Appearing in 1st story
Featured Characters:
- ⏴ Utau the Watcher ⏵
- Utaa the Watcher (Name revealed)
Supporting Characters:
- Venom (Gwen Stacy) (Main story and as Spider-Woman in recap)
- Venom Symbiote (Main story and recap)
Antagonists:
- The Hand (Main story and recap)
- Kingpin (Matt Murdock) (Main story and recap)
- Otomo
- Rhino (Aleksei Sytsevich) (Only in recap)
- Numerous unnamed ninja (Death)
- Frank Castle
- Captain America (Sam Wilson)
Other Characters:
- Bodega Bandit (Mentioned)
- Council of Watchers (Mentioned) (Name revealed)
- Karaoke the Living Planet (Mentioned)
- Ben Parker (Only in recap)
- USMC (Mentioned)
- NYPD (Only in recap)
- George Stacy (Only in recap)
- Felicia Hardy (Only in recap)
- Who activated the Dimensional Travel Watch (Mentioned)
- "Ding" (Jefferson Davis) (Mentioned)
- Miles Morales (Mentioned)
- Spider-Man (Peter Parker) (Cameo)
- Gwen Stacy
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth-65 (Main story and recap)
- Earth (Main story and recap)
- Earth Orbit
- United States of America (Main story and recap)
- New York (Main story and recap)
- New York City (Main story and recap)
- Queens (Only in recap)
- Manhattan (Main story and recap)
- Midtown
- Civic Center (Only in recap)
- One Police Plaza (Only in recap)
- Foley Square (Only in recap)
- New York State Supreme Court Building (Only in recap)
- New York City (Main story and recap)
- New York (Main story and recap)
- S.H.I.E.L.D. Correctional Facility (Only in recap)
- Hell (Invoked)
- Earth (Main story and recap)
- Earth-8 (Mentioned)
- Earth-617 (First appearance chronologically)
- Earth (First appearance chronologically)
- United States of America (First appearance chronologically)
- New York (First appearance chronologically)
- New York City (First appearance chronologically)
- Manhattan (First appearance chronologically)
- New York City (First appearance chronologically)
- New York (First appearance chronologically)
- United States of America (First appearance chronologically)
- Earth (First appearance chronologically)
Items:
- War Machine Suit and Gauntlet
- Kingpin's Billy Club
- Dimensional Travel Watch
- Captain America's Uniform and Shield
- Spider-Woman's Suit (Only in recap)
- Web-Shooters (Main story and behind the scenes in recap)
- Spider-Man's Suit
Events:
- Sitting In A Tree (Mentioned)
Synopsis for 1st story
Utaa - the Watcher of Earth-8 - comes across Utau - the Watcher of Earth-65 - asleep on the job, and furiously berates him for neglecting his duty. Utau wakes up and asks if Utaa is going to report him to the Council, but his colleague says he won't and respects the sacred oath to only observe and never interfere. Dumping his squirrel pie wrappers in a garbage can, Utau complains about how depressing things have gotten on Earth-65; and when Utaa sneers at this Utau reminds him that his "snooty future utopia" is a possible future of Earth-65 and could be put in jeopardy if things get too dark. Sitting in Utau's chair, Utaa tells his colleague that like it or not he's there to support him, noting that the timelines of the multiverse operate on a paradoxical combination of the Many Worlds and Stable Timeline theorems - each event in a timeline making a chaotically infinite number of alternate timelines possible, yet ordered by a strict continuity. Utaa notes that certain events recur across multiple timelines, and that as time recycles the older and stronger timelines become resilient to alterations and disruptions to status quos, with changes being infinitesimal at best. Utau tells Utaa to get to the point, and Utaa remarks that thus far Earth-65 has been steadily leading towards Earth-8 but that the Council is concerned about Utau's vigilance - or lack thereof - and then incredulously asks Utau if he just saw Uncle Ben tell Gwen Stacy to murder Matt Murdock. Utau nonchalantly confirms this, causing Utaa to panic at the damage these developments could inflict on the time-space continuum. As Utaa demands Utau do something to rectify what's gone wrong, Utau smugly reiterates Utaa's statement that like it or not as Watchers they are only supposed to observe and not interfere.
On Earth-65, Frank Castle limps down a hallway, leaving dead Hand ninja in his wake despite having been injured. Matt Murdock stands on the roof overlooking the city and examining the portal watch. Otomo arrives and says that the last of their ninja have been killed, volunteering to delay Castle while Murdock makes his escape. Murdock decides to deal with Castle himself, and Otomo tries to stop him from exposing himself as the Kingpin and ruining the Hand's work in New York. The door to the roof explodes as Castle arrives, Murdock smugly boasting that he is the puppet master and he alone decides when to cut the strings. As Castle attempts to blast Murdock with his War Machine gauntlet, Venom arrives, grabs Murdock - surprising Utaa and Utau - and snarls that she wants to be the one to kill him and is not going to let him get off so easily. Murdock draws his katana and cuts the web-line she used to secure him, dropping back down to the roof and saying that an easy death is the last thing he wants. He leaps over Castle's gauntlet blast before snarking that Castle should have looked into getting a fitbit given his labored breathing. Venom stops Castle from blasting Murdock and berates him for slaughtering the Hand ninja, stating the only one who should die is the Kingpin; Murdock chuckling that they're the worst team-up ever as Castle snaps at Venom's hypocrisy. Castle blasts Venom with his gauntlet, but Captain America arrives at the last second - Utau telling the incredulous Utaa to calm down and enjoy the show - and deflects the energy beam with her shield; telling Castle to stand down. When he attacks her again, Captain America punches him out and turns to confront Venom and the Kingpin. Murdock affects a fake Southern accent and mockingly thanks her for saving him, but she kicks him in the face and tells him to shut up. As Venom incredulously asks what she is doing here, Captain America tells her to breathe and listen to her voice, gently apologizing to Gwen for taking so long to arrive but assuring her that she's there to help.
Gwen retracts the symbiote from her face as Captain America reaches out towards her, stating that Samantha can't fix anything since she doesn't know what Murdock's done. Captain America states she knows all about what Murdock has done and promises Gwen that he'll see justice. Enraged, Gwen transforms back into Venom and furiously punches Samantha, snarling that Murdock will never see justice because he owns both sides of the law; stomping on her shield before she can reclaim it. Captain America tells Gwen to stand down and that the symbiote is making her sick; but the Venom attacks her instead, using the symbiote's tongue to break Samantha's arm before knocking her out, stating that she has to kill Murdock. Murdock quips that he's proud of Gwen punching the American flag in the face, but Venom grabs him by the throat and tells him to shut up and die. As she prepares to drop him off the edge of the building, Murdock states that he's succeeded in showing her what true power is and can die happy knowing he's not alone. Realizing that this is what he wants, Venom angrily tosses him aside and snaps that she won't be like him, and Murdock incredulously asks if she truly didn't enjoy indulging her rage and hatred by fighting him. The dimensional portal watch activates, opening a portal under Venom. As Gwen disappears from the time-space continuum, Utaa and Utau incredulously try to figure out what's going on; Utau speculating that the portal watch somehow has a mind of its own based on its actions during the Miles Morales team-up, and Utaa complaining they're just adding fuel to the temporal dumpster fire with another crossover as Venom regains consciousness in front of an alternate Gwen Stacy.
Solicit Synopsis
GWENOM PART 5
• Gwen Stacy has let herself get lost in the Venom, and it’s turning her against her allies — including Captain America!
• And when Cap comes calling to find out what’s gotten into Gwen, a friendly check-in turns into a no-holds-barred back-alley brawl!Notes
- This issue's explanation of how the Multiverse functions - mapping intersecting skeins along the Web of Life and Destiny and referring to Earth-8 as a possible future diverging from Earth-65 - contradicts prior statements that alternate universes are actually parallel timelines that share histories up until a point of divergence. This itself was a retcon implemented after Days of Future Past, which was originally a defunct possible future of Earth-616 before being retconned into the parallel universe of Earth-811.