vbartilucci
asked:
The old rule is there's no bit of character history or continuity that should keep a good story from being told. But I expect most would agree that there are some bits of history and continuity that would require a really REALLY good story to consider undoing. Can you think of (and share, Mr. Nitpicky) an example of a story pitched to you that was really good, but would require too much to be changed in order to be told?

From an article printed in an early issue of MARVEL AGE magazine, here are a few of Roger Stern’s:

http://themarvelageofcomics.tumblr.com/post/63118981327/themarvelwayoflife-stories-id-rather-not

And yes, I know that a few of the stories Roger touches on have been revisited in more recent times.

The one i always remember–and I don’t recall offhand if this is in Roger’s article or not, but I’m pretty sure he’s the one who described the pitch to me, is the notion that Uncle Ben was moonlighting as a fence in order to make ends meet, and he was killed when he and the Burglar had a disagreement over how much Ben was going to pay him for the merchandise the Burglar had brought him. That’s a clever story idea that plays successfully with what we know about all of the characters involved, but its net result is to totally destroy Spider-Man as a series. So, better not to do that.