One More Day, one year later

So, it's been about a year since the most villified storyline of all time (most likely) began, "One More Day". Basically, it was a storyline designed to undo the last twenty years of Spider-man's history, through a satanic bargain with Mephisto. During the Civil War, Spider-man unveiled his identity to the world. This in turn led to Kingpin putting out a hit on Peter Parker and his family. Aunt May gets shot, slips into a coma, and apparently, no one can save her. Enter Mephisto, who offers to save Aunt May's life in exchange for his marriage to Mary-Jane. They do it, and voila! Pete and MJ are no longer married and indeed, were NEVER married, so God only knows how the past twenty years have now unfolded, but that's a story for another day.

When it first came out, I was deeply opposed to it for a variety of reasons. One, it was just a really bad story. The art, by Joe Quesada, was just atrocious. Nearly Frank Miller-levels of badness. Everyone looked old and decrepit, but he claimed it was to show how "aged" marriage had made Peter Parker. Uh huh. Whatever. It just looked terrible. The story itself was even worse. The story was riddled with plot holes. Reed Richards can't help Aunt May. A gunshot victim in a coma can't be saved by a guy who can make his own universe? Ooooook. Then Mephisto shows up, and he wants Spidey's marriage? Since when does he work that way? He's always been in the business of souls. Now he's in the business of marriages? Well, I suppose being a divorce lawyer DOES pay more than being the Lord of the Infernal Realm. Anyway, the biggest plot hole? Pete considers the deal. Spider-man's entire existence is defined by taking responsibility to make up for a mistake he made in the past. To even consider Mephisto's proposal is to dishonour not just the twenty years that were erased, but to dishonour the forty-five years that the character has existed. He made the same mistake that he made all those years before, and rather than man up and face the consequences, he bails on it and gets a demon to fix his life at the expense of the love of his life. Just...ugh.

Now, the biggest reason for them to even do the storyline was because Joe Quesada, editor-in-chief of Marvel, apparently decided that Spider-man being married was a detraction to the character. That having a beautiful wife made the fact that Spider-man is supposed to be a lovable loser a non-issue. That he was too far from where he had come from. Now, I disagree with this position because Spider-man's life still sucked, even when he was married. I'd even argue that he had more trauma AFTER getting married than he did before. Venom, clones, Green Goblin's return, new powers, Civil War, DYING, etc. Mary-Jane was his rock. He's got a crappy job, villains are trying to kill him, and everything's going wrong, but he comes home to a wife that loves him, and that makes it alright. It's the saving grace to keep Spidey from being totally unsavoury. But apparently, that was overruled in favour of making Spidey a dateless loser who crashes on his aunt's couch. Much more relatable for the average comic fan. The second reason was that Spider-man as a swinging (no pun intended) bachelor was more identifiable to new fans. My response to that is: What new fans? Being single is not going to bring in thousands and thousands of new fans to the medium, it's only going to annoy the dedicated fanbase you've already got. Indeed, sales on Amazing Spider-man have fallen since OMD was published. However, they now publish the book three times a month, so from one perspective, it's doing better now. Really, what's happened is that they're just selling more books to fewer people. It's not a great business model, but I guess it's enough for them. Plus if they went back, they'd lose a lot of face in the industry, since they put so much emphasis on this "old-school Spider-man".

Brand New Day. The Spider-man since then has been...repetitive, I guess is the best term. They've introduced a generic new supporting cast and villains, and basically have retold a lot of old Spider-man stories. A few years ago, when Spider-man first developed organic webshooters in the comics, they said it was because the stories involving his webshooters running out, or being broken at a critical time, had become so stale by being so overused that they hadn't been used for years, and it didn't matter if he had them or not. Now that he's somehow lost these new powers, his webshooters breaking/running out has become a standard plot device again. Two years ago, the editorial department said that they were unnecessary because it was lame to use that for suspense. Now, those same editors are churning out issue after issue where that same refrain is being beaten into the ground again. Add to the fact that, thus far, not one single story they have told could not have been told with a married Peter Parker. They said that they wanted to tell new stories not "bound down" with his marriage. Well...none of these stories have done that. The entire ordeal was based on a promise, and it has yet to be fulfilled. With all the other unanswered questions surrounding the reset, such as why Harry Osborn is alive again, why no one notices not knowing who Spider-man is anymore, what happened to his daughter, etc.,, it's just one big letdown.

Finally, now that I've exhausted all my arguments, arguments I was tired of making months ago, I look back on this whole thing with maybe a more jaded view than I should, or at least more than I want to. Joe Quesada said that he wanted the Spider-man of his youth back. He apparently didn't realize that that same Spider-man could be found in the movies, in the cartoons, in the Marvel Adventures books, in the Ultimate Spider-man book (which outsells Amazing every month), and in so many other places. The core 616 universe is the only place where I could go to read about the Spider-man I grew up with. The one who was married to MJ. There was only one place to go for that. Spidey married MJ in 1987, the year I was born. It was the "version" (I dislike that term, since it was the evolution of the character that got him there) that I spent my childhood thrilling to the adventures of. He was my Spider-man. And now, I can't get him anymore. Nowhere else can I find the adventures of a Spider-man who was married to Mary-Jane Watson. He's gone. I miss him. I know he's a fictional character, but dammit, Spider-man was important to me. Now I have nowhere to read about him anymore, but I'm not mad, not anymore. Like with Wally and Kyle being squeezed out by the returns of Barry and Hal over in DC, I know that things will swing around again. Comics are cyclical. What was, will be again. In ten or fifteen years, the people who will be running the show will be my generation, who grew up with Pete and MJ, happily married. Hopefully, I'll be one of them.

Anyway, after a year of this, I really have only one thing to say to Joe Quesada, if I could: Mister Quesada, you took away my Spider-man, and you did it with one of the most horrible stories ever written. But I'm not mad at you for doing it. You taught me a valuable lesson with it, a lesson about Spider-man himself, with his themes and his values and everything he represents. You taught me a lesson that speaks true to the character that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created 46 years ago, all the way back in Amazing Fantasy #15:

Sir, you took my Spider-man away. That's not fair, but I'll get over it. Because that's life. Because that's Spider-man.