target, Reeve, planned to kill Captain Marvel.
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  Gwen figured maybe the comic book writer of the story
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  actually had the power to kill Carol Danvers, so of course she
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  jumped in to help Rocket and Groot save her.
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  After that, Gwen had a short stint with the Champions, but
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  when they started dealing with regular police brutality and no
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  big super villain behind it, Gwen got bored and quit.
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  Later, she and her mercenary crew got trapped in a new
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  version of Arcade's Murder World.
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  That's where she teamed up with Deadpool for the first time,
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  which was chaotic given how similar they are.
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  Oh, and she found a new body for Cecil, a Nordic beast of all
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  things Cecil, the one who died and whose ghost came back.
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  Meanwhile, Gwen was reunited with her brother Teddy after he
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  got a visit from future versions of Doonan, Terrible Eye, and
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  Spider Man, who warned him that Gwen was on track to become a
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  major super villain. Terrible Eye created a pocket
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  universe that recreated Gwen and Teddy's old life and sent them
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  there to protect them from the dark feature, wiping Gwen's
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  memory in the process. But Gwen eventually caught on,
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  and thanks to that universe's weird nature, plus her comic
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  book know how, she got reality bending powers that let her mess
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  with things like panel borders and captions.
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  That power gave her access to the gutter space, that weird in
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  between space of comics, which also restored her memories and
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  showed her what Teddy had been up to.
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  With Teddy back in tow, Gwen made her way back to the Marvel
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  Universe. Then things got wild.
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  Even more wild than they've already been.
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  And they've been pretty wild. An evil future Gwen Pull, who'd
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  been stuck in Spider Man's flashback, broke into the
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  present, trying to make sure that the future happened.
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  She tried convincing Gwen that nothing she did really mattered,
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  so why not just become a villain?
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  But Gwen was not having it. She rejected the future, which
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  caused her evil self to disappear.
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  Though it also meant her comics pages count took a hit, bringing
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  her story closer to the end. With her series about to get
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  cancelled any minute, Gwen started feeling pretty down.
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  But then a future nicer version of herself showed up to cheer
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  her up. Using her comic breaking powers,
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  Gwen hopped around visiting her friends, brought Cecil back to
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  human form, even saved Teddy from Mephisto.
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  Before her journey ended, she went back in time one last time
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  to give her younger self some much needed support.
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  So that is Gwen Pool, one of the strangest, if not the strangest
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  character in the Marvel Universe.
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  As always, I have comics for you to check out to get to know her
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  better. There really isn't that much to
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  read about her, but I'm glad she's got another one of her own
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  comic series happening right now.
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  The first issue came out maybe 2 weeks ago.
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  It was a banker of a first issue too, so you got to check it out.
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  So for the comics, I have Unbelievable Gwenpool, which is
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  her first comic series issue #0 of Unbelievable Gwenpool is a
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  collection of the three Howard the Duck comics, which was her
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  first appearance as a character, plus her Christmas special.
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  So I'd start there. Gwenpool's holiday special,
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  which I just, yeah, love. Unlimited 43 to 49.
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  Rocket Raccoon and Group Numbers 7 to 10.
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  Gwenpool strikes back. I can't say it was my favorite,
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  but it was pretty fun. But it's, I don't know, that's
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  all right. West Coast Avengers #1 from
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  2018. That's when Gwenpool joins Kate
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  Bishop, Clint Barton, America Chavez, and Kid Omega on the
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  West Coast Avengers. So that is all I have on
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  Gwenpool. I really hope you enjoyed it.
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  Please let me know in the comments what you thought of
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  this breakdown and what other characters I should look into
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  for pride month. I have a whole bunch lined U so
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  can't really have or have too many.
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  With that being said, have a marvelous day.