[ZariusTwo]

Originally Posted by WebLurker

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).

I haven't listened to that podcast, but I was aware about Kubert's daughter being the inspiration for Annie. I don't think it's a coincidence that Annie resembles the child Mephisto conjured up in OMD and then they use that as the basis for an out-of-continuity version. Given how Marvel openly admit they like to profit off their customers by intentionally triggering them, Marvel gave Annie that look specifically because it reminds people of what Peter and MJ sacrificed in OMD.

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.

D'oh, shows I'm still learning when it comes to a franchise I've followed for almost all of my existing life, I didn't know that.

.(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.)

That's what sort of happened in 1998 just before the relaunch. Tom DeFalco's last issue of ASM prior to that dealt with a future where a group of archeologists were trying to work out what happened to Spider-Man. Various characters are brought up like Spidey 2099 and Mayday Parker, and they even debate which historians were right about his relationship with MJ, some saying she was killed, some say they divorced, and some said they lived happily together for the rest of their days. I read somewhere Marvel later claimed this story was out-of-continuity also. In this future, MJ becomes very important to the superhero community, and described as the "first lady".

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.

Flashbacks in Mike Costa's Scarlet Spiders mini-series revealed that, yes, all stories would have happened if Peter and MJ had remained married, including Superior. However, in the book, the flashbacks are all to do with a reality where Ben Reily had lived and continued to be Spider-Man where as Peter never regained his powers. Costa said Peter and MJ remained in Portland raising their children, where as Ben was actually able to defeat Doc Ock pretty soundly in his version of Superior and resist his attempts to take over his body.

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.

I was simply referring to things like the letter and the fact MJ has spider-powers.

Speaking of that, the latest bit of promotion for the book came with the cancellation notification e-mail from Marvel yesterday, here's what it read:

Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows:

With great power there must also come -- a great life! Peter Parker and Mary Jane are happily married and have a daughter, and to top it off, the whole family has Spider-Powers! Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows is by writer Gerry Conway and artist Ryan Stegman. Subscribe to read #1, web-slingers!

Conway's Carnage is now officially axed, so his readers really ought to be directed over to RYV instead of Mike Costa's Venom, which seems to be the case per the notification.

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.

A user on scans_daily last year confirmed Slott had told him at conventions he had actually pitched several ideas for Peter and MJ to be married again in the main books, but was constantly turned down, and only got special permission for this because of the reality-warping nature of Secret Wars. Slott also said on CBR that Marvel were very aware a pro-marriage Spider-Man book would sell, so they were not surprised at all.

Interesting that they're actually suggesting that OMD was a bad thing for Spider-Man.

Marvel's Tom Brevoort compared it to "bad medicine that you have to take". They're not proud of OMD, but they still feel it was good for the overall book

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?

Well, as I had said earlier, if he didn't want it to tie into RYV, he wouldn't have left in that bizzare deja vu easter egg in ASM this year.