Eager to start the year off with a clean slate for their biggest franchise, Marvel Comics last week released Amazing Spider-Man #545, the final chapter of the “One More Day” storyline. It was a comic that saw Peter Parker make a deal with the Devil that rewrote history, helpfully getting rid of his marriage, the death of his one-time best friend, last year’s media-frenzy revelation of his public identity, and twenty-years’ worth of stories (here’s something to put it in some kind of context). How bad is the storyline in question? Well, for one thing the writer of the book, J. Michael Straczynski, publicly disowned his part in its creation. Plus, the fans are freaking out.
https://gizmodo.com/the-joy-of-watching-spider-mans-marriage-go-plop-337449
Straczynski says:
In the current storyline, there’s a lot that I don’t agree with, and I made this very clear to everybody within shouting distance at Marvel, especially Joe [Quesada, Marvel Comics Editor In Chief]. I’ll be honest: there was a point where I made the decision, and told Joe, that I was going to take my name off the last two issues of the OMD arc. Eventually Joe talked me out of that decision because at the end of the day, I don’t want to sabotage Joe or Marvel, and I have a lot of respect for both of those. As an executive producer as well as a writer, I’ve sometimes had to insist that my writers make changes that they did not want to make, often loudly so. They were sure I was wrong. Mostly I was right. Sometimes I was wrong. But whoever sits in the editor’s chair, or the executive producer’s chair, wears the pointy hat of authority, and as Dave Sim once noted, you can’t argue with a pointy hat.
Needless to say, reaction from fans has been… not entirely favorable. Here are some comments from the trenches:
“i don’t care if they want to smash the marriage, but to have your flagship character make a deal with the devil? not cool at all Marvel. I would have preferred a straight reboot to this. Or even just having Peter wake up and it be like this with no explanation to the fans. Not cool Marvel. Not cool at all”
“This is so bad, it destroys whatever artistic credibility the book once had. There’s no future, nothing matters. They did something like the unmasking, did it poorly, then threw it away like it never happened.”
“Well the stomach pains continue and now I think I will go into some sort of coma after this story: good god…I knew this was going to be a nightmare but this is ******* ridiculous. As if breaking the marriage up isn’t bad enough (I am probably one of the biggest supporters of the marriage and giving Peter and MJ a child) but to finally address the whole Baby May issue at last which eliminates the possibility of it ever happening again, and to bring Harry back, I am feeling my body go into some sort of shock. Man, where is Doom at to just blow Quesada back to whatever Hell he came from…mark my words, when the end days nears, the devil will turn out to be Quesada. He will start demanding all marriages to end if he was in power.”
Quesada was also, of course, in charge of Marvel when Captain America died, meaning that he’s not only anti-marriage but also anti-America. What’s next for this man who’s clearly out to undermine everything that you personally hold dear?
OMD Part 4 – Spoilers and Reactions [Newsarama.com]
