I reached out to Sony to see if the writing team, directors, or artists who created the movie had a comment about how Gwen Stacy has resonated with fans but haven’t heard back. Coupled with the current, hostile climate toward trans people in the US, the heroine of the biggest movie in America being trans would be monumental. If superheroes are queer, it’s often addressed obliquely, mostly in postscript interviews and only in the faintest of gestures on-screen. There’s a dearth of LGBTQ superheroes depicted in mainstream, blockbuster movies, so Gwen’s possible transness - and even her allyship - is a big deal. In the wake of the movie’s massive box office success, eagle-eyed Across the Spider-Verse devotees have pointed out that the Spider-Woman is literally - e.g., has a trans flag in her room - and symbolically - e.g., experiences the allegory of coming out - depicted as a trans ally, if not trans herself. It’s a movie that requires multiple viewings to catch all the details stuffed into every gorgeous frame.įor a certain group of fans though, there’s one stand-out, joyful detail you just can’t miss: Gwen Stacy’s support for transgender people. At any given moment there are a million things happening in Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse - we’re pinging around the multiverse, meeting dozens of Spider-Man variants, visiting Mumbattan, learning about Spider-Man 2099’s Minority Report-esque police force, and so many things in between.
