Warning! Spoilers for The Amazing Spider-Man #71 ahead!
The twin children of Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn may be set to make a reappearance in The Amazing Spider-Man soon. Writer Nick Spencer’s run has heavily implied that the oft-maligned storyline One More Day will be addressed and possibly retconned. That story, which is controversial among Spider-Man fans, saw Peter and Mary Jane make a deal with the demon Mephisto that erased their marriage and made them forget that it ever happened. But readers might see a revisiting of Sins Past, a storyline that is even more despised.
Sins Past is a 2004 storyline by writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist Mike Deodato Jr. that appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #509-514. In it, Peter Parker is confronted by two twins, whom he later learns are the children of Gwen Stacy, the result of an affair that she had with Norman Osborn while the two were in Europe before her death. Peter is horrified to learn that she bore two children as a result of this affair, who were then taken away and raised by Norman. Because of the Goblin Formula in their blood, they rapidly aged into adults. They set out to kill Spider-Man after Norman told them that Peter was their real father and was responsible for the death of their mother. After Spider-Man defeats them, they retreat back to Europe. The twins have reappeared a couple times since that story, but it is often regarded as one of the worst storylines in Spider-Man’s history and is often ignored by fans.
In The Amazing Spider-Man #71, written by Spencer with art by Federico Vicentini and Federico Sabbatini, Norman is called to the offices of lawyers who turn out to represent his former business partner, the late Mendel Stromm. They say that Stromm left them instructions to open a safety deposit box and show Norman the contents, insisting that Osborn would know what it means. After the box is revealed to contain a key, readers see Osborn get on a plane and travel to parts unknown. The issue is narrated by Kindred, an alternate universe version of Harry Osborn who wants to punish Spider-Man for his deal with Mephisto in the One More Day story. In his narration, Kindred says, "And you did. Didn't you, Norman? You knew exactly what it meant. It's time to face your sins." The use of the word "sins" raises the possibility that Spencer is making a reference to the Sins Past storyline, and its sequel Sins Remembered.
Past sins have been a major theme in Spencer’s run on The Amazing Spider-Man, which is set to wrap up this fall. There has been a lot of speculation that the story is leading up to a retcon of One More Day that could return Peter and MJ to their wedded state that they were in before their deal with Mephisto. That storyline is one of the most hated among Spider-Man fans, as it erased years of character development in favor of a twist mandated by the Marvel Comics higher-ups, who did not want Spider-Man to be married. Sins Past is perhaps the only story that is more disliked, as readers saw it as a massive betrayal of Gwen Stacy’s character and an attempt to tarnish her legacy for the sake of a cheap twist.
If Spencer is indeed looking to wipe One More Day from the Spider-Man canon, it would make sense that he would also undo Sins Past while he’s at it. The thought of Gwen Stacy cheating on Peter with his worst enemy and Norman Osborn going on to murder the mother of his children has riled fans for more than a decade. If Spencer can make it so that this story never happened, fans will be sure to look back on his run on The Amazing Spider-Man with fondness.
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