Gwen grew up a free spirit and a musical artist at heart. That mindset put her at odds with the moralistic ethics of her father, and she often closed herself away to play the drums. She befriended her next door Neighbor Peter Parker; who was also a social outcast, and shared her love of music.

Going to Midvale High; she got involved in a band as the drummer, The Mary Janes, when she got bitten by the infamous radio-active spider. At first-she played with her powers, just being a teenage menace, utilizing a set of web shooters and an old costume given to her by the retired hero The Wasp, aka Janet Van Dyne, and garnering the alias Spider-Woman by the people of New York, till her father said that he believed Spider-Woman could do some real good with her powers.

So that's what she set out to do.

Through doing this she gained a following; one of which was Peter Parker. And in an attempt to become like his new idol, Spider-Woman, he engineered a serum that mutated him into The Lizard...Ransacking Midvale High's prom, Spider-Woman came in for the 'rescue' and beat the Lizard down.

She only realized her mistake afterward, when Pete reverted back to his human shape and died in her arms from her blows...The media had a field day with that-having no proof that Peter was the Lizard they blamed Spider-Woman for his death-and she was ostracized.

Her father was tasked by the NYPD with bringing her in. This and media coverage drew the attention of crooked lawyer Matt Murdock, who was also leader of the ninja Hand. He hired someone to try to kill her dad, to try to coax her to join them.

After thwarting this murder attempt Geoge had her at gun-point and she was forced to revel who she was, pleaded her story, and swore she'd never rest until she got the crooks in jail, also to do good in order to live with Peter's death.