Origin

So in love with the original Gwen Stacy, Miles Warren would do anything to have her back. Upon learning his lab assistant, Anthony Serba, successfully cloned a frog, Warren bestowed upon Serba genetic samples of both Gwen and Peter Parker. Serba was unaware that the samples he'd been provided were human, as Warren had told him they were from a rat. Upon discovering what the samples really were, he revealed his findings to Warren and said thet they had to destroy the clones. Not wanting to destroy his clones and to keep his plot a secret, Warren killed Serba. Not able to cope with the fact he had killed Serba, he began to blame someone he called the "Jackal" upon overhearing a lecture on jackals. His second personality now had a name, and he began to develop his Jackal persona, weapons, and athletic prowess.

Following Serba's death, Warren monitored and grew his Gwen clone into adulthood, complete with the original's memories. Upon learning Peter Parker was in reality Spider-Man, the Jackal, as he now called himself, began to hatch a scheme to exact his revenge upon the man he personally held responsible for Gwen's death. Warren placed his Gwen clone under hypnotic control and sent her to Peter Parker's apartment without any memory of how she came to be alive again and believing herself to be the real deal. Parker's family and friends were stunned by appearance of the girl whom they believed dead for so many months. Peter himself could not believe it, and figured that this was somehow the result of a recent battle with Mysterio. When she later showed up hysterical at the Daily Bugle offices, Ned Leeds and other friends of Peter's had her finger prints tested. They came to the conclusion that while this Gwen's prints matched the original's, the original Gwen's grave was undisturbed; the living Gwen was in fact a clone.

Creation

Gwen Stacey-Miles was created by Gerry Conway and Ros Andru and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man issue 142 (1975).

Major Story Arcs

Pawn of the Jackal

The Gwen Stacy clone later showed up without explaination during a battle with Spider-Man and the Tarantula. She appeared to be in a trance-like state. This, as well as the Tarantua's involvement, was all part of the Jackal's mad scheme. The Jackal made his escape with the Gwen clone in tow after having Spider-Man thrown from a bridge.

Later, at Shea Stadium, the Jackal had rendered Spider-Man unconscious, and when he awoke, a perfect genetic duplicate of himself was staring him in the face. As the two Spider-Men battled, Gwen was able to overcome the mind control, and confronted the Jackal about what an evil, lying, manipulative murderer he had become. Disillusioned with with what he had become, he willingly sacrificed his life to save Ned Leeds, whom Warren had kidnapped earlier and strapped to a bomb that could only be deactivated by the real Spider-Man. Warren had taken out not only himself, but the Spider-Man clone as well.

The Gwen clone raised the question how Spider-Man knew he was the real one, a question for which Peter had no definitive answer for at that time. The Gwen clone left for parts unknown and tried to find a new life for herself.

New Lives

The Gwen clone turned up years later in Lansing, Michigan as a teacher. She was being persued by the High Evolutionary's men, and sought out Peter's protection. The High Evolutionary claimed that Warren had injected a woman he kidnapped named Joyce Delany with a genetic replicator virus that had made Delany into an exact genetic copy of Gwen. This was later revealed to be a ruse on the High Evolutionary's part in an effort to discredit the work of former pupil, Miles Warren. The High Evolutionary had the Gwen clone transformed by a being known as Dreamweaver into the form he claimed was Joyce Delany's. She then wandered away to reclaim the life she had lost for so many years.

Sometime later, the Gwen clone turned up in New Jersey, somehow back in her original form and once again believing herself to be the real Gwen. She had married a clone of Miles calling himself Warren Miles. Peter, using Ben Reilly's costume and alias, turned up looking for clues as to the then recently returned Jackal's scheme. The Warren and Gwen clones tried to make their escape, but were ambushed by the Phil Urich Green Goblin on the George Washington Bridge. During the ensuing chaos, Peter managed to save the Gwen clone from a near fatal off of the bridge, but was unable to save the Warren clone from deteriorating. The Gwen Stacy clone wandered away yet again.

Shortly thereafter, the Gwen clone was found again by Spider-Man. He was instructed to bring her back to the Jackal, whom Spider-Man had fallen in league with thanks to convoluted lies and manipulations. She was under the impression he was bringing her back to her husband, the Warren clone that had died. With her memories of his death and of being a clone returning, Gwen was determined to end the Jackal's mad scheme's once and for all.

In a heated battle at the Daily Bugle, the Gwen clone pulled a gun on the Jackal. Momentarily distracted, the Jackal was able to push the Gwen clone and her blaster away. He pushed more than she realized, for she toppled over the edge, saved only by grabbing onto a nearby antenna. The Jackal attempted to save her, but the broadcast antenna could not support both of their weight, and the Jackal ended up falling to the pavement, thus seemingly ending his life yet again.

The Scarlet Spider managed to save the Gwen clone, but she managed to slip away again and has not been seen or heard from since.

Death

Living under the identity of Joyce Delany, Joyce secretly moved to London where she tried to have a normal life, getting a job and an apartment. However, her body was starting to decay, starting with her hand which she concealed with a glove. However, after returning home from work one night, she was unexpectedly shot by a sniper through the heart by an unknown assailant, killing her almost instantly. It was revealed that the killer was 'Abby-L', another clone of Gwen created by the Jackal.