"Regardless of what people think of Stracynski as a writer or The Other as a story the thing had to make it through an editorial process presumably. Obviously there is some belief at Marvel that this is a good way to go with the character. I can't see why beyond some gimmicky sales stunt. But do creative teams at comics companies do things specifically to piss off a segment of the audience. I find it hard to picture writers sitting around saying "This will get them steamed." So to quote a line from another much maligned (mini)series, Identity Crisis:

 "Who benefits?""

Well, "Sins of the Past" and the Clone-saga all had to make it through an editorial process, too.

Mike

"Much less so with Sins of the Past. I remember a JMS interview where he was praising working with Marvel because the editors weren't changing a single word of his scripts.
This is all stuff a hardliner like Jim Shooter would have said "No" to."

But as I believe was previously discussed on this thread, JMS apparently wanted Peter to be the father of Gwen's twins and M****l vetoed that idea.  How you can recognize that being a horrible idea and let the even worse Gwen/Norman get through, though, does boggle the mind.

Mike 

The problem with that is the same as with "The Other" and the spider-totem thing. Spider-Man dosen't work well in sci-fi/mystical settings. Like Batman, he works better in "crime on the street" type stories. Not time travel or reality warpping stuff.

And besides, once JMS leaves, the next writer will find a way to ignore all this mystical crap anyway.

Wayne's idea is an interestign reboot, but a little un-necessary, and it would beg some difficult questions, such as why did Peter choose to wipe out Gwen's children. A simpler solution to the Gwen's children mess is to just forget about it, and stop referring to it in future stories. The Spider-totem mess could be resolved with the revelation that Spider-Man's not the Spider-totem, a new villain is.

I'm not so sure that low sales will guarantee a 'superstar' writer/artist losing a title. Let's use Iron Man as an example - let's say that the five issues of Warren Ellis Iron Man masterpiece theater have sold 50k each (I have no idea if this is accurate, and am not inclined to look it up) - so 250k copies over the course of 15 months, or 16,667 copies per month. Spider-Girl sells more copies per month, also has digest/trade sales, and it's getting shit-canned.

Guess Defalco and company should have shipped a few issues late, to 'create buzz'.
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Spider-Girl's big sales are in the digest, but with a hundred issues in the can (or soon to be in the can), and 5-6 issues a digest, Marvel currently has enough material for 13 more digests (after Volume 5.) If the digests are released quarterly, that would last more than three years. This excludes all the  MC2 spinoffs, such as Darkdevil, The Buzz, Wild Thing, Fantastic 5, and Last Hero Standing, which should last Marvel another year. Lord knows if there will be the same level of interest in new Spider-Girl material by Tom Defalco at the end of that time.

In August 2005, Marvel sold 48,400 copies of Iron Man #4, and 18,150 copies of Spider-Girl #121, so your guesses are fairly accurate, if a little bit conservative on your end. However, I'm fairly certain it costs less to produce 50.000 copies of Iron Man #4, than it does 16,667 copies each of Spider-Girl #89-91, when you take into account the salaries of all involved (paying for 1 issue's work as opposed to 3 issue's work), bulk rates for printing/ shipping, and the like.  It'll be interesting to see how well the Extremis trade does in sales, and it's worth noting that the creators are leaving at the end of the next issue, and Marvel released the Inevitable mini series, to make up for the lack of a monthly Iron Man book.

I had a point somewhere, but I've lost it.

But as I believe was previously discussed on this thread, JMS apparently wanted Peter to be the father of Gwen's twins and M****l vetoed that idea.  How you can recognize that being a horrible idea and let the even worse Gwen/Norman get through, though, does boggle the mind.
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It's more in character for Norman Osborn to have bastard children than Peter Parker.

It's more in character for Norman Osborn to have bastard children than Peter Parker

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Bastard is not a favored word anymore.

It's also more newsworthy, and not necessarily in a good way, for Spider-man to have kids.