In the mid-1980s, John Marc DeMatteis proposed a Wonder Man limited series involving the latter's half-brother, the Grim Reaper, in which Wonder Man is buried and ultimately crawls out of the grave. Tom DeFalco turned down the proposal. Years later, DeMatteis reworked the scene of a hero coming out of the grave into a Batman story exploring what would happen if the Joker actually killed Batman. According to DeMatteis, it would effectively turn the Joker "sane". When DeMatteis pitched the story to DC, however, it was rejected because it happened to be somewhat similar to "", another Batman story that was in development at the time. DeMatteis then reworked the story to use Hugo Strange in place of the Joker, but this, too, was rejected. Finally, DeMatteis pitched the idea again to Marvel, this time with Spider-Man and a new villain he came up with specifically for the story. Marvel editorial accepted the revised proposal.