Which stories required Spider-Man to be married?

[Lee]

Which stories required Spider-Man to be married?

There's the wedding issue itself, and One More Day. Any others?

[Frontier]

For the full effect, Kraven's Last Hunt.

[Phantom Roxas]

This thread only serves to counter the drift drift about the single thread, doesn't it? Alright, I'll play your game.

To Have and To Hold, and the Clone Saga, which was written largely to provide an excuse to end the marriage, much like One More Day. While One Moment In Time was about the marriage never happening, it was a sequel to One More Day, so I'd say it counts, and it required the timeline to be rewritten, a change that would not have occurred had the marriage never been introduced in the first place. One Moment In Time also introduced the psychic blindspot, which played a key role in Spider-Island, as it allowed Peter the freedom to use his powers, but also its breaking allowed Carlie to figure out he was Spider-Man. Those two factors in Spider-Island led to Superior Spider-Man, which in turn led to Parker Industries. So really, the current status quo hinges entirely on Spider-Man having been married in the previous timeline.

[Spider-Tiger]

Doomed Affairs

[DT Winslow]

This thread only serves to counter the drift drift about the single thread, doesn't it? Alright, I'll play your game.

To Have and To Hold, and the Clone Saga, which was written largely to provide an excuse to end the marriage, much like One More Day. While One Moment In Time was about the marriage never happening, it was a sequel to One More Day, so I'd say it counts, and it required the timeline to be rewritten, a change that would not have occurred had the marriage never been introduced in the first place. One Moment In Time also introduced the psychic blindspot, which played a key role in Spider-Island, as it allowed Peter the freedom to use his powers, but also its breaking allowed Carlie to figure out he was Spider-Man. Those two factors in Spider-Island led to Superior Spider-Man, which in turn led to Parker Industries. So really, the current status quo hinges entirely on Spider-Man having been married in the previous timeline.

The blind spot happened independently of OMD, so that would rule out OMIT as well. Without the blind spot being part of the OMD-OMIT, that rules out your assertion of Spider-Island and the rest. So, I'd argue at least the Wedding issue itself and OMD. I could go for KLH but love of my love vs wife works just fine. I don't think the Clone Saga needs the marriage to work as a story, just with them as a committed couple, but I can understand your arguments for its inclusion.

[Webhead]

Both this question and the opposite thread are merely counterfactual exercises. Anything going different than in the original stories would have a degree of impact that's just too subjective to settle the matter.
I realize this is part of a feud, but I thought I'd just point that out.

[Lee]

Interestingly, in the Kraven's Last Hunt novelisation, Peter and Mary Jane aren't married. So that's something that already exists.

[MJS]

Interestingly, in the Kraven's Last Hunt novelisation, Peter and Mary Jane aren't married. So that's something that already exists.

And it's the poorer for it. That novel is pretty unreadable IMO for all sorts of reasons, MJ's characterization and the recasting of the marriage being only two of them, but removing the marriage did not make it a stronger story. To the contrary.

J.M. DeMatteis designed KLH around the marriage. It was the key to him. The bolding is mine:

"I was frustrated, to say the least, by all the doors slamming in my face, but this seed of an idea—well, by this time it had pushed up through the soil and was sprouting branches and leaves—just kept growing, unfolding at its own pace, in its own time. It knew, even if I clearly didn’t, that it would soon find the form, and, most important, the characters, it had been seeking all along.

"Autumn, 1986. I was visiting the Marvel office one day when Jim Owsley, editor of the Spider-Man line, and Tom DeFalco (what? Him again?) invited me out to lunch. They wanted me to pick up the writing duties on Spectacular Spider-Man but I was reluctant to commit to another monthly book. Owsley and DeFalco were insistent. I weakened. They pushed harder. I agreed.

"And, by the time I got home, I realized what a stroke of good fortune this was: I now had another chance, probably my last chance, to take a crack at this “back from the grave” idea. More important: I discovered, as I worked away on the proposal, that Spider-Man—recently married to Mary Jane—was a far better choice than either Wonder Man or Batman. Peter Parker is perhaps the most emotionally and psychologically authentic protagonist in any super-hero universe. Underneath that mask, he’s as confused, as flawed, as touchingly human, as the people who read—and write—about him: the quintessential Everyman. And that Everyman’s love for his new wife, for the new life they were building together, was the emotional fuel that ignited the story. It was Mary Jane’s presence, her heart and soul, that reached down into the deeps of Peter’s heart and soul, forcing him up out of that coffin, out of the grave, into the light."

Okay here's the thing. When we say "marriage stories", do we mean stories that entirely revolved around the marriage or simply stories that occurred involving a married Spidey? If it is the former, then there are very few stories that were actually about the marriage, you know. It's for that reason why I find it disingenuous on the part of Slott when he says stuff like "Marriage fans can't bring up many examples of good marriage stories". For there weren't that many "marriage stories" in the first place. So we are left with stuff like the second Clone Saga, whose suckiness had nothing to do with the marriage, or some of the 00's JMS tales where stories occurred during the twilight years of the marriage but weren't really about the marriage to qualify as "marriage stories".

For all the hoo-haa about "marriage being a limitation", the entire 90's felt like an exercise in staying away from the marriage/limit the marriage from being a major part of the stories as opposed to the accused other way around. Rather than make more concentrated efforts in exploring the role the marriage and Mary Jane played in Peter's life.

And I don't even think many marriage fans want every story to revolve around the marriage either, even when it is put in place. So a story cannot really be limited by something it isn't revolving around.

This. All of this. I do believe KLH needs the marriage to work. Also "The Soul of Hunter," although it is not as moving. The Harry Osborn "Child Within" Saga needs the marriage. ASM 400 needs the marriage and the promise of a birth to counter the death. However, these are all J.M. DeMatteis stories, and J.M. liked the marriage and found MJ to be a complex, interesting character so he wrote her accordingly.

If Peter had been single but still written by Terry Kavanaugh and Howard Mackie, those stories would still not be praised. They would be at the bottom of the list of favorite stories simply because they did not write compelling stories during this time period.

Other stories that needed the marriage and used it to provide the emotional heart: Spider-Man: Reign. House of M, for the bittersweet kicker. JMS's run. Mark Millar's Marvel Knights run. Spirits of the Earth by Charles Vess. This is off the top of my head, will think more.

[DCordo74]

This thread only serves to counter the drift drift about the single thread, doesn't it? Alright, I'll play your game.

To Have and To Hold, and the Clone Saga, which was written largely to provide an excuse to end the marriage, much like One More Day. While One Moment In Time was about the marriage never happening, it was a sequel to One More Day, so I'd say it counts, and it required the timeline to be rewritten, a change that would not have occurred had the marriage never been introduced in the first place. One Moment In Time also introduced the psychic blindspot, which played a key role in Spider-Island, as it allowed Peter the freedom to use his powers, but also its breaking allowed Carlie to figure out he was Spider-Man. Those two factors in Spider-Island led to Superior Spider-Man, which in turn led to Parker Industries. So really, the current status quo hinges entirely on Spider-Man having been married in the previous timeline.

This...plus...

Peter's personal arc during Civil War
Web of Romance
basically JMS' entire run, especially Doomed Affairs. I mean hell this is the man that made it canon that Peter needs MJ in his life to be a better Spider-man. (something new writers have proved...although unintentially.)
Kraven's Last Hunt
Spider-man: Blue
Spider-man: Renew Your Vows
Marvel Knights Spider-man by Mark Millar

I'm sure there's more...

Mary Jane is the reason there's a difference between married and single stories. She plays a more important role as Peter's partner. He has to talk to her about his decisions. They are legally bound to one another. Everything he does is gonna impact her, their lives are connected. Single Peter doesn't have that emotional weight. I don't care what Joey Queso says...If MJ freaked out about Peter missing the wedding in OMIT, there's no logical reason why she would stay for mess that was the Clone Saga.


OMD and OMIT are so stupid...they're so god damn stupid. So OOC.

[Mister Mets]

Funny thing is that two of the best stories (To Have and to Hold, Renew Your Vows) would not have been commissioned were it not for One More Day.

Two stories that come to mind are the honeymoon annual, and the Beast team-up where Peter and MJ considered whether to make a baby.

[Zeitgeist]

Those riveting stories where MJ started smoking. Edge of the seat stuff.

[Confuzzled]

Funny thing is that two of the best stories (To Have and to Hold, Renew Your Vows) would not have been commissioned were it not for One More Day.

Two stories that come to mind are the honeymoon annual, and the Beast team-up where Peter and MJ considered whether to make a baby.

Okay here's the thing. When we say "marriage stories", do we mean stories that entirely revolved around the marriage or simply stories that occurred involving a married Spidey? If it is the former, then there are very few stories that were actually about the marriage, you know. It's for that reason why I find it disingenuous on the part of Slott when he says stuff like "Marriage fans can't bring up many examples of good marriage stories". For there weren't that many "marriage stories" in the first place. So we are left with stuff like the second Clone Saga, whose suckiness had nothing to do with the marriage, or some of the 00's JMS tales where stories occurred during the twilight years of the marriage but weren't really about the marriage to qualify as "marriage stories".

For all the hoo-haa about "marriage being a limitation", the entire 90's felt like an exercise in staying away from the marriage/limit the marriage from being a major part of the stories as opposed to the accused other way around. Rather than make more concentrated efforts in exploring the role the marriage and Mary Jane played in Peter's life.

And I don't even think many marriage fans want every story to revolve around the marriage either, even when it is put in place. So a story cannot really be limited by something it isn't revolving around.