Quote Originally Posted by David Walton View Post
100% agreed. Also of note, JMD said the marriage was KLH's 'emotional fuel.'
That's something a lot of fans and continuity wonks don't grok. The emotional center of the story is what gives all the plot, character, and big moments the meaning it does. Remove it, and the scene played as it is, would no longer have the meaning it once did.

A good example is Spider-Man Homecoming which uses the lifting machinery scene from If this be my destiny...most people agree that scene felt flat because it doesn't have the same amount of meaning the original moment did. Remove MJ and the marriage, and the stories told in that time no longer have an emotional center.


The 80s on the whole is the period where Spider-Man really grew up in every sense. The stories for the first time had an overt sexuality to it with Felicia and MJ, there were stories that dealt with violence in more detail than the past (The Death of Jean DeWolff, KLH), stories with a more mature literary quality, a bigger scope and detail. The stories were essentially laying the groundwork for an older, more mature Spider-Man. I mean after you do a story like The Death of Jean DeWolff which deals with a serial killer, did anyone seriously think that audiences needed to do another story about Peter getting wheat for Aunt May's cakes or something? Peter was dealing with more grown up stories well before he got married, so it was a logical fact that since the stories were growing up and becoming mature, Peter needed to be. I mean in The Kid Who Collected Spider-Man, you sort of gain a sense that Peter could maybe be a dad someday, because he's clearly so much older and mature to Timothy Harrison.

All the Wedding does is confirm what had already come to pass. Spider-Man was becoming mature, his readership and audience was also expecting and holding the stories to a higher standard (as is obvious from the more serious stories written in that time), so it lead to that.

And of course, the Wedding happened on Spider-Man's 25th Anniversary. First published in August 1962...the Proposal and Wedding Annual were likewise published between June and September 1987, so it was almost exactly on the Anniversary. And it led directly into KLH. 1987 was a good year for Spider-Man, one year before I was born


David Michelinie's first real story arc really hit it home;
"To the rest of the world, I was a loser today. Just a clown in a costume. I should be angry, frustrated, smashing my fists into walls! But...I don't feel that way. I did what I had to do. I know that. And somehow, that's enough. Well, I'll be. Take yourself a bow, Peter Parker. I think you just became an adult."
— Closing thought bubbles. Amazing Spider-Man #297, written by David Michelinie. (1988)