One More Delay

Joe Quesada has spoken a number of times about the things in the Marvel Universe that he wanted to set right, the genies he wanted to put back in the bottle to paraphrase.

The first one was the exploding mutant population, which was dealt with in the "House of M" arc and fallout. Though House of M was moderately interesting, the actual result of the story was precisely that there were less mutants, with no real vision for how that would improve the story possibilities in the books.

The current Messiah Complex crossover is in fact an attempt to sort out the pig's ear that was created.

"Joey Da Q" had also been dropping the notion in interviews for a long time that Peter Parker and Mary Jane's marriage in Spider-Man was a bad idea that limited the character and prevented new readers joining the book. A discussion has gone on for some time about this, in one camp some think that the lack of a chance for a love-triangle storyline is in itself debilitating to the characters (Quesada himself using this as a main example of why a single Peter would be much better). The other side of the argument says that the vast majority of Spider-Man readers have always known Peter and MJ as a married couple and a lack of good storylines involving that relationship is due to sloppy writing rather than the situation itself.

I'm in the second camp. Frankly I'm bored senseless with the love triangle storyline, Cyclops and Emma Frost are far more interesting than the tired Cyclops/Phoenix/Wolverine carousel. Only in Astonishing has Joss Whedon recently brought Cyclops back to being the badass team leader instead of the mopey sop who was completely defined by his relationship with Jean Grey.

Also if one wants to read about the young high school Spider-Man and his misadventures in love and life, hop on over to the superb Ultimate Spider-Man and enjoy.

The main problem Quesada has with the marriage is that it ages Peter, makes him a young twenty something and that is not the Spider-Man he fell in love with and so therefore believes is not the character a new generation would fall in love with.

So One More Day was announced, an event which would be weekly, over in a month and would irrevocably (re)define MJ and Peter's relationship. Excitement built when Quesada was announced as the penciller (again showing how personal his involvement in the story is) and the rumours swirled about the resolution.

To lead in, yet another event was announced, "Back in Black" where Aunt May is mistakenly shot and Peter dons the old black costume to show he's really not happy and in a dark place. Yep he dresses up like Venom to show that he's annoyed. Then we have issue after issue of Peter being willfully dumb, moaning about things and then deciding that he would break the law and kill people for revenge which went against everything the character has ever done.

Not a good sign of where things were headed.

Back in Black then ended thankfully, and One More Day began.

One More Day Issue 1 was pretty much exactly the same as the past several issues of Back in Black.

Then issue 2 was announced as being delayed from the following week to 3 weeks later.

Then 6 weeks later. Then 2 months later.

Exciting plans for the "Brand New Day" for Spider-Man were announced, but unfortunately that was all put on hold until Quesada could pull his finger out and draw the rest of "One More Day".

So for months the entire Spider-Man line has been non-existant. Again not a good sign.

In Part 2 of One More Day Peter is given the chance by Dr. Strange to search the entire Marvel Universe for a way to cure Aunt May. He is unsuccessful and is left in despair with the full knowledge he cannot save his beloved 80 year old Aunt who has already died at least twice.

Some would churlishly point out a number of ways to save May (a blood transfusion from Angel for starters) but lets not let obvious plot holes get in the way of a remorselessly dragging story.

Part 3 was released this week and we were told Peter would be given an awful choice, one that would change his life, forever...

For 9 pages Peter walks around talking to obvious alternate universe versions of himself and his daughter. There's no huge point to this to be honest but it builds up to who is behind these events, the Woman in Red who then explains for 6 pages that he has been speaking to alternate versions of himself. Riveting.

The Woman in Red then reveals herself to be Mephisto! Who then spends a page describing why he would be bothered with the lovable peon who is Peter Parker as he would "go anywhere, do anything for the sound of a soul in pain". Apparently just not enough of that in hell these days so he's on a road trip.

He offers a deal to both Peter and MJ, give up their marriage and he will save Aunt May. He does this as a small part of their souls would eternally remember the happiness they have given up and would suffer which would be really satisfying to him.

He tells them they have one more day (you names the title you wins the prize) and either their Aunt will die or their marriage will never have existed.

I'm pretty sure that moment was meant to be one of shock and turmoil but in my mind a sound like dropping a stone into an old bucket occurred.

If you turn the page after the dreaded deal is announced you will hit the center staples. Yes this languid tale doesn't reach the halfway point of this special-sized book due to adverts and a reprint of Silver Surfer issue 3 where Mephisto messes with him , because that proves that he's done this sort of thing before so noone should complain about it being ludicrous.

There is also a 6 page profile of Mephisto just to make sure a) you know who this is and b) know this is a big deal and c) show that Quesada didn't just pull this out of his arse.

Risible.

For further hilarity JMS has publicly stated he not only loudly disagreed with the plot for One More Day but asked for his name to be taken off the final two issues, then reneged after being asked by Quesada (One More Day by Alan Smithee).

Also JMS reveals the Sins Past storyline where Norman Osborn apparently had sex with Gwen Stacy who then had his kids (and MJ knew it for years) was originally meant to have been a story about Gwen secretly having Peter's kids but Q told JMS to change it. It aged him too much.

But I digress.

Whether Peter being single and never having been married to MJ (though a part of his soul will know and will be really upset) will lead to better stories is up in the air.

What matters at the moment is that a reset button with masking tape stuck on it and "Mephisto" scrawled over is still a reset button. It is a retcon that is questonable in concept and profoundly bad in its execution. On top of that it is a retcon that is very late and harming the whole line of a company's major character.

And the fans are supposed to be excited about it.



But look on the bright side, soon(ish) Pete can be swinging through the streets deciding if he wants to nail Betty Brant, the Black Cat or MJ. Of course they're not getting rid of MJ, everyone recognises her as an important part of Peter's life.




So they're making her a superhero called Jackpot.



If this is a fake-out and Joe Quesada points and laughs hysterically at fandom while screaming "You didn't honestly think I was that stupid did you?" I shall raise a drink in his honour.


If this is heading where it seems to be, the new and much more exciting stories easily spring to mind.It's just a shame they're in Ultimate Spider-Man.

This story was done much more successfully in the season one episode of Angel entitled "I Will Remember You". In that episode Angel gets the life and love he has dreamed of, but gives it all up as he knows it could lead to Buffy's death.

If MJ had been shot and Peter gave up his marriage in order to save her, then the tragedy might have worked enough to paper over the retcon.

As it is I wish that someone in Marvel editorial would think that maybe marriage isn't inherently a barren landscape for stories.