Spider-Man: One More Day: Difference between revisions

With [[Aunt May]] in dire condition after being inadvertently shot by a sniper during the closing hours of the Superhero Civil War, Peter is forced to ask [[Iron Man|Tony Stark]] for financial assistance. Iron Man first attempts to bring Peter in for opposing the Superhero Registration Act, but stops when he learns of May's situation. He listens to Peter, but tells him he can't help him, because he is a wanted criminal, and leaves. He does however send [[Edwin Jarvis|Jarvis]] to the hospital, with a $2,000,000 check that will cover May's medical needs. Peter then sets out to help May, any way he can.

Peter talks to the little girl, who makes cryptic remarks to Peter, and runs off. While going after her, Peter encounters two men; An overweight software tester who says he wishes he were a hero, and a middle-aged technology magnate, who says he'd give up all his fortune just to be with a girl he'd known and lost years ago. Peter then encounters a woman in red, who tells him that the two men he met were from alternate possible timelines where Peter was never bitten by the radioactive Spider. She says the overweight Peter is a man who turned his anger at not being liked inward, and went into software to create a world he could control, and that the middle-aged Peter is a him who turned his anger outward, inventing scientific breakthroughs that made him a billionaire at age thirty, but is still angry at the people who mistreated him. The woman then transforms into [[Mephisto (comics)|Mephisto]], who tells Peter he can save Aunt May. But as payment, Mephisto wants, not Peter's soul, but his and Mary Jane's marriage. In return for saving May, he wants to wipe all memory of Peter's marriage to MJ from all but one part of his soul, and vice-versa, so that he may listen to those parts' pain for the rest of eternity. Realizing that this means they might not be able to be together, Peter and Mary Jane are given until midnight the following night to decide their answer.

Peter and Mary Jane agree to the deal after several hours lamenting over the decision, but Mary Jane whispers to Mephisto that she can offer him something in return for removing the knowledge of Peter's identity from the world. Before sealing the deal, Mephisto reveals that the little girl was a representation of Peter and Mary Jane's possible child. Mary Jane reassures Peter that the two will find each other again, and history is altered so that Peter and Mary Jane never married and Spider-Man never unmasked. Peter wakes up alone in bed, living again with Aunt May. Despite happy to see her alive, he is disheartened at losing Mary Jane, and nobody knows he is Spider-Man. He attends a party being held for one of his friends, a resurrected [[Harry Osborn]] (who never really died in this timeline), Peter glimpses Mary Jane sadly leaving the party. They then all toast to a Brand New Day. Also, a brief glimpse of the web shooters are shown.

''One More Day'' has been universally panned by critics. [[IGN]] reviewer Jesse Schedeen described ''Amazing Spider-Man'' #545, the final part of the story, as "undoubtedly the worst comic Marvel published in 2007" and a "deus ex machina of the highest order". He admitted that writer Straczynski "had a great handle on the Peter/Mary Jane dynamic", making their potentially-final moments mean something, and that Quesada's artistic talent for "overly dramatic facial expressions and poses" made sense given the dark and shadowy tone. However, he also claimed that even noting these few high points was generous given the "sick feeling in the pit of [his] stomach", and dismissed the story as "infuriating and downright disrespectful to anyone who has come to love Spider-Man comics over the years."

Given the controversial nature of the story, IGN also published two "Additional Take" reviews for ''Amazing Spider-Man'' #545. Bryan Joel said that he'd been a "vocal supporter" of ''Brand New Day'', and was "tolerant" of ''One More Day'' as a means to an end. Nevertheless, he summarised the story as "flip, weightless, and painfully brief" and described the belated attempts to build emotion as a "slap in the face" to fans. Although he agreed with Schedeen that Quesada's artwork was "pretty good-looking", Joel concluded that the issue was a "thunderous failure". Richard George stated that ''One More Day'' "could prove to be the best example of editorial influence gone horribly, horribly wrong" and "in trying to preserve the appeal of Peter Parker, Joe Quesada has actually managed to fundamentally undermine the character." He claimed that while recent stories like ''[[House of M]]'' and ''[[Civil War (comic book)|Civil War]]'' have allowed the Marvel Universe to move "in a fascinating new direction", ''One More Day'' was simply a "travesty". Like his colleagues, George complimented Quesada for improved art, but pointed out that execution was meaningless when a story makes fans want to drop the book, damages the history of an iconic character, and sacrifices sensible plot and characterization for editorial decree.<ref name=IGN545>{{cite web|last=Schedeen|first=Jesse|coauthors=Bryan Joel and Richard George|publisher=[[IGN]]|url=http://uk.comics.ign.com/articles/843/843196p1.html|title= Amazing Spider-Man #545 Review|date=[[2007-12-28]]|accessdate=2008-01-02}}</ref>

Like IGN, [[Newsarama]] published the opinions of several members of their review team. While J. Caleb Mozzocco agreed with Joe Quesada that Spider-Man was easier to relate to while young and single, he felt that retconning the marriage of [[Earth-616|mainsteam continuity]] Spider-Man was unnecessary due to the existence of titles such as ''[[Ultimate Spider-Man]]'', ''[[Marvel Adventures Spider-Man]]'', ''[[Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane]]'', ''[[Spider-Man Family]]'' and more. He found the story confusing, wondering how this retcon made sense in the larger Marvel Universe as Spider-Man played important roles in ''[[New Avengers]]'' and ''Civil War'', and "didn't even care much for the art".

Kevin Huxford felt betrayed by Marvel, who had previously promised there would be no retcon in the year or two following Spider-Man's unmasking. He claimed that "you can feel editorial mandate dripping from this" and that Peter Parker "may forever be remembered for having such tunnel vision about his aunt that he pissed away his wife, unborn child, and happiness". Lucas Seigel found the story "utterly ridiculous"; he pointed out that while Joe Quesada has a no-smoking policy for Marvel heroes in case it encourages children to smoke, he has no problem with Peter Parker making a deal with the devil for selfish reasons. Richard Renteria felt that the story's conclusion was a missed opportunity "to add a new layer of guilt to Peter’s already rocky life by allowing May to finally have the send off she deserves" and worried that the retcon foreshadowed similar endings to upcoming stories like ''[[Secret Invasion]]''. Troy Brownfield agreed with the opinions of his colleagues that the storyline damaged Marvel continuity and Spider-Man's decision was "selfish and childish", not to mention "a big middle finger to the idea of marriage in comics". He speculated preferable endings to the story before concluding that "As it stands, Peter, MJ, May . . . and the readers . . . all got a raw deal."<ref name=NewsaramaBestShots>{{cite web|last=Siegel|first=Lucas|coauthors=J. Caleb Mozzocco, Keven Huxford, Richard Renteria, Troy Brownfield|publisher=[[Newsarama]]|url= http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=141416|title= Best Shots: The One More Day Roundtable|date=[[2007-12-31]]|accessdate=2008-01-02}}</ref>

A more positive view came from Brandon Thomas, who felt that ''One More Day'' was "an incredibly well-told story". He praised the writing, in particularly the morally ambiguous decision Peter has to make and the way he and Mary Jane deal with it together, as well as Quesada's art, which he felt set the tone of "guilt, regret, and despair". In regards to the retcon, he claimed that "Peter Parker being married really isn’t a vital component of the mythos" and that it allowed Marvel to make "big, sweeping changes to bring things slightly more into focus and back on message".<ref name=NewsaramaBNB>{{cite web|last=Thomas|first=Brandon|[Newsarama]]|url=http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=141633|title=Ambidextrous #239: Brand New Bag|date=[[2008-01-02]]|accessdate=2008-01-05}}</ref>

Response from comic book fans to the story was negative from the outset; Joe Quesada had been on record for some time as disliking the marriage of Peter and Mary-Jane, and it was assumed that this story would be his way of splitting the Parkers up-an assumption that was ultimately validated. The actual means by which the separation occurred, however, whipped fans into such a frenzy that within two weeks of the issue's release, the Marvel.Com forums (while still permitted discussion on the story itself) were forced to forbid critical attacks on the creators. <ref name=Marvel.ComForums>{{cite web|url=http://www.marvel.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=97581&sid=eb1383af082bce8c478fc85b647d36b4|title=Marvel.Com forums announcement|accessdate=2008-01-05}}</ref>