How to Bring Back the Marriage

[Kaitou D. Kid]

My only problem with retconning everything post-OMD is that it chooses any new fans that came in with BND/Slott to have to "choose" between that and the marriage. And that's likely to lead to some more marriage anymosity and attempts of pulling an OMD in the future. I get that BND lost more fans than it gained, but it's not like the anti-marriage crowd was ever a majority in the first place, and they still managed to get their agenda through.

Of course, sometimes you have to retcon things. The Zeb Wells stuff has to be officially retconned. The BND/Slott run though is more superfluous than "so damaging it needs to disappear".

[godisawesome]

How hot and cold? To the point they would have other romantic relationships or no(I'm personally not interested if they keep their romantic relationships with their forced love interests(Carlie, Paul, Pedro, etc.) from post-OMD that is the case, but otherwise its sounds pretty good)? And how would your scenario deal with the whole rapey Superior Spider-Man period(Ock occupies a clone rather than Peter or what)?

Mostly, I was thinking of putting some kind of high stress, traumatizing event at the moment in time (ha!) of OMD, likely involving May’s injury and the disappearance of their child (with them then thinking they lost another child) causing them to not separate “officially,” but live apart for a while that results in a temporary cycle of drama and catharsis for 16ish months where the “relationships” that editorial tried to enforce don’t ever get consummated, but may occasionally have the attraction inside flare up for some spice to the drama.

I wouldn’t touch any part of the external conflicts with villains that doesn’t touch Peter’s personal life at all, and I would seek to “improve” the story where it does - particularly something like Superior Spider-Man, where I think much of it is good, but parts of it are held back by how Peter’s personal life and MJ in particular were held back or even twisted into ugly areas by OMD’s mandates. I would imagine that revisiting MJ’s scenes there and making her realize something’s wrong, maybe gets communicated to by Peter in SpOck somehow, and, say, teams ups with Kaine for a while behind the scene.

Like… don’t mess with Rhino’s story against his unworthy successor, don’t mess with Menace’s arrival in the Osborne family drama, have the Clone Conspiracy still go down, etc… but maybe MJ drops in on Peter’s apartment when Chameleon is creeping on Michelle (who hasn’t had a one night stand with Peter) and bails her out, etc.

[clonegeek]

Mostly, I was thinking of putting some kind of high stress, traumatizing event at the moment in time (ha!) of OMD, likely involving May’s injury and the disappearance of their child (with them then thinking they lost another child) causing them to not separate “officially,” but live apart for a while that results in a temporary cycle of drama and catharsis for 16ish months where the “relationships” that editorial tried to enforce don’t ever get consummated, but may occasionally have the attraction inside flare up for some spice to the drama.

I wouldn’t touch any part of the external conflicts with villains that doesn’t touch Peter’s personal life at all, and I would seek to “improve” the story where it does - particularly something like Superior Spider-Man, where I think much of it is good, but parts of it are held back by how Peter’s personal life and MJ in particular were held back or even twisted into ugly areas by OMD’s mandates. I would imagine that revisiting MJ’s scenes there and making her realize something’s wrong, maybe gets communicated to by Peter in SpOck somehow, and, say, teams ups with Kaine for a while behind the scene.

Like… don’t mess with Rhino’s story against his unworthy successor, don’t mess with Menace’s arrival in the Osborne family drama, have the Clone Conspiracy still go down, etc… but maybe MJ drops in on Peter’s apartment when Chameleon is creeping on Michelle (who hasn’t had a one night stand with Peter) and bails her out, etc.

That could work

[Tuck]

Time is split at OMD. All the stories we’ve been reading are the ones where Peter/MJ make the deal. The other timeline is where they don’t make the deal wit Mephisto. These stories can be told in a new series that takes place in the past (just after OMD and moving forward. Meanwhile, in the current timeline, some event (many ideas posted above would work) causes the timelines to merge together again. All key characters (Pete, MJ, Mephisto) remember BOTH timelines. Aunt May survives, meaning she doesn’t remember the other timeline where she died, obviously.

I like the idea of just having a separate timeline for stories where OMD never happened . . . but not merging the timelines. Doesn't even have to be an ongoing.

I don't think the timeline is really fixable at this point.

[blank]

Mostly, I was thinking of putting some kind of high stress, traumatizing event at the moment in time (ha!) of OMD, likely involving May’s injury and the disappearance of their child (with them then thinking they lost another child) causing them to not separate “officially,” but live apart for a while that results in a temporary cycle of drama and catharsis for 16ish months where the “relationships” that editorial tried to enforce don’t ever get consummated, but may occasionally have the attraction inside flare up for some spice to the drama.

I wouldn’t touch any part of the external conflicts with villains that doesn’t touch Peter’s personal life at all, and I would seek to “improve” the story where it does - particularly something like Superior Spider-Man, where I think much of it is good, but parts of it are held back by how Peter’s personal life and MJ in particular were held back or even twisted into ugly areas by OMD’s mandates. I would imagine that revisiting MJ’s scenes there and making her realize something’s wrong, maybe gets communicated to by Peter in SpOck somehow, and, say, teams ups with Kaine for a while behind the scene.

Like… don’t mess with Rhino’s story against his unworthy successor, don’t mess with Menace’s arrival in the Osborne family drama, have the Clone Conspiracy still go down, etc… but maybe MJ drops in on Peter’s apartment when Chameleon is creeping on Michelle (who hasn’t had a one night stand with Peter) and bails her out, etc.

From what your saying about Superior, I don't think Pedro would fit at least even as a "relationship" without consummation as with MJ realising something is wrong with Peter, it would seem a little odd to begin even flirting with someone knowing your significant other's body is being occupied by a supervillain. With Carlie Cooper at least I think I can see where you're going, minor flirting instead of dating as they did in the current 616. Again with Bobbi Morse, Silk and others, I think a similar thing can be applied(or at least in Bobbi Morse's case can be entirely ignored, she didn't really add much, the whole pheromone thing for Silk would definitely have to be addressed though, its kinda crappy writing). And as for Paul I think he just shouldn't exist at all, or MJ should have never trusted him much less be "dating" him

Personally I think Ock kidnapping and cloning Peter(occupying his clone and keeping Peter in some sort of stasis works better than the whole occupy someones body and try to effectively rape a woman) and adopting a false identity as a distant relative of the Parkers or something(like for real how stupid do you have to be to believe an almost 180 personality shift without some sort of manipulation or body snatching considering the level of tech in the 616, plus how the hell did Ock think he could reasonably pretend to be someone just based off what was to him a tv show of Peter's life to his gf who has known Peter for literal decades, but I guess plot armour ffs), but the issue then becomes how to deal with the marriage during this period, its pretty difficult considering the whole spouse is kinda missing but seems to be alive thing(or is an entirely different person).

Again Wells' run needs to just be retconned or the plot details need to be heavily corrected.

[clonegeek]

I like the idea of just having a separate timeline for stories where OMD never happened . . . but not merging the timelines. Doesn't even have to be an ongoing.

I don't think the timeline is really fixable at this point.

Where is it's still a part of 616 just a separate timeline that Kang monitors. Have it be one where writers can place their run if they want ro

[Mister Mets]

Yeah, I guess we can just ignore the lost time aspect and stuff because the floating time line is going to condense all that time in to a much shorter period.

Titles don't bother trying to have holidays and celebrations line up, so timeskips fall in a similar category.

[clonegeek]

Titles don't bother trying to have holidays and celebrations line up, so timeskips fall in a similar category.

Still would be hard to explain how the Parker Inc time skip but we could ignore that ever happened in the first place

[Matt14teg]

Could do a mini series where we explore the relationship post OMD in terms of each major arc; like maybe in superior they got divorced for a while.

[Spider-Tiger]

I'd OMIT the hell out of continuity so the Mephisto deal isn't a one time thing but an ongoing spell that keeps Peter and Mary Jane from getting too close and aunt May alive. I'd show flashbacks from previous runs in which, everytime Peter and MJ appear to reconcile, that stupid red Mephisto bird appears to affect the course of events. This would include the current Wells material. Despite the spell, Peter and MJ keep finding their way back to one another. (Subconsciously attempting to right time themselves.)

Presumably, Peter and Mary Jane would have reconciled again at the end of the Wells run. They pick up where they left off when Spencer left: they move in together, Peter or MJ proposes, and they prepare for a wedding. During this period, Aunt May becomes increasingly ill.

On the day of the wedding, May is hospitalized. History starts to repeat itself and another OMIT scenario begins to happen. This leads to Peter and Mary Jane again thinking about calling it off. However, they've become a bit more resistant to the effects of the spell as time has passed: they feel like they're being compelled to call it off but can't exactly articulate why, and don't necessarily want to.

As Mary Jane is leaving, MC2 Mayday and a few other heroes appears at their doorstep.

I mentioned previously the idea of reversing it in some sort of event similar to Spider-verse. However, instead of involving just the Spider-verse it could be a multiversal event.


On Mayday's earth, Benjy has been erased from time (she remembers his existence but others do not), and she and a few other heroes are beginning to fade from existence. With the help of MC2 Doctor Strange, Mayday learns of the deal on 616 and what has happened:

In the distant future, Mephisto would, at some point, gain control of Earth 616 as an expansion to his dominion of hell. However, he will be overthrown by a descendent of the Parker-Watson line (perhaps not 616 Mayday herself, but a granddaughter.) He was shown a vision of this and decides to interfere with human time and prevent the birth of any heroes that may pose a threat, but is only limited to doing so with the explicit consent of humans. Perhaps he even tries to interfere with the birth of Peter Parker himself, but is unsuccessful in doing so. Thus, the deal with Peter and Mary Jane.

However, Earth 616 is the prime universe from which all other universes in the multiverse derive, and altering time on earth 616 has had a domino effect that begins to affect time in these other worlds. Thus, Benjy's erasure.

Mayday informs Peter of what has happened. To reverse the deal, he and a team of other heroes must travel to Mephisto's realm in hell. They are convinced that the only way to destroy the spell is to defeat Mephisto himself.

A battle ensues, and Mephisto seemingly "wins." However, Strange and Parker taunt Mephisto for his cowardice with this spell (instead of facing the potential threat to his reign head on.) Mephisto agrees to remove the spell, but informs him that doing so will ultimately kill Aunt May.

Peter is left with a choice to make similar to the Playstation game: save humanity or save Aunt May. It's a difficult choice, but Peter knows what he has to do. He is transported to the hospital to see May. She reveals she knows Peter is Spider-man and tells him how proud she is. May passes, and Peter and Mary Jane regain all of their memories from the initial timeline. It's a bittersweet moment.

Mephisto tells Peter that whenever the time comes for that hero of the future to challenge him, he'll be ready.

[Daibhidh]

Of course, sometimes you have to retcon things. The Zeb Wells stuff has to be officially retconned. The BND/Slott run though is more superfluous than "so damaging it needs to disappear".

Parker Industries ought to go. If Peter meets someone new they shouldn't have heard of him as that guy who used to be the next Tony Stark. (The Beyond Mary Jane / Black Cat has the Hood express surprise that Felicia cares for some photographer, which is how it should be, but not really credible after Parker Industries.)

[Kaitou D. Kid]

Parker Industries ought to go. If Peter meets someone new they shouldn't have heard of him as that guy who used to be the next Tony Stark. (The Beyond Mary Jane / Black Cat has the Hood express surprise that Felicia cares for some photographer, which is how it should be, but not really credible after Parker Industries.)

Yep, Parker Industries too.

[Spider-Tiger]

I don't know how they'd retcon out Parker Industries. I don't think an OMD fix is the story for that. Ideally an OMD fix wouldn't reverse time or significantly change what has already occurred (Other than to say that some of the characters have been acting under Mephisto's influence, which is an easy fix for the Wells stuff)

[WebLurker]

Realistically, I think the only scenario that will happen (if it ever does) is them just getting married again in the current status quo. It's the simplest answer and I suspect that, even if they're willing to let go of their OMD dreams, I have a hard time seeing any of the brass being willing to make anything that would even hint that they made a mistake or that the OMD-verse variants of the characters were not the "real" ones, etc.

IMHO, given how much Marvel mucked things up to explain away decades of continuity, I don't see how doing the same thing again to the OMD-verse would be good; it's bad writing, no matter the intent.

[PCN24454]

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.

That’s horrible idea. It basically means that nothing matters.