The following contains spoilers for Spider-Gwen: Gwen-Verse #2, now on sale from Marvel Comics

Gwen Stacy is trying to contend with some serious changes to her home universe, with her struggles to keep all her newly introduced variants from fighting each other adding to her internal conflicts. But there might be larger stakes at play than she realizes, especially when two notable figures are revealed to be close in her world's history.

The Norman Osborn and Howard Stark of Earth-65 are revealed to be friends in Spider-Gwen: Gwen-Verse #2 (by Tim Seeley, Jodi Nishijima, Federico Blee, and VC's Ariana Maher) -- and they may be poised to become a big problem for Gwen and potentially the entire multiverse.

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Gwen Stacy -- aka the multiverse-hopping Ghost-Spider of Earth-65 -- has found herself dealing with a slew of problems stemming from the futuristic pop-star Finale. Her attempt to alter her own past ended up catching Gwen, splintering her home reality and creating five new variants of the Spider-Hero. Hunted by Finale's allies, including Nightbird, the vigilante variant of Gwen Stacy from the Heroes Reborn Universe, Gwen is able to find and recruit three of her variants by the end of Gwen-Verse #2. This included the boisterous ThorGwen, the restrained and inspirational Captain America, and the ruthless fighter Wolverine with each one exhibiting a different aspect of Gwen's personality.

Notably, Captain America and Wolverine end up in a brawl in 1951, causing most of the local civilians to flee. Two children who snuck into the event remained behind though, watching the fight before getting dragged into the chaos. One of them, Normie, was seriously injured in the aftermath, and his best friend Howard promises to create a new suit of armor for his friend that can protect him and others. It's confirmed in the dialogue between Howard's father that this is indeed the Earth-65 variant of Howard Stark and Norman Osborn, setting the stage for this conflict to have serious repercussions going forward.

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The Starks and the Osborns have been confirmed to still be major players in Earth-65's overall history, with Tony remaining a relatively amoral tycoon while Harry Osborn found himself increasingly drawn into Gwen's early career as Spider-Woman. But this change to the past may set up the very future that Gwen is trying to prevent. Howard Stark and Norman Osborn working together likely won't end well for anyone involved, considering most variants of Norman end up becoming monsters in the long run. The changes to the past could even impact Gwen's history with her own Harry, who became something of an ally and love interest over time but could now become more in line with his villainous Earth-616 incarnation.

Complicating matters even further is the importance Howard Stark variants have begun to showcase in recent years. As Mephisto prepares his armies for multiverse conquest in Avengers, a variant of Howard, known as the Iron Inquisitor, has proven to be one of his most effective and consistent warriors. Having another version of Howard involved in a multiversal level conflict with a grudge to settle against "heroes" like Spider-Woman" could make him an ideal player for someone like Mephisto. With Gwen's trip through the time stream likely causing unintended consequences for her future, it seems like her world's Norman Osborn (who'd been briefly introduced previously) might end up a radically different figure, with the Stark family at his side. Given Gwen's often tragic history when it involves Osborns, this doesn't bode well for Ghost-Spider or the multiverse, for that matter.