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On behalf of his family, we are sad to share that Gerry Conway has passed away. Gerry was a tremendous icon in comics who shaped pop culture itself. He was a dear friend, partner, and mentor, and our hearts are with his family and the millions he touched through his work.

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He co-created the Marvel Comics vigilante antihero the Punisher as well as Peter Parker's clone Ben Reilly, the super villain Jackal, and the first Ms. Marvel, and also writing the death of the character Gwen Stacy during his long run on The Amazing Spider-Man in the story arc "The Night Gwen Stacy Died".

For DC Comics, he co-created the superheroes Firestorm, Power Girl, Jason Todd, and the villain Killer Croc, and for writing the Justice League of America for eight years. Conway wrote the first major, modern-day intercompany crossover, Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man.

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At 19, Conway began scripting The Amazing Spider-Man, succeeding Stan Lee as writer of one of Marvel's flagship titles.[11] His run, from issues #111–149 (August 1972 – October 1975), included the landmark death of Gwen Stacy story in #121 (June 1973).[12][13][14] Eight issues later, Conway and Andru introduced the Punisher as a conflicted antagonist for Spider-Man, as well as the Jackal.[15] The Punisher became a popular star of numerous comic books and has been adapted into three movies and a live action television series. Conway additionally wrote Fantastic Four, from #133–152 (April 1973 – Nov. 1974).[6]

In 2009, Conway reflected on writing flagship Marvel characters at a young age:
Precocity is a well-known curse; most of the pressure I felt as a younger writer was self-imposed. I wanted to be accepted by other writers and artists as an equal, which put me in some awkward situations — pretending to be more mature than I was, emotionally and professionally. As it happened, I was pretty good at faking a maturity I didn't have, which had advantages and, obviously, some disadvantages. I think people often forgot how young I was, and expected me to perform at a level that was actually beyond me. The result was, I was pretty stressed for most of my early career as a writer, and I often felt like I had no idea what I was doing —which was true. I wrote instinctively and from the gut; when those instincts were appropriate to the material I was writing – for example, when I was writing [The Amazing] Spider-Man — the results were something I was quite proud of, then and now. When my instincts were off, I didn't have the experience to either recognize it, or to compensate for it, with results that were more uneven.[16]

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