Spider-Man: One More Day

*Originally published on 9/16/09



Fans of Spider-Man have made it known that they are not happy with the developments of One More Day. If you surf comic related sites, you're sure to find several rants about how the story-line killed the character. This is another one.

There's just so much wrong with the concept. The whole idea came when Joe Quesada, chief editor at Marvel, decided that Peter Parker needed to be taken back to his roots. It's hard to be the superhero every-man when you're married to a supermodel and have a cushy job. By "relatable", Quesada figured having Peter be a thirty year old who lives in his aunt's basement was the way to go.

I kind of liked the fact that Peter grew up. Comics have a tendency to just stay in one time frame and never move forward. Like Dick Grayson, Peter got to grow up as the readers did. I know that writers liked to put Peter in all sorts of dilemmas when he was single, but the change wasn't so drastic that they couldn't adapt.

But OK, fine, you want Peter single, that's easy you just have him get a divorce. I know it's not the most pleasant subject to cover, but it's a part of everyday life. Couples separate, you could craft an emotionally poignant, heartbreaking story as the two lovers fall out of love and go their separate ways. Divorce is often an ordeal, and Marvel really loves putting Pete through the wringer, so it would follow with that theme as well. With legal bills and alimony, Peter would have to move back into a tiny one bedroom apartment in order to pay the bills. He would become a regular working joe like so many other people.

Sadly, having a costumed hero get a divorce would send the wrong message to kids, so instead they just had him make a deal with the devil (Mephisto, if you want to get technical, but he's essentially the Marvel Universe's Satan).

Another thing that needed to be retconned was Peter having revealed his identity to the world. Villains were all gunning for him and those he loved, literally. Aunt May took a bullet as a result of this.

In fact, it was this bullet that triggered the whole deal in the first place. Peter was desperate to save his beloved aunt's life. Luckily, modern medicine is pretty advanced. Oh, what? No good, well that's fine because Spidey's tight with super geniuses like Reed Richards and Tony Stark who whip up all sorts of crazy contraptions...They can't fix it either? Hmm, OK, time to call in the big guns. Dr. Strange, get in there and heal the sweet old lady with a little bit of your hocus pocus. Magic's ineffective? You mean to tell me you can ward off Cthulu but you can't heal a simple gunshot wound? Oy.

Aunt May, on her deathbed, tells Peter that it's OK. She's lived a full life and is ready to pass on. Pete refuses to accept this and makes a bargain with Mephisto to save her. Rather than take his soul, Mephisto wants his marriage. I'm not sure on the details of why, but it's weird either way.

I don't read much in the way of Spider-Man, but I still like him. I have a couple of comics and I have Kraven's Last Hunt in trade. I grew up watching the cartoon on Fox and I enjoyed the movies. I'd been considering the idea of branching into picking up some more Marvel titles and Spidey was one of the first names that came to mind. Sadly, this was going on and the general consensus was that it wasn't very good.

The whole "bring Spidey back to his roots" argument makes no sense anyway. Marvel created it's Ultimate line (which has been pretty successful the past couple of years) for the sole purpose of being able to tell stories that are out of continuity and take place in the character's earlier days. This was Spider-Man taken back to his roots, you didn't need to wreck your other title to accomplish a goal you had already accomplished.

Like all deviations from the status quo, this will ultimately fade into obscurity. We need only play the waiting game until people get Spider-Man back into the hands of people who understand him.