Name: Gwen Poole

Superhero Name: Gwenpool

Created By: Christopher Hastings, Heather Antos and Jordan D White

Played By: N/A

Powers: Manipulation of comics – Gwen knows she is in a comic book universe, so can manipulate caption boxes, and breakthrough panels and talk to herself through the comic panels on the page. She can also step outside of what is known as ‘Gutter Space’, which is another dimension located between comic panels, which means Gwen can step out of panels, skipping to previous/future scenes, which appears like travelling through time to other characters. Gwen can also dump villains into the Gutter Space, though they don’t remain there long.

Gwen has also got extensive knowledge of the Marvel Universe, as she has read the comics and watched the films her whole life, so she knows everyone’s secret identities/their strengths and weaknesses, and just about everything about them.

Most recently, Gwen has developed a level of reality-warping power, which she used to retcon her origins to make herself a mutant who has always existed in the Marvel Universe.

Mini Bio: Gwen Poole grew up in a world very similar to ours, in the sense that superheroes were fictional and were the stars of film, tv and comic books. She became obsessed with superheroes after she dropped out of high school, struggled to find a job, and all her friends moved away – preferring the fictional world to her reality.

Through unknown means, Gwen and her brother Teddy were pulled into the Marvel Prime Comic Universe (aka, the main comic universe), but were separated in the transition, so both thought the other had not survived. Gwen didn’t want to become an extra in the universe she found herself in, so she went to a shop called Big Ronnie’s Custom Battle Spandex and commissioned a suit of her own. Ronnie made her the suit but based it on Deadpool’s after misreading Gwen Poole’s name, thinking her hero name was Gwenpool.

From there, Gwen tried to get in on the action, believing that everyone in the world was fictional and everything would turn out okay, so tried to steal a virus off of Black Cat and sell it to Hydra for some quick cash. Howard The Duck caught her and gave her a lecture on being careful because the Avengers weren’t always around to save the day. Gwen saw the error of her ways and helped Howard get the virus back.

Still in need of money, Gwen became a mercenary for Ronnie, taking on odd jobs. She ended up accidentally killing another mercenary after he had completed a job, taking the credit and getting hired by M.O.D.O.K. (more on him next month!), who had put up the job listing in the first place. There, she learnt to fight from Batroc The Leaper, who was also working for M.O.D.O.K. at the time.

Through a series of accidents and moments of sheer luck, Gwen managed to defeat M.O.D.O.K. and went back to doing odd jobs for Ronnie until Civil War II broke out. Gwen decided to move to Georgia, sure that her self-proclaimed D-list hero status made her a prime target to be killed off during the event, though she still managed to go on adventures with characters like Hawkeye, Ghost Rider and Squirrel Girl.

Things then started to go really wrong for Gwen when her brother found her again and saw her in action and was horrified to find her disregard for the people around her. He was approached by future versions of Spider-Man (Miles Morales), Vincent Doonan (a sentient Doombot who has escaped Doom’s control) and Terrible Eye (a sorceress), who told Teddy about Gwen’s destiny to become a supervillain. Together, they managed to trick Gwen into a pocket universe, which looked like the universe Gwen was born in, where she had no memory of her time as a hero.

But, Gwen soon realised she was in a fake universe, and developed the ability to interact with the comic world. She broke out and into the Gutter Space, where she regained her memories. A future, evil version of Gwenpool came through and tried to convince the present, good Gwenpool to join her on the side of evil, but Gwen refused, determined to stay on the side of good, even if it meant her comic run would end.

This fear has followed Gwen through every other appearance, leading to several attempts to gain notoriety within the universe, which culminated in Gwen bringing all of her previous teammates and friends to observe her in a battle royale.

She managed to defeat the Hulk, but when faced with a battle against her friend, Ms Marvel, Gwen couldn’t go through with it. The two talked, and Kamala did not understand that she was a comic book character, instead suggesting that Gwen was a mutant with reality manipulation powers, who created the story of her being from the ‘real world’ to hide the truth from herself.

Just as Gwen was about to accept her cancellation, a Krakoan Gate appeared in front of her, accepting her onto the island of Krakoa, where the rest of the X-Men reside. Gwen now resides on the island and is seen sometimes in the background of scenes, and serving as a member of the X-Men team.

Interesting trivia: Gwen doesn’t know much about Deadpool, as she didn’t read his comics while in the real world – stating they were a bit too ‘LOL memes’ for her taste. It is also safe to assume that Gwen is asexual, as she was drawn wearing the asexual pride flag colours on a Marvel Voices comic!

First Comic Appearance: Howard The Duck volume 6, issue 1 (2015)

Most Common Team Ups: X-Men, West Coast Avengers, M.O.D.O.K.

Comic Recommendations: Unbelievable Gwenpool (2016) by Christopher Hastings, West Coast Avengers (2018) by Kelly Thompson and Gwenpool Strikes Back! (2020) by Leah Williams.