George Stacy


 * This article is about the The Amazing Spider-Man character. For the character from the Raimi series, see (Raimi series).

"I am issuing an arrest warrant for the masked vigilante known as Spider-Man."

- George Stacy

George Stacy is the police captain of the NYPD and is Gwen Stacy's father.

The Amazing Spider-Man
When Peter Parker begins hunting down Uncle Ben's killer and making himself known to the public, Stacy immediately dislikes the mysterious costumed crimefighter, and after Peter saves the lives of several people and fights off The Lizard on the bridge, Stacy issues an arrest warrant for "the masked vigilante known as 'Spider-Man'." He continually gets New York's finest police officers to go after him, but to no avail.

Later, Captain Stacy opens the door to Gwen's room and finds her talking to Peter Parker, whom she had invited to her house for dinner earlier that day. Although they weren't doing anything but talking, Stacy obviously isn't thrilled about the picture, and becomes suspicious about Parker. At dinner, when the topic of Spider-Man comes up, Stacy discusses with his family and Peter about how he will capture the masked menace; Peter defends Spider-Man as "doing something the police can't", and begins to accidently anger Stacy, further ruining his first impression. However, dinner is suddenly interrupted when The Lizard is spotted rampaging through the Williamsburg Bridge, and Stacy immediately goes out to hunt down the villain.

After helping clean up the battle between Spider-Man and The Lizard at the school, Stacy resumes the hunt for both of them. Heading back to his office at the NYPD's headquarters, Peter arrives there and tells him that Dr. Curt Connors is going to turn all of New York into powerful man-lizards, and that Stacy has to help him stop him. However, Stacy, who was already disapproving of Peter from the night before, has the cops escort him out of the building, refusing to believe what Peter says. However, after contemplating it, he reluctantly has an officer run everything they have on file about Connors.

That night, Lizard launches a biological attack on New York City, and Stacy and his squad rush to stop it. When Spider-Man is caught in the sight of the police, Stacy uses his helicopter's lights to blind Spider-Man and then tranquilize him. The cops put Spider-Man in handcuffs, but when Stacy pulls off his mask, he quickly beats up the cops and is about to escape when Stacy points a gun at his head, forcing Spidey to freeze. Realizing the situation, Spider-Man turns around and reveals himself to be Peter Parker. Stunned, Stacy is taken back by the revelation, but lets Peter go. He then heads over to Oscorp, where Spider-Man is heading and The Lizard is going to release a toxic cloud of lizard-gas to all of New York. He then sees Gwen, who gives him an antidote that will cure all of the people who have been infected by the lizard toxin.

Eventually, Stacy somehow makes it near the top of Oscorp Tower and assists Spider-Man in defeating The Lizard. While Peter goes to switch the lizard toxin with an antidote, Stacy fires his shotgun at Lizard, but the monstrous reptile quickly heals from his wounds and attacks the Captain, mortally wounding him. After Peter successfully releases the antidote into the air and is saved by Connors, who is beginning to transform back to his normal form, Peter returns to Stacy, who is bleeding heavily. In his final moments, Stacy tells Peter that he was wrong, and that New York does need Spider-Man. However, he warns Peter that being a superhero will often put the ones closest to him in danger and that it will come with sacrifices. He then forces Peter to promise that he will break up with Gwen, so that she is not harmed by Peter's status as Spider-Man. Peter agrees, and mourns as Stacy dies.

Later, Stacy has a funeral where he is honored for his work as New York's top cop, and Gwen notes that everyone, even Flash, shows up, except for Peter. She arrives at his apartment, and Peter tells her that he can no longer be with her, and she realizes that her dad made him promise that. The next day in school, the two sadly ignore each other, until, in one class, the teacher scolds Peter for being late, and when he says it won't happen again, she tells him to stop making promises he cannot keep. Sitting behind Gwen, Peter quietly and slyly replies, "Yeah, but those are the best kind," which causes Gwen to smile, meaning that, for better or worse, Peter is going to stop honoring his promise to Captain Stacy and start dating Gwen again.

Character traits
An esteemed police officer for over twenty years, Captain Stacy is the public face of the NYPD who leads the department's investigation into Spider-Man's vigilantism. The only thing Captain Stacy vows to protect more than the city is his family, and particularly his only daughter, Gwen, assistant to Curt Connors in Oscorp and girlfriend of Peter Parker.

Relationships

 * Gwen Stacy - Daughter
 * Helen Stacy - Wife
 * Howard Stacy -Son
 * Philip Stacy - Son
 * Simon Stacy - Son
 * Peter Parker - Daughter's boyfriend
 * Spider-Man - Enemy turned ally
 * The Lizard - Enemy

Behind the scenes

 * Dennis Leary was originally unfamiliar with Spider-Man, describing himself as "more of a Batman guy." However, he nontheless accepted the role and did some research to learn about his character. He recalls that when he met a good friend of his for the first time, his friend, Jeff Garlin, a Spider-Man fan, said that Leary reminded him of George Stacy.

Appearances/Actors

 * Canon (1 film)
 * The Amazing Spider-Man (First appearance) - Denis Leary

Trivia

 * A series of viral marketing campaign videos have spread across the internet, which are based around Leary's character. One video showed a fake newscast, where Leary, in-character as Stacy, was interviewed by a reporter, and expressed his negativity towards Spider-Man while encouraging the citizens of New York to call a special police-operated hotline if they see the crimefighter. In reality, the hotline was fake, as fans who called it were told over the phone that the number had expired.