I LOVE the Spider-Marriage. It's been in place since I started reading and I disagree with your proposal that the marriage seems a set-up for Mary Jane's murder. If she hasn't been killed in twenty years, it hardly seems inevitable. Mary Jane was, when I was growing up, a great supporting character, and I thought it was great that Peter Parker had someone he could confide in about his alter-ego. It also seemed to say to me that even if you were an isolated, bookish teenager, that you might still be able to grow up to become a healthy, well-adjusted, and successfully married adult.

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Mary Jane is a great supporting character. I wonder what happened to her? The Mary Jane who has appeared in the comics for arguably the past two decades is not the dynamic character Stan Lee and John Romita gave us, who practically stole the spotlight from Gwen Stacy. That's the one positive I can say about the Superman/Lois Lane marriage -- at least Lois Lane remained the same, more or less. Having Mary Jane settle down did more damage to her character arguably than it did to Peter Parker.

Also, Peter shouldn't have anyone to confide in about his secret identity. That's what made him relatable to so many kids when he first appeared. The hot girlfriend who understands the issues that are weighing you down? That's less relatable to most comics readers than just plain fantasy.

Anyway, marriage in superhero comics is a bad idea because it limits story possibilities. It works in soap operas, which share many dramatic elements and beats with superhero comics, but in soaps, couples marry, divorce, die, are reincarnated as a different actor, and so on to almost comic heights. Superhero comics shy away -- rightly so, I think -- from divorce and from the more melodramatic aspects of soaps (at least in regard to relationships -- it makes sense, after all -- I mean, if the lead is a superhero, you don't want to have his girlfriend turn out to be a Skrull, that would be... oh wait).

So, what you're stuck with is a plain, ordinary marriage. There's nothing wrong with that but it doesn't provide much dramatic thrust or tension. Again, the Superman/Lois Lane marriage wasn't such a disaster because Lois Lane was always pretty much Superman's significant other. It was a mistake to suddenly elevate Mary Jane to Lois Lane status. In fact, when the marriage first happened, I recall being stunned because the last time I read the book -- relatively recently -- Peter was dating the Black Cat. Also, because of Peter's youth, he was always someone who was dating different women, which again opens story possibilities that the marriage doesn't.

The marriage also turns the superhero book more insular. By that, I mean that you have less people in the book who view Peter Parker and Spider-Man as distinctly different. There were scenes early on in the Mary Jane/Peter marriage when Peter is sticking to the ceiling discussing the latest battle with Doc Ock while in his normal clothing -- the secret identity had taken a blow.

Of course, everyone knows who Spider-Man is now, so it probably doesn't matter that much anymore.

Josh Goldberg wrote: "Yeah, for example, that whole Lois Lane thing in the Superman comics. Superman should just keep his proclivities to himself and stick to fighting supervillans."

Go for the zinger, Josh, but consider your own joke: there's a number of titles on the racks that could be greatly improved if they followed that advice. As a parent with young kids, there's a somewhat limited supply of comics on the market today where the heroes engage in a... heroic manner. With three kids under 10, the pickings are pretty dang slim and that's an awful shame. Thank goodness for Showcase, Archives, Essentials and Masterworks reprints.