How has Amazing Spider-Man #121 changed comics forever (for you?)

[Omegared179]

Hi all, I've been collecting comics for a number of years now (I think this will be my 7th straight year attending wondercon). I am a freshman at UCLA and for my collection project in American Folklore, I'm writing about how Amazing Spiderman #121 changed comics forever for me.

We also have to have an Informant interpretation. I figured this would be one of the best places to ask, as the people working at the comic shop near me don't seem to even read comics.

If anyone would be willing:

Age
Ethnicity
How did ASM 121 change comics/life for you? Did it get you more into comic books? What were you doing at the peak of your comic collecting/fandom?
Anything else you would like to add

Thank you so much for any help, I really appreciate it.

[oldschool]

Hi all, I've been collecting comics for a number of years now (I think this will be my 7th straight year attending wondercon). I am a freshman at UCLA and for my collection project in American Folklore, I'm writing about how Amazing Spiderman #121 changed comics forever for me.

We also have to have an Informant interpretation. I figured this would be one of the best places to ask, as the people working at the comic shop near me don't seem to even read comics.

If anyone would be willing:

Age
Ethnicity
How did ASM 121 change comics/life for you? Did it get you more into comic books? What were you doing at the peak of your comic collecting/fandom?
Anything else you would like to add

Thank you so much for any help, I really appreciate it.

For me, I started collecting ASM with #113 (I was about 13 IIRC) and was stunned by the death of Gwen in #121----I also read many back issues thanks to my older brother and had started collecting right away, so I had much of her back story already.

For many, they point to that issue as the loss of Spidey's "innocence" and, indeed, much of comics in general. You can draw a line back to that issue as the start of a darker, more realistic period for comics.

[Michael P]

It was published seven years before I was born. The prospect of it changing anything for me is therefore laughable.

[Patrick Hultquist]

I'm 37, caucasian. I had already been a comics collector long before I actually read #121, however the gist of it I knew as a child when my older brothers would talk about superheroes. I would say it's impact has been lessened over time, what with the many Gwen clones and the resurrection of Norman Osborn (While Norman's death was in #122, it was the outgrowth of #121.), as well as the current producers of the comic publicly speculating on whether to bring her back. Even though she hasn't been brought back, the fact that it's been explored shows how the impact of #121 is weakening over time.

[Aziz Abbasi]

Hi alHi, and welcome aboard Omegared179

Age: 23 years old
Ethnicity: Human
How did ASM 121 change comics/life for you?
I started reading comics for years, but started reading seriously after I saw some very interesting issues about Spider-Man that I intended to collect on their own first from random locations in 2007, and that was after time of me reading this issue, many issues before reading it and more after reading it, so it did nothing, it did not awe me, it did not push me away

[JGC]

My first issue of Amazing Spider-Man was #204. So even though I didn't know of Gwen Stacy when I started reading Spider-Man, her death was mentioned often enough and made me realize that any supporting character could die in comics. No one was safe. This truth became even more apparent when years later, Ned Leeds was killed off.

[Rix]

My story is strikingly familiar to Oldschool's. I was also 13 and my first issue was 110. I had actually missed 121 when it first came out and when I saw 122 in the comic rack, with Gwen already dead... I was stunned and shocked. One or two years later I discovered my first comic book shop and bought a copy of 121 to finally see how it went down. It probably cost me 5 bucks. I should've bought 20 of them! Anyway, from 122 I had never missed an issue of Amazing until well into the 200's.

Anyway, the whole death thing just made Peter seem more real to me. I couldn't believe that the hero's girlfriend could actually die! For a long time I felt I could relate to Pete. I had a few heartbreaks of my own (but nothing like Pete's!). I got older... I caught up to Pete's age.. we were both in college. He beat me to the altar, but I wasn't far behind. And then I kept getting older. My life changed and evolved. Pete's seemed to stagnate and finally regress. I kind of wish we could have kept growing together. Now, Pete seems like a long lost friend. But I still think of him fondly and will never forget being there with him as he mourned and finally got over the loss of his love.

Oh almost forgot... My age... I'm now 51. Ethnicity: White-boy, English/Irish/Welsh/Scottish, grew up in Upstate NY. Whenever we would make it to the big city, I'd look up at the skyscrapers and imagine the webhead doing his thing.

[Chris N]

Hi all, I've been collecting comics for a number of years now (I think this will be my 7th straight year attending wondercon). I am a freshman at UCLA and for my collection project in American Folklore, I'm writing about how Amazing Spiderman #121 changed comics forever for me.

I will be at Wondercon for the Idontknowwhatth straight year. 13th, maybe?

We also have to have an Informant interpretation. I figured this would be one of the best places to ask, as the people working at the comic shop near me don't seem to even read comics.

If I were to answer your questions, I would need clarification. I, like many, am too young for it to have had any direct impact, having come out well before I was born. I have some appreciation for its effect on comics, as it is pointed to as one of the things that ended the Silver Age. I also have some appreciation for how great it is, because I have read it, and it is great.

But I'm not sure any of that gets to your question, as it came out 17 years before I read my first comic, and I had been reading comics for 10 years before I read it.

If you are looking for people who were there when, the Classics Board may be a better option.

If you are looking for reactions from "younger fans", I can try to add insight.

[matthewaos]

I'm 25. I grew up reading translated versions, since I'm from Greece. At the time I started reading, Spider-Manadventures was publishing, then ASM, the Larsen issues, then skip too many stuff and go straight to Revelations to identity crisis. Gwen's death was mentioned enought to appreciate it, but it didn't do much for me cause it was in the given status quo. For me, Aunt May's or Ben Reilly's death meant more to me, or even Harry's.

[keilthetarheel]

I was also 13 and my first issue was 110.

the only 4 words you need to know: "Birth of the Gibbon"

one of the first I ever read (I read it in Marvel Tales)