Since everyone else is putting up their opinions about Gwen, I find her most remarkable trait to be how thoroughly she stood up for Peter as Peter and defended him and valued him for that side of his persona, while of course hating Spider-Man. I think that was pretty novel and as a reader (albeit reading the issues decades later) I related to that. Here was someone who really stood up for Hard Luck Parker. He just couldn't tell her his secret. She's probably worth more dead though, yeah.