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By Jason Bourgeois
Happy New Year, and welcome back to yet another Grey Matters. We're kicking off 2008 with a bang, while J. Michael Straczynski's run on Amazing Spider-Man draws to a close.
Before getting into that, I should disclose where I'm coming from for this little rant. I am a long-time fan of JMS, as many of my generation are, even if they may not know it. The man shaped many a childhood by helping run the classic 80s cartoons Real Ghostbusters, and He-Man, two shows that many fondly recall, and are mentioned more than a lot of others. However, no one then knew who he was, and really only came to be noticed when he started his masterpiece, Babylon 5. This is when I first noticed him as well, and I was immediately enamored of the show, and still am to this day. B5 was one of the great TV series, and was well received by most who watched it. This was when I discovered everything else Joe had written that I had also enjoyed.
Since then, Joe has written many other shows and even comicbooks I've also enjoyed, although none quite as much as Babylon 5, save for the short-lived Showtime series, Jeremiah. Rising Stars, Midnight Nation, the B5 spinoff Crusade, et cetera. When he was announced as the new writer on Amazing Spider-Man back in late 2000, early 2001, I was most excited. Some of his ideas were a bit iffy, but I was more than willing to trust in Joe, as he had rarely steered me wrong in the big picture, even if there were a few bumps along the way, even in Babylon 5.
I defended JMS long past when most people would have given up on his Amazing run. I stuck through the spider-powers being revealed to maybe be mystical in origins, the reveal that Gwen Stacy had given birth to two twins by the Green Goblin, and they rapidly aged, through joining the Avengers, the unmasking, Civil War, Aunt May being shot, all of it. It may have not always been his best work, but there were the occasional gems, and it was the best Spidey had been written in many, many years, in my humble opinion.
I'd given Joe quite a bit of leeway because I knew his writing well, and had faith it would all work out. For the most part it did. If I know a writer is skilled, I'll let the occasional bad story go by. No one can hit a home run every time. As long as, on balance, I have a good read, I'm happy.
And then came this past week.
With Christmas, Santa Quesada stuck in all the little Spider-fan's stockings a gigantic lump of coal called One More Day.
One More Day is the final wrap up of JMS's six years on the title, and pretty much screws over the last twenty years of Spider-man stories.
As One More Day opens as Aunt May has been shot by a hit man hired by the Kingpin to try and kill Peter Parker, whose identity has become public knowledge thanks to a bad decision by Peter during the Civil War, where he unmasked to show the heroes against the Registration Act that everything was ok. After the shooting, Peter has had his revenge, gotten the shooter, and beaten the crap out of the Kingpin in a very public display.
Sadly, there is nothing any doctors can do for Aunt May. She's old, was shot by a professional, and is not long for this world. Peter does everything within his power, to find some means of saving her, but comes up short. No earthly means, no magic, it is just simply Aunt May's time. These things happen.
Peter then encounters a little girl who introduces him to several other older men who share their stories of lonely lives seeking fulfillment, no matter they're wildly successful men in their own rights. After this bizarre little trek, Peter then encounters Marvel's version of the devil, Mephisto. Mephisto explains that those men were alternate Peter Parkers, who never had the burden of spider-powers, were rich and/or powerful men but ultimately, they were all alone.
Mephisto offers Peter a bargain that will save his Aunt, but as always, there will be a price. Spider-Man says he needs to talk with his wife about something so big, and it's fortunate, since Mephisto has been speaking with MJ as well. Once everyone is all together, Mephisto puts his cards on the table: he will save Aunt May's life, but in return, Peter and MJ must give up their marriage. They will not consciously remember the bargain or their lives together, but a part of their souls will and those tormented souls, remembering what they once had but is lost, will keep Mephisto happy and entertained for years to come.
Up to this point, this is actually an interesting story nugget. Presenting a character with such a difficult choice makes for great drama, and asking your characters the hard questions, and hoping they pull through is a joy of writing and reading. I have no trouble with the plot itself. The final part of it is where things go horribly, horribly wrong.
Peter's choice is basically to save his ancient, 80 year old Aunt who's been dying since she first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 in the sixties, or let her finally be at peace and create a new life with his wife. His choice is to save a woman who could be dead tomorrow, for the woman he loves and most likely has many decades ahead of him together with. His choice is to cling to the past, be a petulant little child, clinging to his 'mommy' figure, rather than growing up, moving on with his life and everyone else's.
Now, a well-written story would show the years of character growth Peter has made, how mature he is, and gracefully let his aunt pass into the long, dark night and move forward, and not keep him trapped as a person who still has the emotional maturity of a twelve year old who can't accept when it is someone's time. Honestly, I can't say I would make the right decision either, but I would like to think I could do the rational thing like not making a deal with the devil, and save a person who has lived a good, long life for what could be no more than months of life.
Of course, since Joe Quesada has made no secret over his hatred of Spider-Man being married, and teased that Mary Jane would die several times since he became Marvel's editor in chief, only to never have it happen in an unending series of "Gotcha!" gags, it's no surprise that Peter makes the wrong decision, in a story that feels so heavily forced by editorial, it was no surprise when Straczynski said he was so unhappy with the issue he wanted his name removed from it.
There was just so much wrong with the final issue of the storyline, Amazing Spider-Man #545. And I am particularly amused that the week of Christmas, and Marvel has its top character making a deal with the devil. Which is the first thing wrong with this. How dumb are we supposed to believe Peter is? He's not weak willed, and he sure as heck knows better. He knows who Mephisto is on sight, and yet he still goes forward and leaps at the chance to make this deal. Has he never had a long talk with Ghost Rider/Johnny Blaze? If Johnny finds out about this, the fiery-skulled biker damn well better show up at Peter's doorstep and punch him in the nose for being an idiot of galactic proportions. And say that at least Johnny had a good woman at his side to save his soul.
And after they nonsensically accept the deal, Mephisto brings up that little girl Pete met. Remember her? Yeah, it turns out she was the daughter that MJ and Pete were going to have soon, but now will never exist. She's a little pissed at Pete being so selfish, and can anyone really blame her? Your parents just chose the life of a fossil over you. Of course, Pete is pissed off too. Which makes no sense. Oh no, they were going to have a daughter! That would have made all the difference in the world in his decision! The reveal was so telegraphed, Pete continues to be a galactic moron by not seeing it (I'll let it slide for grief, and storytelling purposes, but c'mon!), and not only that, they were a married couple. Having a child isn't exactly a surprise when you're married, it's usually expected by many people.
MJ also gets Mephisto to throw in undoing that whole unmasking problem from Civil War last year. At the time, Quesada said that it was not going to be undone, it wasn't an imaginary story, not a hoax, not a dream. No Dallas style endings here where Pete wakes up in bed, and it was all a dream!
Guess what? That's essentially what happened. "The devil makes it go away" is no better than a dream ending. And Pete actually does wake up in bed after the deal is made, like the last twenty years were a bad dream.
Just before the last twenty years go away, Quesada does a two page spread of Pete and MJ being happy together, as if to show us how awesome the marriage was, all the while cackling at it being taken away.
The new world that Peter wakes up to is changed indeed. He and MJ have had a mysterious falling out, Peter is back to living with Aunt May despite being 30, is all alone and single...which just goes to show that Quesada has succeeded in making Pete relatable to the typical comic fanboy again!
And then comes the biggest surprise. Not only is Peter a loser again, but Harry Osborn is back from the dead, and Pete's back to using mechanical webshooters rather than the organic ones he got a few years ago.
Like the unmasking, they said the organic webshooters would open up new story possibilities. It looks like they ran out of ideas for both of those ideas in about 12 months, and instead had to hammer Peter with the Devil Button to get things back to tell the SAME stories they'd been telling since 1960.
The most insulting thing is that the story is saying that because MJ never married Spider-Man, all these things are different, and being presented as better. This is also just the tip of the iceberg. Mephisto says that the marriage was only a stitch that will be plucked out, and nothing else will change, but it looks like that's wrong not even a dozen pages later. Not only that, but what does this mean for the last twenty years of stories where Mary Jane played an important part? The classic Spider-Man story Kraven's Last Hunt, where Peter's love for MJ is the only thing that pulls him through is now all kinds of messed up. MJ was big in the origins of Venom, and that's out the window too. Once you pull a tiny thread, the entire thing unravels. I'm not even touching on Peter's role in the wider Marvel Universe.
The insults continue out of the story, even. Each part of One More Day has come with a reprint of some other story, mostly Spider-Man related. The final part takes away the marriage, but chose to reprint the wedding itself, which is just throwing salt in the wound. On top of that, it's not even the whole story, it's a mere five pages. Five measly pages spared for the reprint, when part three was given to a random stock story of Silver Surfer of all things, only because it featured Mephisto. This is very telling of Quesada's opinions of the wedding.
In fairness, there were even moments in this story I liked. JMS is still a skilled writer, and he does quite bring out the emotion in the characters, and make you feel for them, despite everyone acting like they took their stupid pills this morning. The end result is a badly plotted, but well crafted story. The whole is much, much less than the sum of its parts.
This is hopefully not the end of the story, and it's easy enough to undo. We've seen how serious Quesada is about his bold new permanent directions that last a year or two, even just on this title. I'm sure this will be undone, and there are even possible setups in this story itself that could go that way easily enough, but this is being hailed as an end of an era, and a new status quo for the foreseeable future, not the first chapter in an ongoing thing, so I think the fans have every right to be upset over this, unlike other instances where they get pissed over the start of a storyline before they see the whole thing.
Of course, Joe Quesada will just ignore any and all complaints to this storyline, saying that it's just a vocal minority, despite numbers possibly showing otherwise, and that fanboys just hate change. I'm sorry, but when you're the editor-in-chief and your big idea is to turn things back over twenty years because you've got a personal stick up your ass about it? It's not the fans who hate change, it's you, sir. We've accepted change, whereas you have gone and taken away any and every change that has been made to the character, good bad and indifferent, for the better part of the character's life.
To say that Peter is less relatable because he's married is silly. Peter has been married since I was nine. The guy can stick to walls and shoot webs out his butt, he's already out of the realm of relatability. It made no difference whether he was dating or married. Spider-Man doesn't sell badly because he's married, he sells badly because he's badly written.
Sadly, sales will likely be unaffected by this, since Marvel have lined up some very good creators to take over the books starring Single Spidey, and even I'm sticking around for the moment, to see how things go. Dan Slott is one of my favourite current writers, and I look forward to seeing his take on Spider-Man. As long as the thrice-monthly Amazing Spider-Man can outsell Friendly and Spectacular Spider-Man, the new run will be a success.
In my eyes, seeing dorks like Spider-Man and Cyclops getting the hot babe gave hope to the little dork that I was, and that I could get the girl too! With the Ultimate Universe, and the Marvel Adventures books, there are many venues for an unmarried, teenage Spider-Man to have his day. Let one have a happy life with a wife. This story was badly written, heavy handed, editorially mandated down everyone's throat well on its way to being considered the worst Spider-Man story of all time, and hopefully things will be put back the way they were, sooner rather than later.
Jason M. Bourgeois
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