Originally Posted by
Prof. Warren
That the idea of marrying Peter and MJ would have occurred to someone in editorial at some point seems inevitable. Peter did previously propose to MJ after all.
So it's safe to say that this was not an idea so outside the box that it never would have happened without an outside incident to motivate it.
As for the response at a con validating it, it makes for a nice story but the truth is nothing happens at the whim of a small number of fans. In the end, everything is a decision made at the top.
And saying that fans never asked for The Avengers or Iron Man to be at the center of the MU and therefore it's not as legitimate as the Spider-wedding is stupid on so many levels it's hard to know where to start.
First, "the fans" didn't ask for the wedding. A handful of fans at one con expressed enthusiasm for the idea. That's not a mandate from fandom at large. I don't know if you've ever been to a con but fans tend to be enthusiastic about a lot of things. They're not inclined to erupt in a chorus of boos if Stan Lee asks "Hey, what do you think of this?"
If someone had happened to ask at that con whether Peter should marry Felicia Hardy, the response would have surely elicited just as much enthusiasm.
So let's not pin so much validation on the "but the fans cried out for it" card. Fans call out for lot of things. It's up to editorial to make the real decisions about them.
Secondly, saying "but the fans never asked for The Avengers or Iron Man to be at the center of the universe!" has two problems with it. One, the Avengers already were at the center of the MU. This is not something that only happened post 2000. The Avengers were always regarded as the MU's #1 team. No matter how well the book sold in various eras, there's never been any doubt about their standing in-universe. And Iron Man has always been an important player in the MU. I mean, the Avengers operated out of his mansion and on his dime for years. It's not like we're talking about some obscure no name who had to be forced into a spotlight position.
The other problem is the belief that fans must ask for something before it can happen and if they didn't express a previous interest in it, then it's being forced on them and it's not "organic." This is, for obvious reasons, dumb.
If everything was put to a fan vote before a creative decision was made, nothing would ever happen. Even the Spider-marriage wasn't a result of an actual survey of what fans wanted. A question from Stan Lee got a favorable reaction from some fans at a con and they ran with it. Who knows what the result would have been if they asked for a show of hands or if they had taken an actual vote. Or if they had put out a poll for the readership. We'll never know.
But creative decisions are made all the time that fans didn't know they wanted or that they would like until they read it. How many characters and storylines would have never seen the light of day had Marvel asked for the consent of the fans before pulling the trigger on them?
Creativity can't thrive on polling the readership as to what they want. Writers, artists and editors have to act on their own instincts. That's how stories unfold in a spontaneous, organic way, not by running every idea by the fans first.