A Gwen Stacy glaze? Maybe.

But when you factor in every characters who appeared in that run? She tops it all.

Unfortunately, Peter Parker, the man, the myth and... the myth. His two interactions with Li and Kraven might have been something but that's not enough to salvage a nothingburger of a Spider-Man. For the sake of clarity, I'm not going to go over how Hickman used this book to quietly glaze the original Ultimate Spider-Man - 1610 Peter in the background, but that alone is worth a three-paragraph rant of how it made Peter the "Potential Man".

Since Peter was essentially edging the status of side character in his own book his family also suffered to various degree. MJ was essentially given little to play with (the Christmas issue was nice and all, and the contrast between her and Gwen in #4 and #20, but that's not enough). I'm sorry little May (and old May), but Hickman remembered neither. It's egregious we don't even see what Peter thought about Aunt May's death, and it's even more egregious little May essentially vanished after issue 6. Richard exists to wear Venom and look cool but he's also thinly characterized.

Otto, Felicia, Mole Man, the other Mysterios are walking plot devices to serve the interest of both sides (seriously, why Superior Spider-Man?). The Sinister Six killed themselves. Kraven is a pale imitation of normal Kraven and we don't get a taste of how unique he is because of his persona non grata status from the Eurasian Republic. Martin Li is not fucking around but since he has like one issue near the finale to define him it's hard to put him in the top 3. Kingpin is Kingpin but because Peter Parker is again, a nothingburger of a Spider-Man it really dampens the relationship between him and the supposed "titular character".

Ben and Jonah are low-key great characters because they let Jonah take a break from the normal Daily Bugle schtick of slandering Spider-Man (on top of the sinister implications because of Kingpin's ownership), and it's not really hard to give Ben a character given his entire purpose of dying in pop culture, and so was Harry with his whole "am I the villain or the hero?" angle, but the last issue put a dent in their name. They booted Kingpin just to have Gwen and the other Mysterios take over the eastern side of North America, and Goblin Jr. really stood to the side to watch Henry "I have a punchable face" Duggari give his blessing to Mysterio.

So that leaves us with Gwen. Actually mysterious, actually threatening with a cut-throat attitude and proven to be cunning and dangerous. She's not fucking around. She has an agenda. She's really active. She got what she wanted playing the long game and even more.

For a comic about married Spider-Man, somehow Gwen Stacy was the best character of the new USM.