How to Bring Back the Marriage

[Daibhidh]

Let's suppose the next writer wants to bring back the marriage, which according to Editorial there is now no mandate against doing whatsoever...
How should they go about it?
Part of the problem is that as a narrative event Peter and MJ finding out they used to be married should be a big event, while it seems to me that the in-universe natural result of two people finding out that they were actually married before they broke up instead of just cohabiting would be a bit underwhelming.
I suppose the desiderata are:
preserve as much continuity as possible;
retcon all the stuff nobody wants to talk about again and leave Peter and MJ with as little baggage as possible (not compatible with the previous one);
be largely naturalistic and character driven without use of deals with the devil, forced stays in other dimensions, etc;
be an interesting and fun story in itself with moments of jeopardy, recognition, and reversal (probably not compatible with the previous one);
not cause headaches for future writers.
(You can take into account how your choice affects the resolution of the current mess in deciding which option to go for; I'm just going to ignore it here.)

Here are the options that I've thought of:
1) Peter and MJ just decide to get married again. They don't realise they used to be married.
2) Peter and MJ find out they used to be married, and decide to get married again.
These are the preserving continuity options. They're also basically character driven rather than aimed at overcoming an antagonist, although Mysterio would probably put up obstacles in the second case. (This may be what Spencer was aiming for in his run.)

The other options are either that it didn't happen or it wasn't them.
Leading off with it didn't happen:
3) Peter realises that he is trapped in Nightmare's realm of Dreams, along with all of New York. He defeats Nightmare. When he wakes up he finds that he and MJ have been married all along.
4) One of Peter's enemies or someone with a grudge against MJ used a cosmic cube or other reality altering power to make OMD happen. Once they're defeated reality changes back.
Both of these are bigger events with antagonists that have to be overcome. They're less character driven than the first two, but would integrate superheroics into the story. In both cases, continuity needs to be rewritten, which has its pluses and minuses (the pluses being that there could be stories with Mary Jane from e.g. the Dark Reign era and the Peter in the Fantastic Four era to tell; the minuses being that major changes to continuity are a bit of a nightmare for writers and readers to keep track of).

It wasn't them.
5) They were replaced by clones at the end of Back in Black for reasons. The real Peter and MJ have either been in suspended animation or have been travelling the world or living quietly together somewhere as Ben Reilly did before the Clone Saga. This is a bit like the Clone Saga all over again. It didn't work then, but you may think it would work now.
6) They were replaced by Skrulls at the end of Back in Black, but something went wrong and the Skrull personalities were never activated. Clones are more traditionally Spider-man but Skrulls have the advantage that they were on the scene replacing people at the time. As before, the real Peter and MJ could be in suspended animation, or they could be lost in space trying to get home.
7) Kill off the current Peter and MJ and replace them with alternate world versions who never agreed to Mephisto's deal, or with past versions of themselves a la the New Old X-Men.
These options technically preserve continuity and get rid of the post-OMD baggage at the price of saying that the versions of Peter and MJ we've been following since OMD didn't matter to their overalll history. It would also be awkward for Peter and MJ to explain why they don't remember bits of their ostensible past.

[CaptainUniverse]

I like the whole "They wake up and it was all a nightmare option" Peter discovering that he has been trapped in Nightmare's realm of dreams and manages to overcome the vile monster in order to return to the waking world sounds like it could be a fun story arc, especially if Nightmare decides to go all TNG "Schism" in his desperate attempt to keep Peter under his thumb, forcing Peter to relive and sift through traumatic moments and nightmarish altered realities as he fights his way out of the Dream Dimension.

[clonegeek]

Let's suppose the next writer wants to bring back the marriage, which according to Editorial there is now no mandate against doing whatsoever...
How should they go about it?
Part of the problem is that as a narrative event Peter and MJ finding out they used to be married should be a big event, while it seems to me that the in-universe natural result of two people finding out that they were actually married before they broke up instead of just cohabiting would be a bit underwhelming.
I suppose the desiderata are:
preserve as much continuity as possible;
retcon all the stuff nobody wants to talk about again and leave Peter and MJ with as little baggage as possible (not compatible with the previous one);
be largely naturalistic and character driven without use of deals with the devil, forced stays in other dimensions, etc;
be an interesting and fun story in itself with moments of jeopardy, recognition, and reversal (probably not compatible with the previous one);
not cause headaches for future writers.
(You can take into account how your choice affects the resolution of the current mess in deciding which option to go for; I'm just going to ignore it here.)

Here are the options that I've thought of:
1) Peter and MJ just decide to get married again. They don't realise they used to be married.
2) Peter and MJ find out they used to be married, and decide to get married again.
These are the preserving continuity options. They're also basically character driven rather than aimed at overcoming an antagonist, although Mysterio would probably put up obstacles in the second case. (This may be what Spencer was aiming for in his run.)

The other options are either that it didn't happen or it wasn't them.
Leading off with it didn't happen:
3) Peter realises that he is trapped in Nightmare's realm of Dreams, along with all of New York. He defeats Nightmare. When he wakes up he finds that he and MJ have been married all along.
4) One of Peter's enemies or someone with a grudge against MJ used a cosmic cube or other reality altering power to make OMD happen. Once they're defeated reality changes back.
Both of these are bigger events with antagonists that have to be overcome. They're less character driven than the first two, but would integrate superheroics into the story. In both cases, continuity needs to be rewritten, which has its pluses and minuses (the pluses being that there could be stories with Mary Jane from e.g. the Dark Reign era and the Peter in the Fantastic Four era to tell; the minuses being that major changes to continuity are a bit of a nightmare for writers and readers to keep track of).

It wasn't them.
5) They were replaced by clones at the end of Back in Black for reasons. The real Peter and MJ have either been in suspended animation or have been travelling the world or living quietly together somewhere as Ben Reilly did before the Clone Saga. This is a bit like the Clone Saga all over again. It didn't work then, but you may think it would work now.
6) They were replaced by Skrulls at the end of Back in Black, but something went wrong and the Skrull personalities were never activated. Clones are more traditionally Spider-man but Skrulls have the advantage that they were on the scene replacing people at the time. As before, the real Peter and MJ could be in suspended animation, or they could be lost in space trying to get home.
7) Kill off the current Peter and MJ and replace them with alternate world versions who never agreed to Mephisto's deal, or with past versions of themselves a la the New Old X-Men.
These options technically preserve continuity and get rid of the post-OMD baggage at the price of saying that the versions of Peter and MJ we've been following since OMD didn't matter to their overalll history. It would also be awkward for Peter and MJ to explain why they don't remember bits of their ostensible past.

I think the Skrulls work if you have them replace Peter and MJ during the Clone Saga. So you still got a pregunate MJ and Peter in stasis somewhere. Skrull MJ gave birth to a baby Skrull who Norman made think was Aunt May. Therefore OMD was actually the result of two parents trying to save their child.

It works because it doesn't give lost time between Peter and MJ AND it doesn't break the character devolopment that his supporting cast has gone through

[CaptainUniverse]

I think the Skrulls work if you have them replace Peter and MJ during the Clone Saga. So you still got a pregunate MJ and Peter in stasis somewhere. Skrull MJ gave birth to a baby Skrull who Norman made think was Aunt May. Therefore OMD was actually the result of two parents trying to save their child.

It works because it doesn't give lost time between Peter and MJ AND it doesn't break the character devolopment that his supporting cast has gone through

This is a good one too. They could market it as SECRET INVASION: ONE MORE DAY!

[Ursalink]

Easy: They remarry, and in doing so, reality is restored around the original wedding and Mephisto's changes are undone. Sadly, this would involve Aunt May dying.

[clonegeek]

This is a good one too. They could market it as SECRET INVASION: ONE MORE DAY!

Oh yeah I told you this before. I also would have Peter being a Skrull be the reason why his 'mind' was able to return in Superior Spider-Man.

[CaptainUniverse]

Oh yeah I told you this before. I also would have Peter being a Skrull be the reason why his 'mind' was able to return in Superior Spider-Man.

I like it!

[Matt14teg]

I think we could steal elements out of wells run; God Wayep decides hes waging a war against Mephisto and as a result mephisto starts losing badly. He realizes he needs to enlist the help of spiderman as an ally; opening an accord that he will undo his deal if successful in defeating Wayep. Its worth noting it would kind of suck if we wrote off all the things other writers did; so maybe in a sense they could tie it into a "If you love something you should be able to let it go" message. Peter prob gets put into a scenario of choose the marriage over the fate of the world thing; choosing to save the many. Mephisto at peak height of power tries to kill spiderman but inadvertently triggers the clause that undoes OMD; incoming mayday parker that beats Mephisto circling back to that original prophecy. To preserve continituty they could just have it be memories and Mayday is a temporal kind of displacement character. God wars arc for like 25 issues would be fun to see.

[Chris0013]

They don't need to find out...just have them get back together, get their lives on track and get married.

[Garlador]

I want the Marriage back. I make no bones about it.

I told DC I'd go back to supporting their titles once Superman and Flash got their marriages back, and I've been true to my word. I'd do the same with Spider-Man.

But I also think there's some good storytelling to be mined here, and I point to The Flash as a template. Wally's marriage was retconned away... but WALLY REMEMBERED IT. No one else did. It was painful for him, as he carried a lifetime of love and triumph with him that his wife no longer shared until things were made "right".

And the obvious choice here is that Peter gets memories of their marriage back. And... I think MARY JANE would be a far better choice, particularly as a way to restore and salvage her reputation from recent runs. Let Mary Jane chase Peter for once, claiming that they once had a life together - a CHILD together - and he thinks she's gone crazy from the stuff with Rabin and Paul and losing her kids, and he's with Black Cat now, which is admittedly good drama. Give Mary Jane the agency she once had to decide that their life together WAS worth fighting for, despite all their struggles and setbacks, and put in motion the kind of events that bring them back together. Let Mary Jane be the one to ask HIM to get their marriage back for once.

Going full head-canon, but if Mephisto played his cards and did his invasion of earth, I can easily see a story where restoring their marriage and correcting the timeline is the key to his defeat, leading to a triumphant moment of them standing together against Marvel's devil and finally getting the victory they deserve.

[Jman27]

peter needs to be made aware of the deal he and mj did. they decide to go against Mephisto and somehow break the deal which causes the death of Aunt May again, the return of everyone knowing his secret id and I guess his other powers back as well

[Garlador]

peter needs to be made aware of the deal he and mj did. they decide to go against Mephisto and somehow break the deal which causes the death of Aunt May again, the return of everyone knowing his secret id and I guess his other powers back as well

I don't think the secret identity needs to be made public. Technically, OMIT retcons THAT to be a spell independent of OMD (kinda).... because the whole thing was messy and poorly done in the first place.

[Jman27]

I don't think the secret identity needs to be made public. Technically, OMIT retcons THAT to be a spell independent of OMD (kinda).... because the whole thing was messy and poorly done in the first place.

oh ok but really the only thing that really needs to happen is that Aunt May dies. Cause it would be pointless if they remarry and she still alive

[Garlador]

oh ok but really the only thing that really needs to happen is that Aunt May dies. Cause it would be pointless if they remarry and she still alive

A solid reminder that Aunt May herself was okay with that. Lol.

[clonegeek]

I think we could steal elements out of wells run; God Wayep decides hes waging a war against Mephisto and as a result mephisto starts losing badly. He realizes he needs to enlist the help of spiderman as an ally; opening an accord that he will undo his deal if successful in defeating Wayep. Its worth noting it would kind of suck if we wrote off all the things other writers did; so maybe in a sense they could tie it into a "If you love something you should be able to let it go" message. Peter prob gets put into a scenario of choose the marriage over the fate of the world thing; choosing to save the many. Mephisto at peak height of power tries to kill spiderman but inadvertently triggers the clause that undoes OMD; incoming mayday parker that beats Mephisto circling back to that original prophecy. To preserve continituty they could just have it be memories and Mayday is a temporal kind of displacement character. God wars arc for like 25 issues would be fun to see.

But that still would create lost time between Peter and MJ