Sins Past is one of the most unjustifiably reviled tales in Spider-Man’s history.
Mostly because Norman Osborn is yucky.
Big picture: Gwen Stacy had a sexual relationship with Norman Osborn, who got her pregnant. She delivered twins named Gabriel and Sarah who, thanks to Norman’s “Goblin modified” DNA, aged quickly.
The twins were raised to believe that Peter Parker, not Norman Osborn, was both their father and Gwen’s killer. Trained as assassins from birth, “Sins Past” is where they get activated. We first see them when Peter is visiting their mother’s grave.
At their second fight, Spider-Man unmasks Sarah.
In the big finale, Spidey confronts the twins at the George Washington Bridge. Spidey tries to resolve their differences by telling them the truth and Sarah seems to believe it, but the police shoot the kids anyway.
Sarah is wounded and falls off the bridge, and Spider-Man saves her.
Gabriel escapes.
Gabriel then injects himself with Green Goblin Formula and becomes “The Gray Goblin.”
He attacks Spider-Man while he is at Sarah’s hospital bedside, and Sarah is able to shoot her brother’s goblin glider. Gray Goblin crashes and it looks like he’s dead but…Both characters will appear again.
People hate that this tainted the “perfect love” memory of Gwen Stacy–she had an affair behind Pete’s back with the freakin’ Green Goblin! And yes, it is disappointing that she is forever changed in the annals of fandom. But overall, this is a solid story with lots of great twists, and I like it. I admit, though, it could have been just as good without Gwen being the parents of two kids raised to hate Spider-Man.
Of course Mary Jane and Peter’s relationship is affected by all this.
In the end, though, we see Peter let go of his idealized memory of Gwen and embrace the (smoking hot and super cool) Mary Jane…
But also…MJ finally gets a solid acting role!
Its not just gross its stupid too and nothing is gained from it. Magic growing ninja twins is pretty stupid. Like clone saga level stupid. Anyway all retconned accept for Peter and Gwen never having sex…unless you want to read it as Peter never barebacked with Gwen I guess. Which I never thought about until this story made me. Bad. Dumb.