Spider-Man: One More Day (Original Review)
Writers: J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada
Artist: Joe Quesada
Quesada not only murders Spidey and MJ's marriage, but he also regresses Spider-Man's character development!!!!
Rating: 1 Star
I hate SPIDER-MAN: ONE MORE DAY... I really do. This is hands down, my most hated comic of all-time! I've hated this thing ever since I first read about it on the Internet, and my anger towards the story and Joe Quesada has only increased since then. But even though I've vowed eternal hatred for Quesada (in a manner similar to Sheldon's hatred of Wil Wheaton from THE BIG BANG THEORY), for having created this atrocity, I've never actually had any genuine experience with the story to back up my disdain for ONE MORE DAY until now.
I will admit that awhile back, I vowed to never read this book as I hated Marvel's decision to erase Peter and MJ's marriage alone (being the die-hard Spidey fan I am of course I did), as I could not comprehend why Marvel would even consider doing this a good idea. Many fans enjoy the marriage, and erasing it was only going to anger them. That being said, I wrote a negative review on this book about two years ago, which I now regret, as I had not actually read this back then. Now that I finally have read it (as well as gained more experience as a reviewer) I now have valid reasons to say why I HATE THIS BOOK MORE THAN EVER!!! Before I rip this comic a new one, I should at least address the few positives it has. Although the plot is heavily contrived, JMS's writing isn't awful (his run on Spider-Man is one of my favorites for the character) and he at least tries to create a good story (I don't blame him for this book at all). The artwork does work well with the story at times, but Quesada isn't that great with drawing character faces in my opinion (I think his talents truly lie in cover art, as they were awesome in WOLVERINE ORIGIN), and the covers really are beautiful to look at. However, none of these elements are enough to save this garbage, and all of its major flaws make this book awful and unsatisfying, WHICH I WILL NEVER FORGIVE JOE QUESADA AND MARVEL FOR!!!
ONE MORE DAY is set as the conclusion to JMS's seven year run on THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, AND immediately follows the events of the CIVIL WAR and BACK IN BLACK arcs. In CIVIL WAR, Peter Parker revealed his identity to the world in order to support the superhuman registration act, but when he went against the act, he and his loved ones, Mary Jane and Aunt May became fugitives on the run. The unmasking eventually led to the BACK IN BLACK story arc, where the Kingpin orders a hit on Parker and his family, and while Peter is able to dodge the assassin's bullet, it hits Aunt May instead. This causes Spidey to redon the black suit, and threaten the Kingpin with death should his aunt die. Both these story lines were not only sensational on their own, but also made Peter's dilemma more complicated and captivating. Instead of allowing JMS to provide an astonishing conclusion to these events, Quesada and the Marvel editorial staff decided to kick Spidey fans in the groin with ONE MORE DAY. After illegally transporting Aunt May to an affordable hospital in BACK IN BLACK, Peter is now desperately seeking a way to save May from dying, despite everyone around him telling him it's impossible. Unable to receive help from either Tony Stark (which was the only part of the story that has a reason to exist, as Iron Man was the one who convinced him to reveal his identity to the public) or Doctor Strange, Spider-Man is approached by the demon Mephisto, who claims to be the only being capable of preventing May's death. Normally, when Mephisto makes pacts with noble souls, he usually requires their astral spirit as payment (the most famous example being Ghost Rider); but instead, he desires Peter's marriage to Mary Jane. After spending a final twenty four hours together, Peter and MJ agree to Mephisto's terms, saving Aunt May, and removing the marriage (and twenty years worth of stories), from Spidey's history, effectively regressing him back to the point before the marriage took place. In my opinion, the events of the previous stories left several potential conclusions, and ONE MORE DAY leaves an extremely unsatisfying and rushed ending to several previous story arcs (and by extension JMS's astonishing run on Spider-Man and the past twenty years of Spider-Man's marriage).
There are numerous components about this story that make it the most insulting comic I have ever read in my entire life! The first problem is obviously the decision to erase Peter and Mary Jane's marriage from the continuity. Like many others, I believe the marriage is an important part of Spider-Man's universe, as it not only produced one of the few long-lasting romances in comics, but also matured Peter's character. While still undertaking his crime fighting duties, he was given new responsibilities as a husband. Not only would he be forced to devote a large portion of his time to his wife, but also it made MJ more vulnerable to Peter's enemies. Despite all of the hardships they face, the two always endured as a couple, and their relationship became one of the cornerstones of Spidey's world. Removing this vital aspect of Spider-Man's world not only destroys a large portion of Spidey's appeal among fans, but also regresses the evolution of his character that the marriage provided, which is the next problem I have with this book. If there is one thing I enjoy in literature, it's the development and evolution of characters. All people who love literature enjoy to see the story's characters develop through their experiences and relationships in the course of a plot, and for me, comics are unique in this aspect. In an ordinary novel, readers are only able to experience the development of characters through a short span of pages, but in comics, the evolutionary process is ongoing. Characters can evolve throughout the decades of their publication, and different writers and artists can add their own unique innovations that develop them further. Spider-Man has been undergoing heavy development a character since he was married back in the 80's, and JMS's run introduced many turning points in Spidey's life (including his new powers, Aunt May discovering Peter's identity, the mystical origins of the radioactive spider, his unbreakable bond with MJ, the unmasking, and May's gunshot wound). Despite fans enjoying the new themes added into the wall crawler's universe, Marvel believed that the marriage was over-complicating Spidey's life, and that it was too difficult to manage writing, so with ONE MORE DAY, all of the evolution Spidey has endured was erased, regressing his character to how he was before the marriage. Regression of character development by itself goes against what makes books enjoyable. Character development is what makes a book engrossing and intelligent, giving it's cast dimension, but by abruptly reversing this process it removes core elements of the character's appeal, which is insulting to the time the reader spent with the story. I HATE THIS COMIC! I HATE IT! I HATE IT! I... (Several hours later after receiving psychiatric help)... sorry about that, but this comic just angers me to my core every time I even think about it.
The most glaring problems with ONE MORE DAY in my opinion however, are the reasons why Marvel editorial staff and Joe Quesada created this abomination. The Marvel editorial staff explained that they wanted to make Spider-Man accessible to new readers, and that younger audiences couldn't relate to the marriage... BUUUULLLLLCRRRRAAAAPPPPPP!!!! That logic is utter garbage as many fans (myself included) grew up with Spidey's marriage, and even if you couldn't relate to Spidey being married, that doesn't mean that you couldn't enjoy it or find it compelling. I loved the marriage when I was a kid in the third grade as it led to so many possible roads of character and story progression for both Peter and MJ. Also, if new readers aren't interested in a married Spider-Man, then they could read the story lines set in either the Ultimate Marvel universe or Marvel Adventures universe, or simply pick up a guidebook if they want to avoid the long continuity of the mainstream universe. This is a prime example of absolute laziness! While Marvel claimed that married life doesn't make compelling drama, the truth is that they were unwilling to devote their time and effort towards keeping the marriage intact, and by erasing it, they not only devolve Peter Parker, but also establish a new continuity that is bland and insulting to long-time readers.
But even more deserving of scorn than the Marvel editorial staff is Joe Quesada, who was the true mastermind behind ONE MORE DAY. Quesada has been open about his dislike for the marriage, not only claiming the marriage itself was a marketing ploy, but has stated that he preferred Peter when he was involved in situations like love triangles during his days in as a nerdy high school student, and created ONE MORE DAY to bring Peter back to that status quo. While Quesada's statements do apply to the early Spider-Man comics, he fails to understand that Peter has become an adult now, and has since moved on from the dilemmas of high school. His marriage was a reflection of that as the teens who have been following Spider-Man since he first debuted have now grown up, gotten married, started families, and have lost loved ones. If anything, the marriage kept true to Peter's ability to relate to readers on a personal level, as his experiences were the same as the readers who grew up with him. Being selfish jerk that cared only about what he wanted however, Quesada erased Spider-Man and MJ's romance in order to make the character's mythos fit his own vision. This is absolutely insulting to a writer's audience, as he intentionally ignored what the readers wanted in order to write he preferred, angering fans in the process. As I read Peter and MJ's final moments as husband and wife in OMD, I wasn't seeing a tragic separation of two lovers, but rather an Editor-in-Chief giving the middle finger to the characters and their fan base, caring only about what he wanted and not the readers (WITH THIS STORY JOE QUESADA, YOU HAVE DEEMED YOURSELF AS MY MORTAL ENEMY)!!!
SPIDER-MAN: ONE MORE DAY fails on more levels than one. Not only does it erase Spider-Man and MJ's marriage from continuity, but it also removes a vital aspect of the character's appeal, and regresses the character development that Peter has undergone in the past twenty years. It also shows contempt, laziness, and ignorance among the Marvel editorial staff and Joe Quesada as they were unwilling to devote their time towards writing about marriage, purposefully ignored what fans loved about Spider-Man, and were blind to how those fans related to the character. What a load of garbage! This not only brings JMS's run on Spider-Man, but the past twenty years of Spider-Man comics, to an unsatisfying end. JMS himself has openly stated that the entire storyline was an editorial mandate, and that he was against splitting Peter and MJ apart, as he loved writing them as a married couple. This provides further evidence that Quesada and the Marvel editorial staff were being selfish. I have nothing but sympathy for JMS and will give him credit for doing his best to make the story less painful. Unfortunately is not enough to overshadow Quesada's awful plotting and editorial interference. The decisions made by Joe Quesada and Marvel editorial are insulting to the fans, literature, comics, movies, TV shows, video games, or any form of media that involves character development. Heck, the entire book is a humongous middle finger to both fans of Spider-Man, and what makes literature good. In one swift move, Marvel miraculously transformed into the bully Nelson from THE SIMPSONS, and had only one thing to say to Spider-Man fans:
"HA HA!"
