Gwen Stacy walked the streets, looking at everything around her.
Yesterday's battle seemed to have changed nothing. They defeated a powerful villain, they took down the mastermind behind Peter becoming the Lizard, but what else? Earth-65 didn't seem to have gotten better even a little bit, at least not visibly.
This left Gwen feeling a little confused. What was the meaning of their fight?
Perhaps it never had a meaning.
The only good news was that the overwhelming wanted posters and advertisements plastered all over the streets about Spider-Woman were gone, and the news had stopped talking about her. Gwen's mood seemed to lighten slightly. She swung on a web into the sky above the city. S.H.I.E.L.D. kept its promise; the police were no longer hunting her.
She noticed someone spraying graffiti on a discarded billboard and swung over curiously. Two young boys, who didn't look very old, were using spray paint to create a new design.
"What do you think of this painting?"
One of the boys asked his companion, but received an unexpected female reply: "I think it's pretty good."
The two boys turned and saw the Spider-Woman's mask. In a panic, they aimed their spray cans at Spider-Woman and started spraying: "Run! It's Spider-Woman!"
"What?!"
Her Spider-Sense gave no reaction, and Gwen's mask was instantly covered in paint. Smelling the unpleasant fumes, she vaulted onto the top of the billboard. Watching the two boys flee, she couldn't help but sigh.
Nothing had changed.
Perhaps the warrant had been withdrawn, and no one would pursue Spider-Woman anymore, but everyone still believed Spider-Woman was the murderer of Peter Parker, a terrifying villain. No one thought otherwise.
This damn mask had become a symbol of a criminal!
Gwen pulled off her mask in frustration and anger, then sighed helplessly. After the battle yesterday, the Peter Parker from the other reality asked her why she wore a mask.
Why did Spider-Woman wear a mask?
To protect her family's safety, she had replied.
But that answer didn't explain many things. For example, Spider-Woman was now a wanted criminal hated by everyone. Everyone thought she was a bad guy. Why didn't she design a brand-new uniform, change to a new mask, and why did she continue to wear this suit?
Gwen truly never had any intention of changing this uniform.
"If you're not planning to get a new suit, then think about what this suit is still useful for," Peter had said yesterday.
Gwen muttered Peter's words, fell silent for a long moment, then chose to pull a fresh cowl from her backpack and put it on.
She had something she needed to do, or rather, should do.
"Shouldn't Spider-Woman really be held responsible for the death of high school student Peter Parker? Yesterday, we received news that the arrested spider-powered individual, Dr. Cindy Moon, the head of S.I.L.K., is the true mastermind responsible for the death of the young student Peter Parker. Her sale and distribution of the superhuman serum, the Lizard serum, are the culprits behind all of this. But I ask you, shouldn't that Spider-Woman really bear some responsibility?"
Jonah Jameson was giving his latest commentary on the news received yesterday. Essentially, all S.H.I.E.L.D. had done was guide the Daily Bugle's narrative from "Spider-Woman definitely killed Peter Parker" to "There is no evidence that Spider-Woman killed Peter Parker," thereby lifting the warrant.
"It's true that, subjectively, she stopped a young man who had turned into a Lizard monster from harming others, but why couldn't she have been a little more merciful..."
As S.H.I.E.L.D. revealed more information through the NYPD, the truth of the incident was slowly uncovered: young student Peter Parker, unable to endure years of school bullying, bought the Lizard serum on the black market, seeking revenge on the bullies. He ambushed the Midtown High School graduation dance. Spider-Woman stopped Lizard-Parker during the fight but accidentally killed him.
In a sense, this cleared Spider-Woman of the charge of murder in the eyes of the law, but from another perspective, it essentially confirmed that she was a killer.
So, what exactly did the Spider-Woman's mask represent to others?!
She encountered a gang; the gang thought she was one of them and wanted to invite this new spider-powered individual to join their ranks. She encountered several honest police officers; despite the warrant being lifted, they still kept their hands on their holsters, aiming at her.
Of course, some people saw her as the one who stopped the terrifying Lizard and wanted her to help them retrieve their stolen wallet.
Everyone looked at this mask through their own lens. Everyone defined her from their own perspective: good guy, bad guy, murderer, hero.
So why did she still wear this mask, making it hard to breathe? Why, since that day, was she unwilling to take off the mask, even going so far as to distract herself by swinging through the air, exploring her powers?
Gwen saw her father chasing a criminal—a super-powered criminal. Gwen took a deep breath and quickly followed.
The super-powered criminal named Tombstone had nearly taken out all the police officers on the scene. Only Captain Stacy remained, firing his gun. But faced with the bulletproof Tombstone, this level of attack was clearly useless. Just as Tombstone smiled and slowly approached, a web shot out and stuck to his back, then swung him away.
"I learned from a friend that the best way to deal with big guys like you is to hang you up."
After webbing Tombstone's eyes and mouth shut, Spider-Gwen hoisted him up upside down. But Captain Stacy raised his gun and aimed it at Spider-Gwen: "Stop, Spider-Woman."
"I know, Captain. I know Peter Parker meant a lot to you. You might think I'm lying, that I colluded with the police to drop the warrant... But it's different. I've seen many people, I've heard many people, defining this mask. I've heard too much about what they think I am."
Gwen finally understood why she had kept wearing the mask.
She pulled off her cowl, looking at her father in the empty space.
"You're a good cop, Captain Stacy. You wear that badge and carry that gun your whole life because you know if you didn't, they would fall into the wrong hands. But when I first put on this mask, all I thought about was that I didn't have to carry any burdens anymore."
"I thought I was special. Peter wanted to be like me, and that's why he turned into a monster—so I didn't get a new mask. This is my responsibility. This is the meaning of this mask."
"If I don't personally tell the world what this mask represents, and let them define it, I would be letting Peter Parker down."
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