Sins Past vs. One More Day.

[WebLurker]

But can you understand that someone can think they weren't romantically involved in the beginning of Amazing Spider-Man #290?

In the context of what happened before, not really (e.g. the "Spider-Man vs. Wolverine" story), but I will concede that my reading experience of the series has been so "contaminated" by the later issues and other iterations of the franchise based on that that I cannot imagine what it would've been like to read the story when it was new and things could've gone anywhere.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

In the context of what happened before, not really (e.g. the "Spider-Man vs. Wolverine" story), but I will concede that my reading experience of the series has been so "contaminated" by the later issues and other iterations of the franchise based on that that I cannot imagine what it would've been like to read the story when it was new and things could've gone anywhere.

As a rule Superhero wedding stories are done-in-one things. Right from FF Annual #3. They were together and a couple, and Sue offhandedly mentions she and Reed were engaged in the first issue, but that wasn't mentioned or brought up since then (http://talkingcomicbooks.com/2013/02...m-the-archive/). And the issues leading up to the Annual didn't mention the wedding or upcoming nuptials. The Annual itself set the standard that superhero weddings needs villains and others to crash things.

Superman and Lois' engagement and wedding (https://www.cbr.com/gimmick-or-good-...ing-special-1/) also done-in-one. And at the time, Superman and Lois had broken up for more than a year before in the course of one issue, written by a smorgasbord of writers and drawn by a smorgasbord of artists, they get hitched. Incidentally, Michelinie and Paul Ryan who did ASM Annual #21 did that issue too, and Roger Stern who opposed Peter/MJ's wedding not only was on board for Superman's, he modeled Lois and Clark's vows on that of his and Mrs. Stern.

Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, also done-in-one. The Thing and Alicia Masters, also done-in-one.

In fact engagements are rare. And usually when you have an engagement story it means that the couple isn't get married. Tom King's Batman/Catwoman is a good example, while Kitty/Colossus is another one, albeit they switched that with Rogue/Gambit doing a done-in-one wedding.

So Spider-Man and Mary Jane's wedding was entirely normal, within the bounds of how things are done in superhero comics. And the standards used against it are usually not upheld for others by its critics.

[Miles To Go]

In fact engagements are rare. And usually when you have an engagement story it means that the couple isn't get married. Tom King's Batman/Catwoman is a good example
.

To be fair, the jury's still out on Bruce and Selina. King wrote a story back in 2017 set in a possible future where they had grown old together, and Geoff Johns, the architect of Rebirth, is also contributing a story to Detective#1000 where Bruce and Selina are together in the future. Chances are we'll probably get a reconciliation and yet another one-and-done before long.