Gwen Stacy died a long time ago in comics based in the regular 616 Marvel universe, but that didn’t stop her from continuing to be a strong presence in Spider-Man’s life. With the “Spider-Verse” storyline, Gwen has graduated from doomed love interest to a full-fledged spider-powered alternate universe superhero. Because comics.
In the alternate universe Spider-Gwen comes from, she was the one bitten by that radioactive spider and not Peter Parker. As is expected of you if you’ve been bitten by glowing arachnids, Gwen immediately became a spider-themed do-gooder. As “Spider-Gwen” is probably not the most secretive of code names, I’m sure she’s actually called Spider-Woman in the comics, but Spider-Gwen has become the default name for her.
I’m only peripherally familiar with the whole Spider-Gwen thing. I have yet to read her actual series, so as of right now she’s just a name in a suit. But as far as names in suits go, it’s not a bad one at all. The black-and-white theme is obviously a callback to various spider-outfits, and she even has a bit of a webbing theme under her arm that ties it into the theme. The face mask is pure spidery. She also has a hood.
The paint is all very clean, if slightly uneven, on her chest. I do really like the delicate pink overspray around her eyes. That’s an effect that we all know can go horribly overboard, but this was done very nicely. 
Gwen utilizes the body that previous spider-girls and the BAF Jubilee used. It’s a decent size for more petite females, but the body does have some articulation issues that some of Hasbro’s other female bodies aren’t plagued with. It’s even more frustrating when the body is being used mainly for spider-powered heroines, which, one would assume, would need to be more mobile than ordinary. As it turns out, she really doesn’t get into good “spidery” poses the way you can get the standard Spider-Man body. While her legs do go forward, there’s really not a ton of clearance in the hips, and the torso joints swivels and can bend backwards, but there’s not a lot of forward crunch. Because of this, her ability to look good while web-swinging is knocked down a bit.
Another slight ding is the lack of alternate hands for her. I think she could have benefited from at minimum the same amount of alternate hands that Peter got. As is, she’s stuck with one “thwipp” and one fist, but the option to have a pair each of “thwipps,” crawlers and fists would have taken some of the articulation sting out of her.
I know it sounds like I’m picking on her a bit, but these are all minor issues that could have pumped her — and other spider-characters that have been made on this body — up from just an adequate representation to a truly stellar figure.
She does come with an alternate Gwen Stacy head, which is a first for Marvel Legends. There’s a strong Emma Stone vibe to the face sculpt that a decent paint job could probably really bring out, but even with the factory paint, you can see a lot of Emma there.
The heads pop on and off easily. The hood is a soft, flexible hood that doesn’t get in the way of her head movement. She comes with a second little “hood down” piece that slips over the neck for when she has the Gwen head in place, which is a nice touch.
Spider-Gwen is a newer character, relatively speaking, and this is a fairly prompt turnaround from page to plastic. Despite my issues, she is still leagues better than she would have been if made by either ToyBiz or earlier Hasbro, so I don’t want it to seem like I’m coming down on her too much. I tend to use my first in-hand experience with the Moonstone body as a gauge for how much fun I have with female action figures now, and this body does tend to fall a little short of that benchmark. Despite my issues, I do think the figure looks great, and it is fun to get some more Spider-verse representation.
The Absorbing Man series featuring Spider-Gwen is in stock at Big Bad Toy Store. You can order a case with just the 7 figures needed to build Absorbing Man, or buy the case with an extra Ben Reilly Spider-Man for an extra five dollars