What if Gwen had a different initial characterization?
Given Roy Thomas apparently disliked her, keeping the "mean girl" angle might have kept her alive & butterflied the biggest story in Marvel history.


(Or Roy might
still have disliked her enough to want to be rid of her...

IMO, letting her be mean, & by extension him be mean
to her, keeps her alive.)
Stan hinted that if things had gone differently, Peter and Gwen might have gotten married.
My guess is, the only way you can do that is to have another writer on the book. That's not impossible by any means. Anybody care to offer suggestions? (It's been too long since I read anything '70s vintage, even, to be able to say for sure...


) I think Mantlo wouldn't come along til too late. Starlin? (That could produce some deeply weird Spidey.

) Who was doing DD then?
Would getting married to Pete have butterflied her death
It would almost have to, wouldn't it? Because for it to happen, you'd have a different writer behind it. Unless you take my idea & have a mean new writer decide to really screw Pete over & kill her anyhow.




(Or if Thomas does just before he quits, as a shot to the suits for forcing him to marry them.

)
what if she still ended up dying? How would Marvel's most iconic superhero becoming a widower affect things?
That would be an extremely interesting Spidey story.


Except, would it change much from OTL? I don't recall the post-death OTL stories being really filled with grief. (I did read a few of them, way, way back when.

) And it wasn't long, IIRC, before the Spidermobile & Punisher showed up...which weren't really different from what I recall before that.
That said, if they
were married, wouldn't that have put her death off-limits?
Of course, I can just see Roy killing her, only to have a new writer on the book in a year bringing her back, somehow. (I've already had an idea for killing off Lois Lane, & bringing her back--without resorting to the "imaginary story".

)
For that matter, what if she had a baby with Peter before her death? How would Peter suddenly becoming a single father affect his superhero career?
IMO, it was a bit early for the single father angle in '73-4.
His relationship with Mary Jane?
It wouldn't be so different from OTL, would it? She's changed enormously from the flaky MJ of her early appearances (as I recall her, anyhow) to a pretty serious woman. How much of that is from contact with the un-playful Pete, IDK. (I reject the "she always knew Pete was Spidey" line.)
Considering Spider-Man is undoubtedly the flagship Marvel superhero, I think a minor change early on could've had some very big ramifications.
If Gwen lived, & especially if she married Pete, that's far from minor.



That's up there with Sue not marrying Reed.

Come to think of it...that's another POD. WI she didn't?
Or WI one of the others of the FF couldn't change back? Or if Ben always could (did)?

(Canon says he
could, but somehow never figured out
how...)