Spider-Man! OMG! OMD, BND...WTF?
These are tough times for true believers.
Boy of Tomorrow just pointed you towards the latest happenings of our most patriotic hero in his last post, but let me tell you what's been going on with Marvel's moneymaker...it's not good..and well...it kind of sucks.
Before I direct you all in the direction of Joe Quesada's (Marvel's Editor in Chief) 5 part interview at the Comic Book Resources website, let me point out that I am the type of person who believes in investing in characters and their rich backstories. (Which explains my fascination with Lost and my disdain for procedural dramas that rely more on formulaic narratives, but that's another story.)
What Marvel has done with Spider-Man in their heavily touted One More Day and Brand New Day story arcs has irked me beyond irkledom (in case you haven't guessed, SPOILER ALERT)
I remember reading about how Joe Quesada (in Newsarama's weekly Cup of Joe feature) insisted that Peter's marriage to Mary-Jane was seriously limiting the potential of the series. Week after week he would push his opinion out there, and every time, I simply chuckled and thought Oh that Quesada, what a card! Like that would ever go well!
In a clear case of editorial mandate superceding the wishes of both writers and fans, One More Day had Spider-Man sacrificing his marriage with Mary Jane in exchange for Aunt May's life through a deal with the suddenly powerful Mephisto. Eh? The major retcon that ensued (their marriage never happened, Peter is still living with Aunt May, the Civil War unmasking was forgotten by all, etc) had many fans, including myself, swearing never to read another Spider-Man comic again.
You can read Joe Quesada's justifications at CBR.
What are your thoughts? Comment below!
jonostarsmore
Posted to Comics, Superheroes on 8 January 2008
· Comments (8)
Other stuff like this: comics, marvel, One More Day, Quesada, retcon, spider-man, wtf
There are so many bad decisions in this storyline it is really hard to pick out which is the worst. I don't remember Mephisto being the devil ever. Or having that kind of power. Plus, taking the marriage to score against God? WTF.
Plus, they make MJ the fall guy. She makes the deal, she does the deed like some stupid Eve throw back. So frustrating.
And Joe stating that he didn't want them married because it limits the potential is stupid. Get better writers then. And how is dealing with the deal less tainting than a divorce? The whole idea that the devil is make believe and therefore less of a big deal in a MAKE BELIEVE comic about a man who has spider powers is insultingly silly and stupid.
The story that JMS (the 'writer') tells to Newsrama doesn't make things any better either.
http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=141756
Basically, in my mind, Joe Q wanted the people who watch the movie to feel more in tune with the comic, basically saying people are too stupid to understand what is going on in a long running comic. How Joe Q thinks that this doesn't complete mess up the Marvel Universe and the silly Civil War event is beyond me.
Bottom line, this was a terrible idea poorly executed.
Wow, I don't even read the damn comic and I can tell that's a horrible decision on the editor's part. It'd be like if Whedon suddenly retconned Buffy by saying the whole insane asylum thing was actually reality and Buffy was released to start fresh as a new Slayer. Boo that.
But at least Buffy might make a deal with the devil if the rewards were worthy enough.
But spiderman?
Ok Ok, IT'S FIXABLE. That's all that matters. Hell the fix could even be an interesting story.
Say that somehow mephisto was trying to avert some big event that Peter would have achieved, like stoping his "insert cliche villain scheme here" and saving the universe.
So he steps in does the whole "one more day" crap and boom Mephisto rules "Cliche villain scheme outcome."
But he's overstepped his bounds magically (which is JMS's whole beef) and as "cliche villain scheme" approaches spideys new reality starts to fall apart. Some people recognize him as Spiderman, occasionally he sees Harry as both Hobgoblin and a corpse. He starts getting all weepy over May and Mary for no reason he can understand.
Then the "ripples" get bigger and all the continuity errors that Queseda caused can get folded into the narrative as thin cracks in reality that start to tear everything apart.
From there on we toss in the obligitory big team- team up (You could even toss in the Exiles excuse me "new" exiles... don't need to start on how that book has taken a head dive into shitsville) and crushing of the "cliche villain plan" (Maybe call it "SPIDER-WAR! and stamp the title on every book imaginable).
Then Dr. Strange helps put things back to normal as much as he can HOWEVER nothing comes together perfectly and neither Peter nor Mary feel love for one another and choose to go their seperate ways.
BAM! Everyone is happy for a bit. No bullshit quick fix story and a bittersweet ending which is still open to get them back together at some point.
Hell.... this aint that hard.
@MuddBstrd: Ah but he never said it wasn't ;-) for all we know, we could be reading the adventures of crazy Buffy in the new monthly series.
@CJG: To be fair, it was Mary Jane, not Peter, who made the choice.
@NR MILLER: crossover time! crisis on infinite titles
@Jono: That's true, but that's still fine. I don't care if they're crazy Buffy's dreams, just as long as the series stays in her dreams. If it suddenly shifted to her waking up in the asylum and actually starting over, I'd be ticked.
>@CJG: To be fair, it was Mary Jane, not Peter, who made the choice.
Yeah, that's pretty much a cheap cop-out.
Plus, I don't really buy that Mary Jane would actually do that either.
Mary Jane didn't 'make the choice' she just pushed peter in that direction. For some stupid reason. Peter still accepted the deal as well, otherwise it would have never worked.