the article states fairly clearly that OMD was written (though rewritten towards the end suddenly) and the manifesto was made up and that's about it. So they really didn't, why else has it taken 11 months (or 3 years worth of stories) to start explaining things? Simple answer. They had to make them up and try and make them fit. Remember originally OMD would have been different and Gwen Stacy was supposed to magically come back but that all changed. So things like what happened during the time period, the marriage, everything beyond that, the memory wipe of the planet, etc was a last minute adjustment on what Joey Q wanted without reason or sense. "we don't have to explain it, it's magic". So yeah, beyond what's in the manifesto (and that didn't actually have explainations only the new status quo) they didn't have ANYTHING planned. But I invite you to show a link that says otherwise. My link would be at the beginning thread.
"It's their character and they can do whatever they want... if they felt like he wasn't where they wanted him to be, who the hell are you to think otherwise? If the fans dictated the outcome of Spider-Man's life, he'd still be with Mary Jan... err, no wait a minute, he'd be with the Black Ca... no, uhmmm, he'd be with Gwen Sta... geez, no that's not right... yeah, he'd still be dating Betty Brant... and the Black costume would have never made an appearance... it's not like the fans were bored with the red'n blues... and all Norman Osborn would have never "died" in ASM #122 (neither would Gwen), because it's the "fans" who get the final say on how "Spider-Man" should be handled..."
And it's not just their character to do whatever they want with. They're simply the newest set of writers on the character, they do not represent all of Marvel past, present and future. They didn't create the character, they haven't written him the longest, they're just the new guys. Who the hell are we? We're the fans, we're the customers, we're the guys that defend Peter Parker nerdishly on the internets. That used to mean something, or do you think your own opinion is useless and you yourself are meaningless, just a cog that buys whatever your told without question by the "ones who know best"? If that was true the clone saga would have taken. It didn't because of us meaningless little people deciding to stop buying. Who the hell are we? We're just the ones that will eventually make marvel fix this mess and make spider-man a hero again. With that kind of power, maybe we the fans are the true owners of the character (with the exceptions of Lee and Ditko) as we have the power to void what these "current owners do"
For your examples: If the fans really wanted him to be with Brant or Gwen or Felicia he would be. No one at marvel liked the marriage at first but the fans did, so it stayed. The black costume was temporary like most of his alternate costumes, permenant (such as mystical abortions, liferape, and character rape) is different from temporary (costume changes, small personality changes based on events, etc), no one cares about temporary changes enough to boycott things. Norman didn't actually die in that issue after all. If people wanted Gwen back she would be. Hell Joe wanted her back but was voted down by everyone.
t: 
Whatever. I can't believe Peter went from being a teacher to trying to become a taxi driver. I get it, Peter's supposed to be the "hard-luck" guy but they didnt have to regress him that much.
