[WebLurker]

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

Annie is based off the child Peter and MJ would have had if they had remained married.

Well, I did listed to a Spider-Man podcast that artist Adam Kubert was a guest-star on. He did say on that that he was specifically told to base Annie on the hypothetical future Parker daughter in OMD (although Kubert's own kid was the main model for the character in practice.) However, I don't think that means that Annie has to be the OMD kid (and the fact that Annie was born in a timeframe where none of the Civil War stuff had happened would seem to argue that they're different characters).

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

In One More Day it was never specifically said if she was destined to be the second child they would have had, or if she was the first child they would have had, somehow surviving the miscarriage as had been indicated at the end of the clone saga (and proven accurately in the Spider-Girl era)

I guess.

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

The evidence for the case of it being the second child is that Annie's middle name is "May", when Peter and MJ had both agreed in the Clone Saga that the child's first name would be May, Annie being the first name here indicates Peter and MJ wanted to honour the memory of the first stillborn child but wanting to move on from it at the same time, hence naming her after MJ's aunt Anna.

The Marvel Wiki actually states that MJ's aunt's full name is "Anna May Watson," leading me to guess that Annie was named after her maternal great-aunt, and it was a bonus that it was also gave her the name of her paternal great-aunt/adoptive grandmother.

(For what it's worth, if I recall correctly, Anna Watson acted as an anchor of sorts for her niece during her troubled childhood and played a part in introducing MJ and Peter, so I could buy that the Parkers would consider using the name instead of "May." I actually kind of liked that they went this route, since it seems like most stories involving Peter and MJ as parents usually have the kids named after Peter's aunt and uncle. While there's nothing wrong with that, it is kind of nice to see that MJ's life gets brought forward, too.)

I also think that there's a good argument that, in the RYV universe, at least, Annie was the Parker's only kid; Peter and MJ never talk about having lost a child before, which you'd think would come up given that they're running the risk of losing another. In the first RYV issue, MJ says: "Maybe you should have a talk with [the other superheroes about picking up Spider-Man's beat]. You have a wife and kid now" (my emphasis). Spidey himself tells Iron Man something similar, as if Peter and MJ's marriage and parenthood are both very recent events. If so, that would preclude Annie having an older sister.

Finally, when Peter relives his life in the tank during issue five, we see nothing about a child that was lost, and this includes snapshots of his uncle and aunt's funerals, milestones of how he and MJ met, fell in love, were married, and Annie's birth. If Mayday was born and miscarried (or whatever) in this timeline prior, I'm pretty sure that that would've been shown in the montage (which is specifically said to be made of the most important things that happened to Peter).

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

Another note of interest is there's a story set before OMD where the One Above All visits Peter and shows him a future with MJ and two children called Benjy and Mary (so we now have a daughter named after Peter's mother, or MJ's first name, or likely both), so far nothing has come of that detail. I think this was done specifically to assure people that in some far distant future, the Peter and MJ affected by OMD will reconcile and have these children.

The Marvel Wiki lists this future as an official parallel universe to 616, so I think, from Marvel's perspective, 616 Peter and MJ's futures are up in the air and given the bull-crap that we've been getting, I don't think the current management ever wants them to reconcile. (Even if the rules of Marvel's universe dictate that this future should be the correct one, I'm pretty sure they'll ignore it if the story they want to tell doesn't mesh.)

On the bright side, that future's labeling as a parallel universe (instead of a alternate future that Peter and MJ gave up in OMD), does mean that that the original pre-OMD 616 continuity does have a place where all the stories happened as written and at least one more universe where the Parkers are still a married couple.

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

That's what I'm led to believe based on promotional material so far, but could be wrong.

Any links to those sources? All the ones I've found are either just saying: "RYV is coming" or are upfront that we don't know that much. None of them have asked whether the original miniseries will be part of it or in a separate continuity or given any clues about this topic.

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

I believe he threw that in as a tease for the upcoming series so that it mattered more. When promoting the original series, Axel Alonzo and Slott both said the Secret Wars tie-ins would all matter to the overall master plan for several characters at the company.

I would love know the behind-the-scenes progress for the series. Specifically, was it always intended to give RYV a follow-up, or was it written with the idea of being a standalone, but the popularity made them change their minds. After all, author Dan Slott did go on record that the story was an idea he pitched because he wanted to write it, not something that Marvel asked him to put together.

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

Also keep in mind Marvel have been pushing Mephisto references a lot in Spider-Man appearances in other books, particularly Spider-Man/Deadpool which deals with Peter being haunted by cryptic words from Mephisto about his "greatest fall" and how he will forever feel emptiness.

Interesting that they're actually suggesting that OMD was a bad thing for Spider-Man. It seems like a lot of the actual comics have been going out of their way to insinuate that the marriage was harmful to both characters and Peter being single made his life better, or some bull-crap like that.

It could be that Dan Slott just wants to touch on OMD in some fashion (he does seem to enjoy doing stuff like that) and that it has nothing to do with the RYV series? The original RYV, despite the marketing, really had nothing to do with OMD in and of itself.