10 Times Marvel Was Forced To Change Spider-Man
9. Peter Parker Was Meant To Have Kids With Gwen Stacy
Sins Past kicked off with Spider-Man being attacked by two mysterious teenagers with heightened agility and strength, akin to the Wall-crawler himself. After bashing the web-spinning superhero around for a while, the pair reveal they are the son and daughter of Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker.
However, this revelation turned out to only be partly true since we found out later that Norman Osborn was the father, not Spidey. Unsurprisingly, readers went berserk since Gwen was depicted as the type of person who would NEVER betray Peter's trust. Furthermore, Osborn is a psychopathic murderer! This coupling was so non-sensical, it was like it was concocted at the last minute.
Turns out... it was! According to the writer of this story, J. Michael Straczynski, Peter was supposed to be the children's father. However, the Marvel bosses kiboshed this idea, because "that ages Peter". As a result, they encouraged Straczynski to change the identity of the kids' father to Osborn, insisting "the fans will go nuts". Although it was true that readers went crazy by this big reveal, it was not for the reason Marvel intended.