Spider-Man: One More Day
Writers: J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada
Artist: Joe Quesada
ONE MORE DAY is the definition of a story that gets worse and worse the more you think about it...
Rating: 1 Star
Ever since I started reviewing comics, there has been one single book that I have shown more hatred and contempt for than any other... SPIDER-MAN: ONE MORE DAY… For those who are unaware, SPIDER-MAN: ONE MORE DAY is widely regarded as one of the worst Spider-Man stories ever published, with the controversy surrounding it rivaling even that of THE CLONE SAGA (though having read the entirety of the saga myself for my CLONE MADNESS series, that story was CITIZEN KAINE compared to this abomination). The story serves as the conclusion to J. Michael Straczynski’s, or JMS’s, run on AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, where following the events of CIVIL WAR, Peter Parker has publicly revealed his secret identity to the entire is now a wanted fugitive, and the Kingpin hired an assassin to eliminate Peter, but Aunt May was hit instead. The plot focuses on Peter desperately searching for a way to save May from dying, as he seeks help from various members of the superhero community, including Iron Man and Doctor Strange, who state that Aunt May is beyond saving. When all hope appears to be lost, Peter is suddenly approached by the Mephisto (who’s basically the Marvel Universe’s equivalent to the Devil), who claims to be the only being capable of preventing May's death. Instead of offering to save May’s life in exchange for Peter’s soul, Mephisto instead desires to erase Peter and MJ’s marriage from existence. After spending one more day together, Peter and MJ agree to Mephisto’s terms, saving May’s life, and altering the time line (and basically the twenty years’ worth of Spider-Man comics) to where Peter and MJ never got married. This was a story that was immediately criticized by both fans and critics upon its initial release, and I myself have I’ve already written two reviews over this monstrosity. Despite that fact, I have been personally unsatisfied with both of my previous reviews, as I feel neither provide a coherent or satisfying analysis of the book’s problems. My very first review ONE MORE DAY (which was also the very first comic review I ever wrote) is one that I deeply regret making to this day, as I had not actually read the story back then, but just a plot summary of it on Wikipedia. As a critic, this was very unprofessional and inexcusable, as my arguments lacked credibility since I had no genuine evidence to back them up. A couple of years later, I rewrote my review of ONE MORE DAY after having actually read the story by then, and was able to provide legitimate criticisms. While my second review was not without merit, as it did address my biggest problems with the book, it also suffered from severe problems as I let my anger get the better of me while I was writing it. Therefore, the review came across as less of a mature and critical analysis, and more as a rant and tirade towards ONE MORE DAY and Joe Quesada, the former Editor-in-Chief of Marvel who spearheaded the project. However, since writing both reviews, I have gained much more experience as a critic, and feel that it is necessary for me correct my past mistakes. As such, I feel it is necessary for me to critique ONE MORE DAY one last time, and in a less biased and calmer manner. Some people might think its unnecessary for me to review this story for a third time, as both of my previous reviews clearly stated my main problems with the book: that I found the decision to erase Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage from continuity to be incredibly insulting to me as a Spider-Man fan as it regressed Peter’s character development, and was an editorial mandate enforced by Joe Quesada and Marvel Editorial, who deliberately ignored the wishes of the fans for their own selfish purposes. While it is true that those were my initial and only problems with ONE MORE DAY, and are still the biggest ones in my opinion, felt obligated to reread the book when I recently read the entirety of JMS’s run on Spider-Man, which ended with OMD. After having read the book for a second time (as well as having watched Linkara’s review of it that he did for his 200th episode), I discovered that OMD has far more problems than I initially realized. On top of editorial greed, the retcon of Spider-Man’s marriage, and the insulting of the intelligence of both Spider-Man fans and readers of comics and escapist fiction, ONE MORE DAY is also plagued by awful narrative structure, plot contrivances, and out-of-character behavior. Aside from redeeming my past mistakes, this is another major reason as to why I’m reviewing OMD again, as it’s the definition of a story that continuously gets worse the more you think about it. Basically, you fail to to notice the majority of the book’s narrative flaws because you are distracted by other more glaring problems that are more offensive on a personal level. As such, I’ll feel that should address all of OMD’s narrative failings before I discuss issues that personally offend me. I should also mention that none of my criticisms will be directed towards the book’s writer, JMS, as he has publicly stated that he did not want to write the comic in the first place, but that he was forced to by Marvel Editorial. In addition, JMS has also stated that he loved writing Peter and MJ as a married couple during his run on the book, and even threatened to take his name off the final issue of OMD in protest. As such, I hold no ill-will towards JMS and don’t blame him at all for his involvement in the book’s creation (plus, I really loved the rest his work on AMAZING SPIDER-MAN…), and will be associating the majority of OMD’s problems with Joe Quesada and Marvel Editorial, as they conceived the premise and have been incredibly biased towards Peter and MJ’s marriage since its inception back in the 1980s. With all that out of the way, it’s finally time to go into all the reasons why ONE MORE DAY is such a monumental failure of galactic proportions! One of the less apparent, yet serious problems with ONE MORE DAY is that the plot is poorly structured and loaded with unnecessary filler. As I previously stated, the premise of the comic is that Peter and Mary Jane sacrifice their marriage in order to save Aunt May’s life by making a deal with the Devil. Because of this, one would think that the majority of the plot was focused on Peter and MJ, exploring the depth of their relationship and why they’re prepared to give it up in order to save Aunt May. Unfortunately, that is not the case as the deal with Mephisto ultimately doesn’t come in until more than halfway through the story. OMD is a four-issue story arc, and three of those four issues contribute nothing to the overall plot. This is particularly evident with the first two issues of the story, as they focus on Peter begging other superheroes to help save Aunt May, and they tell Peter that there’s nothing they can do before Peter leaves to find help from someone else. This is a major problem as both issues end exactly where they began, with May dying and Peter continuing to beg other superheroes for help. As such, neither chapters do anything advance the overall plot of the book, and provide nothing new to contribute, therefore coming across as unnecessary padding. Issue three commits similar sins by having the majority of it dedicated to Peter coming across alternate versions of himself who are only there to point out the various ways in which Peter’s life could have gone in a different direction, and it’s only at the very end of this issue that Mephisto finally shows up and makes his offer to Peter and MJ to save May’s life in exchange for their marriage. Essentially nearly three-fourths of OMD’s plot is completely wasted on Peter whining and begging for help, as well as meeting parallel versions of himself for no adequate purpose. Because of this, deal with Mephisto lacks sufficient build-up and comes completely out of left-field, as Quesada fails to provide insight into why Peter and MJ are willing to sacrifice their love and happiness for each other in order to save Aunt May, whose already an old woman likely to die of natural causes in the near future. This causes Peter and MJ’s dilemma to lack of any real tension or conflict, as the reader is not given any emotional connection or reasoning as to why Peter’s unwilling to let go of Aunt May, other than him constantly whining about how May’s death would be his fault due to publically unmasking. In my opinion, if OMD wanted to be an effective story about a couple giving up their love in order to save someone else, it should have focused its time on analyzing the importance of Peter’s relationship to Mary Jane, compare and contrast it with his relationship to Aunt May, explain what they each person means to him on an emotional level, and why he’s willing to let go of one in exchange for the other. This would not only have provided genuine emotional depth to the story, but also would given better build-up and development to the erasing of the marriage. It wouldn’t necessarily have saved OMD as I still hate the premise, but would have made it feel less forced in my eyes. However, because Quesada and Marvel editorial decided to waste the reader’s time with unnecessary filler, the central conflict of OMD lacks emotional weight due to poor pacing and narrative structure, and feels rushed and shoe-horned in at the last minute, making an already insulting premise even worse. In relation to the poor narrative structure, OMD also relies heavily on illogical contrivances and inconsistencies in order to advance the plot. Basically, OMD falls into the category of an “idiot plot,” which to quote the late Roger Ebert, is “any plot containing problems that would be solved instantly if all the characters were not idiots.” All throughout OMD, each of the characters make stupid decisions in order for the plot to advance, while completely ignoring obvious and more logical solutions in front of them. This is most evident in the fact that apparently no one in the Marvel Universe is capable saving Aunt May from a bullet wound in the chest. All throughout the story, Spider-Man visits various characters for assistance, such as Iron Man and Doctor Strange, and each of them state that they cannot help. This makes absolutely no sense as not only does Marvel Universe house technology far more advanced than that of the real-world, but it’s also inhabited by superheroes who have fixed much worse problems than a simple bullet wound. For instance, Doctor Strange is the Sorcerer Supreme, one of the most highly skilled magic users in the world, as well as a well-renowned surgeon. He should be perfectly capable of healing a simple bullet wound, but instead the writers have Strange idiotically reason that he can’t do it because of the damaged nerve endings in his hands. As Linkara perfectly stated in his review, Strange could easily get around this problem by creating magic hands to operate on May, or have him consult and advise other doctors performing the procedure. But instead, Quesada decides to ignore a fairly simple solution to the problem and make the situation ludicrously hopeless for no logical reason, which is further illustrated by Strange later sending multiple astral projections of Peter across the world in order to ask for aid from other superheroes and villains, including Mr. Fantastic, Beast of the X-Men, Black Panther, and Doctor Doom, and they too are incapable of helping. This is undoubtedly one of the laziest plot contrivances I’ve ever seen as it only serves to make the situation more hopeless than it needs to be. While I can understand someone like Beast being incapable of helping Spider-Man due to other crap going on in the X-Men books at the time, it makes no sense that the Black Panther can’t help as he rules a country that has the most advanced medical technology on the planet, and Doctor Doom stated previously in during JMS’s run on AMAZING SPIDER-MAN that he owed Spider-Man a debt for saving his life, and could easily save May by allowing Peter to borrow his time machine in order to prevent the assassin’s bullet from hitting her, or could transplant her brain into a Doombot or something. Speaking of Doctor Doom, Quesada also ignores other alternative solutions for saving Aunt May that are made possible due to previously established continuity. For instance, in the 1960s SILVER SURFER series, a young woman was nearly killed by aliens wielding highly advanced laser-guns (which would likely cause more damage the high-powered sniper rifle that May was shot with) and the Surfer was able to heal her using the power of the near-infinite cosmos. Based on that information, why didn't Spidey find a way to contact the Silver Surfer, especially considering that Peter is friends with the Fantastic Four, who are closely affiliated with the Surfer? Or why not have him go to the X-Men and have them contact the alien Shi'ar race, who once saved Professor Xavier from a near death experience by transplanting his brain into a cloned body. The comic never bothers to mention these possibilities? Because of how many alternative options there are to saving May’s life, this makes the deal with the Devil incredibly ill-conceived, as it could have easily been avoided, and is only there because Quesada deliberately and lazily ignored those aforementioned solutions in order to move the plot in the direction he desired. This is one of the worst sins a writer can commit as it removes all intelligence and depth from characters, reducing them into idiotic puppets whose actions are dictated by whatever the plot wants them to do. Overall, OMD suffers heavily from “idiot plot syndrome” as it relies on lazy and moronic contrivances in order to advance the plot, while completely ignoring solutions made possible based on previously established continuity. The final flaw that I noticed upon rereading OMD was how heavily out-of-character Peter Parker was in the story, especially in comparison to the rest of JMS's run. Throughout the comic, Peter continuously whines and complains about how the whole situation is his fault, and refuses to simply accept May’s death. While I can understand being upset over a family member dying (as that’s perfectly natural), I am unable to sympathize with Peter as not only does his whining get really irritating very quickly, but it also doesn’t make sense from a character perspective. Peter says that he can’t accept May dying as she took the bullet intended for him, but that he would be fine if she were simply dying of natural causes. Not only is that just stupid (dead is dead Peter…), but it’s very clear that Quesada was attempting to recreate the guilt that Peter felt for being indirectly responsible for Uncle Ben’s death, but it massively fails here. See earlier in JMS’s run, Aunt May had discovered Peter’s secret identity, and when Peter confessed how he felt responsible for Ben’s death, May revealed that she felt the same way, as she and Ben had an argument that led to Ben walking outside where he was shot by the burglar. Upon learning this Peter felt a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders, as not only did he and May share similar guilt, but May held no-ill will towards Peter afterwards. Essentially, Peter should have been absolved of his guilt over Uncle Ben after this, and his moping over May’s bullet wound contradicts the aforementioned character development. This correlates with my next problem concerning Peter’s behavior in OMD, as his whining and selfishness completely contradicts the maturity that he expressed earlier during JMS’s run. Throughout JMS’s stories, Peter came across as a mature adult as he not only perfectly balanced his normal and superhero lives, but he also took a teaching job at his old and financially run-down high school in order help young adolescents who were once in his shoes, confided all of his secrets to MJ and May, and showed leniency towards confused individuals drawn into crime. Conversely, Peter comes across like an immature man-child in OMD as he not only whines about how no one can understand his pain, but he also neglects to listen to anyone who would bring up the very real possibility of May dying, completely ignoring them. However, the biggest out-of-character moment for Peter in OMD is his willingness to make a deal with the Devil (and before anyone tries to tell me that Mephisto technically isn’t the devil, he’s still a demonic entity who makes offers in exchange for people’s souls and resides in a Hell-like dimension; not to mention the fact that Mephisto’s name is a reference to Mephistopheles, the demon from a German legend to whom Faust sold his soul to). In all of the years since Stan Lee and Steve Ditko first created Spider-Man in 1962, this has undoubtedly been the biggest slap in the face ever given to Peter’s character as it completely goes against what he stands for. Peter’s has always upheld the belief that “with great power comes great responsibility,” as it expresses the idea that those who have power should use it wisely, and abuse of said power is irresponsible. By having Peter make a deal with a Satan-like figure, he is essentially ignoring his moral principles and using power for his own selfish-gain, which betrays both the core-concept of the character and the beliefs that his aunt and uncle raised him to uphold. In my opinion, if the writers wanted to have Peter save May he should have done so in a manner that reflected the character's sense of responsibility. For instance, he could have offered to turn himself in to the authorities under the condition that May received medical treatment, or he could have asked Dr. Doom to repay the aforementioned debt he owed Spider-Man, making sure that the former stayed true to his word. And if he couldn't save May, Peter should have taken up responsibility by simply accepting May's death (which he had previously done when she supposedly died during THE CLONE SAGA). But instead, Joe Quesada decided to have Peter make a deal with the Devil, which is undoubtedly one of the most irresponsible actions imaginable. This comic literally gives the phrase, “character assassination” a whole new meaning… Now that I’ve discussed ONE MORE DAY’s other problems, it’s finally time for me to elaborate on the elements about this comic that anger me on a personal level. Ever since the beginning, I’ve made it perfectly clear that my greatest problem with OMD was that it erased Peter Parker and Mary Jane’s marriage from existence. From a purely technical standpoint, OMD is basically a massive retcon, as it states that Peter and MJ never got married in previous issues, and will continue to remain unmarried in later issues. This offends me for a variety of reasons. To start off with, removing the marriage from Peter’s life removes one of the most important elements of the Spider-Man books: the character’s ability to relate to the reader. Joe Quesada has stated on numerous occasions that he disliked the marriage as it aged Peter’s character and made it difficult for teenagers to relate to him. I still find this reasoning to be complete bullcrap, as while yes, Peter was originally intended to appeal to a teenage audience (hence why he was still in high school when he first debuted), Quesada fails to understand that those teenage readers eventually grow up. Like Peter, they too get married, deal with financial concerns, have families, and lose loved ones. Essentially, having Spider-Man marry MJ allows him to grow up alongside the readers, therefore making him more relatable. By wiping the marriage from Peter’s history, Quesada is essentially removing the essence of what makes his character appealing. Another problem I have with the retcon from a personal standpoint is that I have been a huge fan of Peter and MJ as a married couple since I was a little kid. I’ve always found their relationship to be extremely compelling, as the two shared terrific chemistry, were both highly fleshed-out characters in their own right, and had so many heart-warming moments together that just provided me a happy feeling whenever I read them. To see those beautiful moments taken away from me and then be told that they never happened is not only incredibly insulting, but also disappointing. This correlates with my next major problem, which is the fact that retconning the marriage essentially regresses Peter’s character development over the past twenty years. I went into great discussion over this in my previous review of OMD, so I’ll keep it brief here. Basically, I’ve always felt that the marriage further fleshed out Spider-Man as a character, as he felt more mature afterwards, having to deal with the complications of the adult world, and had a deeper and intimate relationship with MJ. The marriage also also widened the scope of his responsibilities, as he not only had obligations towards MJ as a husband, but also had to be more careful as Spider-Man. Since OMD is now saying that Peter never got married, his character has essentially been regressed to where he was before the marriage. As a fan of literature, undermining character development is inexcusable. The final major problem I have with Quesada retconning the marriage is that it doesn’t the idea of Peter and MJ would sell their marriage to the Devil doesn't make sense from a character perspective. Not only is May likely to soon die of natural causes, but Peter should not be putting his feelings for his aunt over those for his wife. As Linkara perfectly summarized in his review, “marriage raises the stakes in the relationship. It’s bigger than just that guy or girl [you’re] romantically affiliated with. You are saying that you want to spend the rest of your life with this person. They have become your family.” Peter should not be willing to give up his love for MJ, as by marrying her, she has become his soul-mate, the person whom he cares about the most. This is further supported in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #50 (VOL. 2) from JMS’s run, where Peter confessed to MJ that he is able to do what he does as Spider-Man because of her, that it’s her that gives him strength, that life would be more difficult without her, and that he needs her in his life and not the other way around. Overall. if Peter and MJ's love for each other was supposed to be this powerful, then the idea that would sacrifice it for Peter’s aunt is entirely implausible. However, despite all my complaints about the horrible narrative structure, plot contrivances, out-of-character behavior, and even the retconning of the marriage, I believe that the biggest sin committed by ONE MORE DAY at the end of the day is the amount of editorial greed and cynicism surrounding the project. As I previously stated, the decision to undo Peter and MJ’s marriage was not a decision of the writer JMS, but rather an editorial mandate that was enforced upon him. Joe Quesada was a strong vocal opponent towards the marriage ever since its inception in the 1980s, and wanted to get rid of it from the Spider-Man books, even though there were a lot of fans who enjoyed the marriage, and JMS had been further developing Peter and MJ’s relationship during his seven-year run on the book. Essentially ONE MORE DAY was created because of the selfish interests of a single editor-in-chief, who willingly ignored the wishes of both the fans the then-current writer of Spider-Man, and enforced his own idea of what the story should be despite it going against the past twenty-years of Spider-Man’s history. This heavily angers me, as not only does it reinforce the terrible idea that editors should dictate a story’s direction rather than the actual writers, but it also shows a clear sign of contempt towards the audience as well. The layers of insult towards Spider-Man’s fanbase are clearly apparent in OMD, as by retconning the marriage and saying it never happened, Quesada is basically telling the fans, “say, you guys like Spidey being happily married? WELL SCREW YOU, YOU CAN’T HAVE IT! NOW READ WHAT I WANT YOU TO READ INSTEAD!” This is unforgivable in my eyes, as I feel comic book writers and publishers should owe a bit more respect to their readers, as they’re the source of the company’s profit, which is more likely to be gained when the customers are satisfied. By refusing to listen to the wishes of the readers, Quesada is not only insulting the audience’s intelligence, but also the very people who buy and pay money for the books Marvel creates. In addition, layers of contempt also seem to extend to comic book readers as a whole, and not just Spider-Man fans. This is particularly evident in a scene from the third issue of OMD, where Peter encounters an alternate version of himself whose an overweight video game designer, who states, "You know why guys like me get into games like that? Because there's something missing… because things didn't plan out like they were supposed to. So we go someplace else.” If you didn’t already notice, this is clearly meant to be a metaphor for comic book readers, saying that they only enjoy escapist fiction because they’re losers who are unsatisfied with their lives. That is, without a doubt undoubtedly one of the most insulting statements towards comic book fans I have ever read in my entire life. Not only is it hypocritical for a comic book of all things to be criticizing people for enjoying escapist fiction (which comics are clearly a part of), but the sheer audacity that someone at Marvel would shame their customers by telling them, “You buy our crap because you're a loser, so keep buying our crap, loser!” is purely disgusting and offensive to me as a person who has been collecting and reading comics since the third grade! Even disregarding the deal with the Devil and the retcon of the marriage, the highly insulting statements made by ONE MORE DAY alone are deserving of all the hate and scorn this book has received. After having analyzed and discussed every single one of the comic's numerous problems, I feel safe in my maintaining judgement of SPIDER-MAN: ONE MORE DAY as my hated comic book of all-time. While I freely acknowledge that other comics like Frank Miller’s HOLY TERROR, the entirety of Chuck Austen’s run on UNCANNY X-MEN, and even AVENGERS #200 are worse from an objective standpoint, I still hate OMD more as this is the only comic I have ever read that has managed to offend me personally. On top of retconning the marriage of Peter Parker and Mary Jane, ONE MORE DAY is not only plagued with terrible story structure and pacing, plot contrivances and continuity errors, out-of-character behavior concerning Peter, and editorial greed, but it also goes as far as to insult the intelligence of both Spider-Man fans and comic book readers in general. Never before have I ever seen a comic with so much cynicism, contempt, and laziness surrounding it. It is the defenition of a book that gets worse and worse the more you stop and think about it. Say what you will about THE CLONE SAGA, but it at least had genuine effort put into it, as the writers were trying to tell a good story that remained true to Peter Parker’s character and mythos despite the saga's narrative shortcomings. ONE MORE DAY on the other hand, shows not even the slightest attempt of effort, and serves as a colossal middle finger towards Spider-Man’s entire mythos and the people who read him. It is undeniably the worst Spider-Man comic ever created, and I can't possibly imagine someone coming up with a worse conceivable story for the wall crawler... “Contempt for happiness is usually contempt for other people's happiness, and is an elegant disguise for hatred of the human race.” -Bertrand Russell
