This isn’t really a AU as I have no idea where it would go, but I do sometimes wonder “What if Gerry Conway, Stan Lee etc had instead of killing off Gwen hit on the idea of having Harry die of his overdose, therefore covering Conway’s desire to have a shock factor in the comics, Lee’s desire to educate kids about drugs, and the apparent necessity to kill off a main character?”
Would it have been good? Bad? Sensationalist? Embedded in the public conciousness the way Gwen’s death is? No-one will EVER KNOW