Owsley himself said, "I didn't much care for the whimsical tone of "Spectacular Spider-Man", and tried to nudge writer Al Milgrom out of the seat in favor of the brilliant newcomer Peter David... I put Peter David and Rich Buckler on "Spectacular", focusing on stories with a serious, "grown-up" tone and more complex themes." David combined Owsley's idea of killing off Jean DeWolff with story ideas of his own: "I wanted to do a story in which Spider-Man was confronted by a villain who committed crimes so heinous, so appalling, that Spider-Man was pushed to the edge and over. It always struck me as unrealistic how super heroes could turn fights on and off. When you're in a fistfight, adrenaline flows, your heart is thumping. If you knock the guy down and he's not getting up, most times you kick him because you're so pumped and angry. You don't back off and say "Had enough?" Usually someone has to pull you off the guy. I wanted to do that to Spider-Man because I felt it would bring some hard-edged reality to him. I also wanted to do a story underscoring the philosophical differences between Daredevil and Spider-Man... "The Death of Jean DeWolff" incorporated all three stories to varying degrees. This was accomplished when Owsley came over to my house early one evening and stayed until after midnight as we hammered out all the kinks in the story in a marathon, four-issue's-worth head-banging session."