History Trivia / SpiderMan

** ''Trivia/TheAmazingSpiderManSeries''

*** Marvel's decision to cancel the Spider-Man newspaper strip in early 2019 meant the planned storyline chronicling Peter and MJ's adventures in Australia never happened. The plan was for Peter to battle The Kangeroo.

* MilestoneCelebration: "The Wedding!" Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 (September 1987), was published near-exactly 25 years after the character's first appearance and origin in Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962).

** Trivia/SpiderMan1
** Trivia/SpiderMan2
** Trivia/SpiderMan3

** Trivia/TheAmazingSpiderManSeries
** Trivia/TheAmazingSpiderman2

** Trivia/CaptainAmericaCivilWar
** Trivia/SpiderManHomecoming
** Trivia/AvengersInfinityWar
** Trivia/SpiderManFarFromHome

* Trivia/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries
** Trivia/SpiderManUnlimited
* Trivia/UltimateSpiderMan
** Trivia/HulkAndTheAgentsOfSmash

** David Michelinie said in interviews that his initial idea for Venom was that she would be a woman who lost her child as a result of collateral damage in a Spider-Man battle. He foreshadowed and built up Venom's appearance in ''Web of Spider-Man'' with this in mind and initially he saw Venom as a minor character. However, when he had gotten the post as head-writer on ASM, the flagship title and when planning out the milestone issue of #300 he pitched Venom's debut and he very quickly changed the character to Eddie Brock. Michelinie also said that towards the end of his run he had a plan for a year long arc where Peter Parker revealed his identity to the public. This would have been temporary and reversed. It would have involved villains, and other bad guys targeting him and his family, and then Peter would turn to the government for help, and basically be drafted as a mercenary doing shady things to protect his family and that eventually Peter would turn to the help of the Purple Man to erase the memories of his secret identity via world healing mind-wipe (similar to the ''Emperor Doom'' story where Dr. Doom attached Purple Man to a power amplifier that made the rest of the world accept Dr. Doom as the new lord and master). The idea was rejected by editors as straining credibility that Peter's identity could simply be reset like that but in broad-strokes ''Comicbook/CivilWar'' could have happened before.

** The original decision to marry Peter and MJ came out of a desire to get in on a huge public event and craze in TheEighties as a result of a spontaneous burst of enthusiasm when Creator/StanLee and Creator/JimShooter only half-seriously agreed they might be okay with Spider-Man getting married. They decided to get in on and cash in on what many fans, few of whom had kept pace with the regular Spider-Man continuity on which Lee had little direct involvement for more than a decade, saw as Spider-Man's HappyEnding similar to how many fans believed ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'' was Superman's real death, and by others as a welcome change in status-quo that many fans had long gone tired off by then. This decision polarized and split a number of regular and future writers, with some (Roger Stern) opposing it but others welcomed and fully embraced it (J. M. [=DeMatteis=] and Creator/PeterDavid). At the time, Peter was in a relationship with the Black Cat and he and MJ were friends, after she had returned to the continuity after being PutOnABus for 40 issues (her longest absence), and appearing semi-regularly at the time[[note]]For instance read Issue #289 where Peter and Felicia are in a relationship, part of a gang-war storyline and which in an earlier issue had Felicia mockingly call MJ "Molly Jo". Then in Issue 290, suddenly Peter is single, with no acknowledgement of what happened to Felicia Hardy and after brief soul searching decides to propose to MJ[[/note]]. This upset long term plans for some writers, but which, according to [=DeMatteis=] also provided ''ComicBook/KravensLastHunt'' an emotional depth and meaning that it would not have otherwise had.

** Spider-Man's marriage to MJ was a result of this. [[http://jimshooter.com/2011/09/three-comic-book-weddings-or-holy.html/ According to]] Creator/JimShooter, the entire wedding was a spur-on-the-moment improvisation when during a joint convention where Stan Lee and then EIC Shooter attended together (Shooter was invited by Lee because the latter wasn't up on happenings in Marvel continuity at the same time and he didn't want to answer questions about current Spider-Man titles that he didn't know), some random fan asked Stan Lee if he planned to have Spider-Man get married in the newspaper strip. Lee said that he was okay with the idea, and he then turned to Shooter, and being put on the spot, Shooter shrugged and said he would too, and on account of the huge cheers in the crowd, both Lee and Shooter immediately hashed a plan for the event which had been picked by the press. This despite the fact that, as Shooter knew well, MJ had been absent in the current continuity for a while and had been PutOnABus for a significant time. Shooter immediately went ahead and got Spider-Man editors and writers to make it coincide with the event, and even when Tom [=DeFalco=] and Ron Frenz came up with a Plan B where MJ stands Peter up, Shooter insisted they go ahead with it, since the die had been cast and the press had made a big deal of it, and he didn't want the publicity and effort gone into promotion (including getting a real-life fashion designer to create MJ's wedding dress) to just [[YankTheDogsChain yank along with public expectations]].

* CreatorsFavorite: Jim Starlin did not create Spider-Man, but he's expressed fondness of him and inserts him into most of his cosmic-based stories, even though Spidey is generally considered a "street-level" hero. Creator/StanLee also said that he considered Spider-Man his favorite.

** The original decision to marry Peter and MJ came out of a desire to get in on a huge public event and craze in TheEighties as a result of a spontaneous burst of enthusiasm when Creator/StanLee and Creator/JimShooter only half-seriously agreed they might be okay with Spider-Man getting married. They decided to get in on and cash in on what many fans, few of whom had kept pace with the regular Spider-Man continuity on which Lee had little direct involvement for more than a decade, saw as Spider-Man's HappyEnding similar to how many fans believed ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'' was Superman's real death, and by others as a welcome change in status-quo that many fans had long gone tired off by then. This decision polarized and split a number of regular and future writers, with some (Roger Stern) opposing it but others welcomed and fully embraced it (J. M. [=DeMatteis=]). At the time, Peter was in a relationship with the Black Cat and he and MJ were friends, after she had returned to the continuity after being PutOnABus for 40 issues (her longest absence), and appearing semi-regularly at the time[[note]]For instance read Issue #289 where Peter and Felicia are in a relationship, part of a gang-war storyline and which in an earlier issue had Felicia mockingly call MJ "Molly Jo". Then in Issue 290, suddenly Peter is single, with no acknowledgement of what happened to Felicia Hardy and after brief soul searching decides to propose to MJ[[/note]]. This upset long term plans for some writers, but which, according to [=DeMatteis=] also provided ''ComicBook/KravensLastHunt'' an emotional depth and meaning that it would not have otherwise had.

** Creator/MattFraction modeled the interaction between Peter and MJ in "To Have and to Hold" on his own marriage to fellow comics artist Creator/KellySueDeConnick.

* WriterRevolt: In 2000, Howard Mackie and Creator/JohnByrne were ordered to kill off Mary Jane in order to make Peter single again, but they didn't support this decision. Byrne had previously stated he disliked Peter being married on the grounds it aged him, but he pointed out that making him a widower wouldn't make it credible to portray him as the young single guy Marvel so badly wanted him to be and likewise after failing to save Gwen Stacy, failing his other love interest made him too much of a FailureHero. So, when Mary Jane was to be killed off in a mid-air plane explosion, Byrne included an out (a shot of the plane's emergency exit door coming off). As for Mackie, Peter spent the immediate aftermath of this story doubting Mary Jane was dead (on the grounds that DeathIsCheap was so prominent in his life, especially with Norman Osborn and Aunt May then-recent returns). Unsurprisingly, Mary Jane was eventually brought back, which was part of Mackie's final story.

** The original decision to marry Peter and MJ came out of a desire to get in on a huge public event and craze in TheEighties as a result of a spontaneous burst of enthusiasm when Creator/StanLee and Creator/JimShooter only half-seriously agreed they might be okay with Spider-Man getting married. They decided to get in on and cash in on what many fans, few of whom had kept pace with the regular Spider-Man continuity on which Lee had little direct involvement for more than a decade, saw as Spider-Man's HappyEnding similar to how many fans believed ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'' was Superman's real death, and by others as a welcome change in status-quo that many fans had long gone tired off by then. This decision polarized and split a number of regular and future writers, with some (Roger Stern) opposing it but others welcomed and fully embraced it (J. M. [=DeMatteis=]). At the time, Peter was in a relationship with the Black Cat and he and MJ were friends, after she had returned to the continuity after being PutOnABus for 40 issues (her longest absence), and appearing semi-regularly at the time. This upset long term plans for some writers, but which, according to [=DeMatteis=] also provided ''ComicBook/KravensLastHunt'' an emotional depth and meaning that it would not have otherwise had.

** The original decision to marry Peter and MJ came out of a desire to get in on a huge public event and craze in TheEighties as a result of a spontaneous burst of enthusiasm when Creator/StanLee and Creator/JimShooter only half-seriously agreed they might be okay with Spider-Man getting married. They decided to get in on and cash in on what many fans, few of whom had kept pace with the regular Spider-Man continuity on which Lee had little direct involvement for more than a decade, saw as Spider-Man's HappyEnding similar to how many fans believed ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'' was Superman's real death, and by others as a welcome change in status-quo that many fans had long gone tired off by then. This decision polarized and split a number of regular and future writers, with some (Roger Stern) opposing it but others welcomed and fully embraced it (J. M. [=DeMatteis=]). At the time, MJ had been missing from regular continuity for some 40 issues (her longest absence) and the hoopla over the marriage resulted in her suddenly becoming the center of Peter's world, which upset long term plans for some writers, but which, according to [=DeMatteis=] also provided ''ComicBook/KravensLastHunt'' an emotional depth and meaning that it would not have otherwise had.

** The original decision to marry Peter and MJ came out of a desire to get in on a huge public event and craze in TheEighties as a result of a spontaneous burst of enthusiasm when Creator/StanLee and Creator/JimShooter only half-seriously agreed they might be okay with Spider-Man getting married. They decided to get in on and cash in on what many fans, few of whom had kept pace with the regular Spider-Man continuity on which Lee had little direct involvement for more than a decade, saw as Spider-Man's HappyEnding similar to how many fans believed ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'' was Superman's real death, and by others as a welcome change in status-quo that many fans had long gone tired off by then. This decision polarized and split a number of regular and future writers, with some (Roger Stern) opposing it but others welcomed and fully embraced it (J. M. [=DeMatteis=]). At the time, MJ had been missing from regular continuity for some 40 issues (her longest absence) and the hoopla over the marriage resulted in her suddenly becoming the center of Peter's world after a long absence, which upset long term plans for some writers, but which, according to [=DeMatteis=] also provided ''ComicBook/KravensLastHunt'' an emotional depth and meaning that it would not have otherwise had.

* CreatorsPest: Mary Jane Watson's presence as the title character's wife is often blamed for problems in the book's narrative by editors, despite her immense popularity with fans.
** In the years of the Romita-Lee run, Mary-Jane Watson upset the original plans by Lee and Romita to have her serve as a {{Foil}} to Gwen Stacy, but the latter being Peter's true love. The problem was that Mary-Jane was so popular and charismatic (due to being a warm, funny, and lighthearted character in a time when Peter's superhero life was intense and his social life was demanding) that it made Gwen Stacy look plain. Aspects of MJ's design, namely her hair-style and some of her attitude was transferred to Gwen in an attempt to make fans like her, while storylines dealing with Gwen and her father became prominent. The end result is that it merely reinforced MJ's appeal as someone who had far less baggage while making Gwen a too-serious character for fans to get behind the "romance" and that led to Creator/GerryConway writing ''ComicBook/TheNightGwenStacyDied''.
** The most vocal being Creator/JoeQuesada who was the mastermind behind the infamous ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay'' storyline, and has called MJ "unrealistic" due to being a actress/model married to an EveryMan. A complaint that would make sense had it not been for the ArtEvolution, where Peter evolved from a slightly plain, thin ordinary looking young man in Creator/SteveDitko's run, to a rather handsome and muscular character in John Romita's run (which is the default Peter Parker look in comics since then) and if all of Peter's other love interests and crushes, weren't, as the Chameleon noted "stunningly attractive women".
** Previous attempts to get MJ out of the book included [[ExecutiveMeddling editors demanding]] [[DroppedABridgeOnHim MJ die]] and then when that didn't stick [[PutOnABus that she and Peter be separated]] at the beginning of Creator/JMichaelStraczynski 's run. In large part due to fan demand, the ResetButton was hit on these storylines, and even a version of ComicBook/OneMoreDay was undone by Creator/StanLee in the newspaper comic continuity, where the two are still married and MJ still gets a lot of screen time.

** The original decision to marry Peter and MJ came out of a desire to get in on a huge public event and craze in TheEighties, which both Creator/StanLee and Creator/JimShooter decided to get in on and cash in on what many fans, few of whom had kept pace with the regular Spider-Man continuity on which Lee had little direct involvement for more than a decade. They saw it as Spider-Man's HappyEnding similar to how many fans believed ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'' was Superman's real death and welcome a change in status-quo that many fans had long gone tired off by then. This decision polarized and split a number of regular and future writers, with some (Roger Stern) opposing it but others welcoming it and fully embracing it (J. M. [=DeMatteis=]). At the time, MJ had been missing from regular continuity for some 40 issues (her longest absence) and the hoopla over the marriage resulted in her suddenly becoming the center of Peter's world after a long absence, which upset long term plans for some writers, but which, according to [=DeMatteis=] also provided ''ComicBook/KravensLastHunt'' an emotional depth and meaning that it would not have otherwise had.

** Stan Lee has gone on record as saying that initially he and Romita thought Gwen should be Peter's main girlfriend. Lee has also been open to seeing Spider-Man being married (as he pointed out that it was realistic for a serious committed guy like Peter, as opposed to some ladies' men like Johnny Storm and Iron Man, to want to settle down)[[note]]When Lee was EIC for most of TheSixties, Marvel hadn't imposed ComicBookTime and had real-time aging, and during that time Lee had married couples such as Reed and Sue Richard and Hank and Janet[[/note]]. It's been hinted by Lee and Romita that had Gwen Stacy hadn't been killed off, she might've ended up married to Peter. Some stories, like ''House Of M'', have toyed with this idea. But in either case, Lee who was always open to fan reaction and feedback (and generally quite a hands-off and open-minded editor hence his nonchalant original reaction to Gerry Conway's pitch about killing Gwen) quickly made MJ Peter's love interest and in the newspaper strip made them the only couple, and later had Peter married in his newspaper strip, which entirely unintentionally on his part, led to the marriage in regular continuity anyway.

** Stan Lee has gone on record as saying if Gwen Stacy hadn't been killed off, she might've ended up married to Peter. Some stories, like ''House Of M'', have toyed with this idea. However, readers of earlier comics note that their relationship at the time of her death was rocky. She blamed Spider-Man for the death of her father, George Stacy, and Peter delayed confessing his SecretIdentity to her. The main reason why Creator/GerryConway killed her was that he couldn't find a plausible resolution to their story and he felt that killing her off would make a better story.
** Originally J. Michael Stracyzinski's retcon for ''Brand New Day'' would have dialed the clock to the Romita-Lee-Conway era but before Gwen's death. While Joe Quesada was okay with bringing Gwen back from the dead in Brand New Day, it was decided against because on account of Marvel's SharedUniverse it would have altered the continuity of multiple titles.

* WriterRevolt: In 2000, Howard Mackie and Creator/JohnByrne were ordered to kill off Mary Jane in order to make Peter single again, but they didn't support this decision. Byrne had previously stated he disliked Peter being married on the grounds it aged him, but he pointed out that making him a widower wouldn't make it credible to portray him as the young single guy Marvel so badly wanted him to be. So, when Mary Jane was to be killed off in a mid-air plane explosion, Byrne included an out (a shot of the plane's emergency exit door coming off). As for Mackie, Peter spent the immediate aftermath of this story doubting Mary Jane was dead (on the grounds that DeathIsCheap was so prominent in his life, especially with Norman Osborn and Aunt May then-recent returns). Unsurprisingly, Mary Jane was eventually brought back, which was part of Mackie's final story.

** Spider-Man's marriage to MJ was a result of this. [[http://jimshooter.com/2011/09/three-comic-book-weddings-or-holy.html/ According to]] Creator/JimShooter, the entire wedding was a spur-on-the-moment improvisation when during a joint convention where Stan Lee and then EIC Shooter attended together (Shooter was invited by Lee because the latter wasn't up on happenings in Marvel continuity at the same time and he didn't want to answer questions about current Spider-Man titles), some random fan asked Stan Lee if he planned to have Spider-Man get married in the newspaper strip. Lee turned to Shooter, and being put on the spot, Shooter shrugged and said he would, and on account of the huge cheers in the crowd, both Lee and Shooter immediately hashed a plan for the event which had been picked by the press. This despite the fact that, as Shooter knew well, MJ wasn't even there in the current continuity and had been PutOnABus for a while. Shooter immediately went ahead and got Spider-Man editors and writers to make it coincide with the event, and even when Tom [=DeFalco=] and Ron Frenz came up with a Plan B where MJ stands Peter up, Shooter insisted they go ahead with it, since the die had been cast and the press had made a big deal of it, and he didn't want the publicity and effort gone into promotion to be for nothing.

** Spider-Man's marriage to MJ was a result of this. [[http://jimshooter.com/2011/09/three-comic-book-weddings-or-holy.html/ According to]] Creator/JimShooter, the entire wedding was a spur-on-the-moment improvisation when during a joint convention where Stan Lee and then EIC Shooter attended together (Shooter was invited by Lee because the latter wasn't up on happenings in Marvel continuity at the same time and he didn't want to answer questions about current Spider-Man titles), some random fan asked Stan Lee if he planned to marry Spider-Man in the pages. Lee turned to Shooter, and being put on the spot, Shooter shrugged and they immediately hashed a plan then and there for the event which had been picked by the press, this despite the fact that, as Shooter knew well, MJ wasn't even there in the current continuity for a while. Shooter immediately went ahead and got Spider-Man editors to make it happen to coincide with the event, and even when Tom [=DeFalco=] and Ron Frenz came up with a Plan B where MJ stands Peter up, Shooter insisted they go ahead with it, since the die had been cast and the press already made it happen.

* ExecutiveMeddling: The 1990's Clone Saga, and the ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay'' {{retcon}}. Also, the infamous title reboot of 1999. Because sales had not recovered after the Clone Saga, Marvel decided to reboot the numbering of ''Amazing'' and ''Peter Parker'', while cancelling ''Spectacular'' and ''Sensational''. Howard Mackie was to continue writing ''Peter Parker'', but he also got to take over ''Amazing'' from Tom [=DeFalco=]. Each of the four titles were still working through a year's worth of stories (including Norman Osborn's takeover of ''The Daily Bugle'' and the mysteries of the fifth Green Goblin and new Mad Jack), but that was all abruptly changed, halted, or outright dropped in favor of the "Gather of the Five" and "Final Chapter" storylines to close out the old numbering. Aunt May's return during the latter story and her not knowing Peter's secret were also deliberately mandated by editorial.

* CreatorsFavorite: Jim Starlin did not create Spider-Man, but he's expressed fondness of him and inserts him into most of his cosmic-based stories, even though Spidey is generally considered a "street-level" hero.

* ExecutiveMeddling: The 1990's Clone Saga, and the ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay'' {{retcon}}.
** Also, the infamous title reboot of 1999. Because sales had not recovered after the Clone Saga, Marvel decided to reboot the numbering of ''Amazing'' and ''Peter Parker'', while cancelling ''Spectacular'' and ''Sensational''. Howard Mackie was to continue writing ''Peter Parker'', but he also got to take over ''Amazing'' from Tom [=DeFalco=]. Each of the four titles were still working through a year's worth of stories (including Norman Osborn's takeover of ''The Daily Bugle'' and the mysteries of the fifth Green Goblin and new Mad Jack), but that was all abruptly changed, halted, or outright dropped in favor of the "Gather of the Five" and "Final Chapter" storylines to close out the old numbering. Aunt May's return during the latter story and her not knowing Peter's secret were also deliberately mandated by editorial.

** One of the better examples is the wedding of Mary Jane and Peter Parker, done because Stan Lee wanted to marry them in the daily newspaper comic strip. Of course, that didn't stop Tom Brevoort from claiming that ''One More Day'' was actually a "fix" to this form of "meddling".

** The Green Goblin was originally imagined by Stan Lee as a supernatural villain, a demon trapped inside a Egyptian-like sarcophagus and accidentally freed by a movie crew. Steve Ditko, however, decided to make him a human villain instead. Rumors after Ditko's departure, claimed that he reportedly wanted the Green Goblin to be a StrangerBehindTheMask, but this has been debunked by Ditko and by other researchers who note the {{Foreshadowing}} in the comics about Norman Osborn being a villainous figure, and that the Marvel Method as per Lee's own comments, indicated that Ditko entirely handled the plotting and setup by that time.
** Stan Lee has gone on record as saying if Gwen Stacy hadn't been killed off, most like she would've ended up married to Peter. Some stories, like ''House Of M'', have toyed with this idea. However, readers of earlier comics note that their relationship at the time of her death was rocky. She blamed Spider-Man for the death of her father, George Stacy, and Peter delayed confessing his SecretIdentity to her. The main reason why Creator/GerryConway killed her was that he couldn't find a plausible resolution to their story without CharacterDerailment and he felt that killing her off would make a better story.

** Young Allies offered Anya Corazon a potential chance to shine. It had a cast with the potential to create a very interesting character dynamics, and which Anya shone through as the most down to Earth, and easiest to relate to character. But it was killed by poorly written out enemies, an uninteresting and almost generic story arc, and a refusal by [=Sean McKeever=] to give the team any sort of cohesion in spite of their common purpose and motivations.
*** It really seemed the team was finally coming together by the 5th issue or so, but by then the series was canceled. The Young Allies have been popping up here and there however, most recently in Spider-Island.

* WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants: During Danny Fingeroth's time as editor, he came up with an ongoing plotline of Spider-Man's parents being alive all along (which began in ASM #365 and ended in ASM #388). However, he gave the story to writer David Michelinie, and couldn't or wouldn't tell him where the plotline was going. Fingeroth didn't even know if the parents were real or fake in some way. While the other titles' writers had to step around all this very carefully, the burden was on Michelinie most of all to treat the situation ambiguously until it was finally decided that they were robot spies all along.