DC Editor Brian Cunningham remembers Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21

[Mister Mets]

There was an interesting twitter discussion on Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 kicked off by DC group editor Brian Cunningham.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #21 walked down the aisle on this day in 1987. To this day, I dislike that Peter married Mary Jane. It removed a key part of Pete's soap opera romantic life that his Spidey time always made
volatile. And fun. I now brace for the vehement disagreements...

I could accept Peter marrying MJ if it were, say, the final issue ever of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. And they ride off into the sunset giving Pete a happy ending at last. Until then, Peter's heart is broken time and again. And we love him for it because he always gets back up. Always.

One More Day broke my heart... never picked up another Spidey issue after that.

It may be cold comfort to hear, but there have been some truly excellent Spidey stories since then. Stories that validate why you love the character to begin with. Not all the post-OMD choices are home runs...but the ones that matter most were really well-done.

Fabian Nicieza responded, remembering what it was like at Marvel at the time.

most of us disagreed with it too, but editorial was trapped on a runaway train.

Oh, I bet. It had to be tough having a fundamental disagreement with both the EIC and the co-creator of the character. Where do you take that grievance?

if memory serves (was there less than a year at that point) publicity/licensing departments got so excited about the concept (which came from Stan and the strip syndicate) that it basically became a fait accompli.
editorial gave up figuring they could say it was Mephisto's fault

That was also a pretty tense time in Editorial. My impression is no one was very happy.

pretty much eliminate the word "very".
(and it was a year and half for me by that point)
it was a whirlwind of activity in the promo dept. but my takeaway from it all was that the "live wedding" at Shea was held the game Gooden came back from his first rehab to pitch!

Nicieza was also asked his thoughts on One More Day.

Never read it can't say... though I do think the worlds of Spidey and Mephisto rarely play well together