Found this quote on another board:

"What does annoy me is why Quesada thinks that having T'Challa & Ororo married is fine but that same institution somehow ruins Peter Parker."

He is referencing a Newsarama Q & A with Quesada in which he said this:

"With respect to the character and their integrity, these are two characters that I don't think are harmed by marriage. There are some like Spider-Man that I believe do get harmed on a STORY LEVEL, by marriage. Being single are not great story components of what make T-challa and Storm interesting, there are many more facets to them and those facets are still kept whole and perhaps made stronger after marriage."

"Found this quote on another board:

"What does annoy me is why Quesada thinks that having T'Challa & Ororo married is fine but that same institution somehow ruins Peter Parker."

He is referencing a Newsarama Q & A with Quesada in which he said this:

"With respect to the character and their integrity, these are two characters that I don't think are harmed by marriage. There are some like Spider-Man that I believe do get harmed on a STORY LEVEL, by marriage. Being single are not great story components of what make T-challa and Storm interesting, there are many more facets to them and those facets are still kept whole and perhaps made stronger after marriage.""

I can't figure out if this means Quesada thinks Peter Parker is more developed or less developed a character than T'Challa and Ororo?  Is he saying Peter Parker is this ridid, simplistic character that is easily damaged or is he saying that T'Challa and Ororo are shallow and unformed characters who can only benefit from a major change?

I am clear that marriage harms the character of Spider-Man.  Ripping out his eye and giving him "spider-stingers" while making him the avatar of some Spider god, that's perfectly okay. ;)

Mike

As for Aunt May, her role had always been loving and supportive toward Peter while being hostile toward Spider-Man-- thus Peter could not get unqualified love and support, since his alter ego was hated by one person whose love he most needed. It's a nice state of emotional tension...which was wiped out when it was revealed that Aunt May had known Peter was Spider-Man for some time. Sort of makes her the Obi-Wan of the MU, to me. (Then again, I don't recall if she had spent any time recently castigating "that awful Spider-Man" so I might be being a bit unfair to the lady.)

 Well I've tried to read 'The Other'. Makes me miss reading Spider-Man in the 80's and early 90's. And all those lovely stories from the earliest day onward. This current run just seems all so drawn out and pointless. My impression as I went through it is that they are trying to parrot the worst excesses of the X-men on Spider-Man titles. It justs seems so overdone.

 How hard is it to get Peter Parker and Spider-Man right? He's (to my mind at any rate) one of the most strongly defined characters out there. But it seems these days most of what makes the character great have fallen by the wayside. What I really wonder is what can be done to recapture that earlier magic, if anything?

"I think marriage for Spider-Man, like marriage for Superman, was a mistake."

I think there is one difference, though. Lois Lane is supposed to be the one girl for Superman (that mermaid girl aside).  In that sense, the marriage isn't what's wrong...it's Lois knowing about his secret identity.  Granted it's hard to have one without the other.

But with Peter Parker, he was never meant to have just one love.  While almost all other super-heroes either had one permanent love interest or none, Peter Parker had two girls (Betty Brant and Liz Allen) interested in him almost from the very beginning.  That was an earthshaking bit of genius from Lee/Ditko.

Mike

I can't figure out if this means Quesada thinks Peter Parker is more developed or less developed a character than T'Challa and Ororo?  Is he saying Peter Parker is this ridid, simplistic character that is easily damaged or is he saying that T'Challa and Ororo are shallow and unformed characters who can only benefit from a major change?

I am clear that marriage harms the character of Spider-Man.  Ripping out his eye and giving him "spider-stingers" while making him the avatar of some Spider god, that's perfectly okay. ;)
********************************************************** ***********
The loss of Spider-Man's eyes was fixed in Part 9 of "The Other" (3 issues after it occurred.) The spider-stinger, or the "avatar of the spider-god" concept (flaweed as they are) really don't prevent future storytellers from telling any stories in the way marrying off Spider-Man did. It removed any tension from "Will I make it to my dinner date in time" now that he has an understanding wife, and no incentive to rush a battle with the Rhino.

Being single was a core part of Spider-Man's identity far more than it was for Black Panther/ Storm. For seven or so years, almost every Uncanny X-Men issue would've had the same exact story if Storm were married. Black Panther's marital status played no role in his first Lee- Kirby Fantastic Four appearances.

However, I don't think there's anything that can be done right now to end Spider-Man's marriage. Having Peter become divorced/ a widower simply makes him seem older, and somehow magicly removing the marriage from continuity will confuse those familiar with the great stories in which the two are married (Kraven's Last Hunt, the Mcfarlane Venom stories, etc.) New writers just have to learn to tell good stories with the current status quo, which many have (Peter David, Mark Millar, Dan Slott, etc.)