With the announcement of their upcoming "Heroic Age," Marvel has vowed that after years upon years of Civil Wars, Secret Invasions and Dark Reigns, they're planning on telling stories of "a brighter Marvel Universe" full of "a renewed sense of hope and optimism." This sounds great--after 20+ years, we've about had it with the grittiness--but the question still remains of just what exactly that means.

Could it be that the upcoming "Heroic Age" could be a kinder, gentler Marvel Universe where Spider-Man is driven by his failure to keep Uncle Ben from being sent to a farm down in Florida where he can run around and play all he wants? Probably not, but that didn't stop us from imagining what Marvel's history would've been like if a things were a little lighter:

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