1. To those vs Peter & MJ having been married: I first discovered Spidey comics around the time he proposed so I never knew Peter NOT being married. Umarrying them upset me. Besides Peter & MJ have always been friends and dated. It was a natural consequence. She's beautiful so what? Is Peter ugly enough not to get married to his oldest friend? And in the 80's MJ was lost and wandering around. Maybe more of a loser than Pete was. They found each other at the perfect time (I learned about Shooter's quick decision to get them married but never cared)

2. You forgot Phil Urich aka Green Goblin in the 90's (then seen on a regular basis in Spider-Girl)!

Joss, as a reader at the time that they "found each other", I had no idea of the behind-the-scenes editorial mandate. What I was aware of was the fact that I had been reading for years and the proposal you speak of came out of nowhere and seemed clumsy and amatuerish to me.

Ultimately, I can live with either set-up, as long as I recognize the character. Sadly, more times than not over the past 10 years, I've not. The BND debacle is an unquestionable mess. That said, the character still feels significantly more like Peter Parker to me than the JMS years prior to it.

It was a natural consequence.

Not really. To get to the point where they would marry, Marvel had to gut Mary Jane's freespirited I-don't-want-to-be-tied-down personality and turn her into Gwen Stacy. When today's fans say they like Mary Jane, they're not talking about the character Lee and Romita introduced all those years ago. (Hell, if they like a married Peter Parker, they don't like the guy Lee and Ditko created all those years ago either)

RE: Mary Jane's freespirited I-don't-want-to-be-tied-down personality

Don, when did you stop reading Spider-Man? 1968?! Like I said, I'd never read any adventure of Peter as a non-married person, only much later. My first ASM issue was around ASM 255 when Spidey battles Puma and MJ reveals she'd always known Spidey's secret. After that revelation their relationship would never be the same. I repeat, to me it was a natural consequence they'd tie the knot.

But, if I'd read the adventures of "unlucky at love Peter" during the Stan Lee period I MIGHT have preferred he'd stayed single. I'll never know...

I liked BND but "cancelling" 20 years of marriage was - TO ME - (I repeat TO ME) disrespecful of the reader.

Fine by me if some people prefer "single Peter", everyone's entitled to an opinion.

In OMIT MJ tells Peter "he's free to date anyone from now on". As a fan of their marriage, that was the last straw.

How does MJ's knowledge of Peter's SI make marriage inevitable? Talk about your non sequitors.

There is no "natural consequence" when it comes to fictional characters--what happens occurs because the writer wants it to happen. Clark Kent pined for Lois Lane for decades--but guess what? Their marriage was a boneheaded mistake too. These are not real people we're talking about.

And as someone else already pointed out, the marriage wasn't a well thought out decision--Stan Lee was going to marry them in the strip, so Marvel threw together a quick annual to cash in on the gimmick. Nothing "natural" about it at all.

1968?!

Right--make smarmy remarks about my reading history with the character while admitting your own didn't begin until after the marriage. Someone who jumped in during the Clone Saga could make the claim that Ben Reilly taking up the mantle was a "natural consequence." Ditto Sins Past. I always love it when fans justify any stupid change to a character by saying it was the status quo when they began reading, therefore, it's legitimate.

Peter Parker was the Everyman, with money/girl/work/school problems. Take that same guy and give him a wife, and at best he's a very different animal.

To Don: yawwwwwnn...

To Francesco: To be exact, my very first Hobgoblin story was by De Falco and Frenz (circa ASM 260): he'd seemingly died in ASM 251 in the Hudson river then came back with a vengeance to abduct Liz, Harry and MJ to obtain the fabled "journals".

I loved that storyline and it made me want to catch up all his previous appearances. The fact the journals burnt made me feel sorry for this great villain.

Good for you, Joss. When I read that book, I suspected Marvel were either going to write MJ off or give her the same dumb fate they gave Gwen Stacy. Don, you're right inorder for MJ to be marriage material they had to make her more like Gwen Stacy.