Between One More Day and Gwen Stacy's affair with Osborn, which one is worse?

Hi guys :)

For as long as I can remember, I've heard people say that "One More Day" is one of the worst, if not the worst, Spider-man stories. But I tend to have a different opinion. Sure, "One More Day" was strange and there were other ways to make people forget that Peter is Spider-man. But to me I believe that what it was, a really strange story that could have had a better execution, the worst Spider-man story in my opinion is when it was reviled that Gwen Stacy had an affair with Norman Osborne before her death.

It made little to no sense, it put a hole in Peter and Gwen's relationship it, and it transformed Gwen's death from an incident that was important to Spider-man life and made his rivalry with the Green Goblin more personal into Norman's way to get rid of the child that Gwen was pregnant with.

What do you guys think?

[QUOTE=Mr_E_88;4968461]Hi guys :)

For as long as I can remember, I've heard people say that "One More Day" is one of the worst, if not the worst, Spider-man stories. But I tend to have a different opinion. Sure, "One More Day" was strange and there were other ways to make people forget that Peter is Spider-man. But to me I believe that what it was, a really strange story that could have had a better execution, the worst Spider-man story in my opinion is when it was reviled that Gwen Stacy had an affair with Norman Osborne before her death.

It made little to no sense, it put a hole in Peter and Gwen's relationship it, and it transformed Gwen's death from an incident that was important to Spider-man life and made his rivalry with the Green Goblin more personal into Norman's way to get rid of the child that Gwen was pregnant with.


What do you guys think?[/QUOTE]
I put OMD/ BND as my most despised story. Why? Not only do I give it a grade of zero ( F is too good), but it set up everything after it under Slott except Spider-Island and Renew Your Vows gets a C at best. Sums Past is just one story that gets an F.

Sins Past is a story that can be skipped/ignored. OMD can't. Especially if you read through the comics sequentially. Not only did it break 20 years of Spider-man continuity, but it remains the elephant in the room 13 years later. So, for me, OMD is worse.

I'd go with Sins Past.

I've written this before, but Sins Past had a premise that was pretty much unworkable (Peter Parker encounters the children of Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn, who appear to be adults due to medical disorder.) They're said to have a variation of progeria, which is messed up as progeria is a real disease and those who have it rarely live past thirteen. It has the advantage of lasting a total of six issues, ten if you include Sins Remembered.

One More Day had a defensible purpose, as they wanted a particular status quo change in a particular way, and some good moments, but it got to the change in a flawed way (The revelation that Peter & MJ had a rare once in a millennium in the entire universe love undercuts the other pairings in the Marvel Universe.)

One More Day was flawed, but Sins Past is worse.

They're both fruit from the poisoned tree of the pathological phobia of certain individuals at Marvel of letting Peter Parker mature and grow in any meaningful way. Sins Past wouldn't have happened the way it did if Joe Quesada hadn't jumped in to tell J. Michael Straczynski that Gwen's kids couldn't be fathered by Peter because it would "age him too much" to have him as a father. Similarly, One More Day happened because Quesada believed Peter even being married was a mistake and also "aged him too much" to be relatable, much less appealing, to younger readers. I would say One More Day was even worse, because as bad as Sins Past was, at least it didn't require calling on the in-universe equivalent of the Devil for a literal Faustian bargain to fulfill the goal of retroactively annulling Spider-Man's marriage.

[QUOTE=Huntsman Spider;4968692]They're both fruit from the poisoned tree of the pathological phobia of certain individuals at Marvel of letting Peter Parker mature and grow in any meaningful way. Sins Past wouldn't have happened the way it did if Joe Quesada hadn't jumped in to tell J. Michael Straczynski that Gwen's kids couldn't be fathered by Peter because it would "age him too much" to have him as a father. Similarly, One More Day happened because Quesada believed Peter even being married was a mistake and also "aged him too much" to be relatable, much less appealing, to younger readers. I would say One More Day was even worse, because as bad as Sins Past was, at least it didn't require calling on the in-universe equivalent of the Devil for a literal Faustian bargain to fulfill the goal of retroactively annulling Spider-Man's marriage.[/QUOTE]

But Parker is a relatable character. He has relationships and break-ups, a job that needs to put food on his table, and a family member that he takes care of. He is a representation of a working class citizen who tries to balance his life and responsibilities as a hero. He is a human being first and a superhero second.

If they went with the idea that he should father Gwen's kids then that would have been more relatable.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts as well as others regarding this topic.

On a technical level, Sins Past is well-written. It's not a bad read if you can just get past the flashbacks.

OMD is straight-up bad.

[QUOTE=Mr_E_88;4968733]But Parker is a relatable character. He has relationships and break-ups, a job that needs to put food on his table, and a family member that he takes care of. He is a representation of a working class citizen who tries to balance his life and responsibilities as a hero. He is a human being first and a superhero second.

If they went with the idea that he should father Gwen's kids then that would have been more relatable.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts as well as others regarding this topic.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I can agree with that. He [I]is[/I] a relatable character, but there's some disconnect between the fans and (some) creatives and/or editorial about what makes him relatable in the first place.

[QUOTE=Huntsman Spider;4968692] Similarly, One More Day happened because Quesada believed Peter even being married was a mistake and also "aged him too much" to be relatable, much less appealing, to younger readers. [/QUOTE]

Which is still the dumbest load of crap i have ever heard - especially by towards standards.

Take a look at Instagram. You have a load of "influencers" who range from average to great to extremely freaking hot. A lot of those women have average looking boyfriends and children at ages that range from 18-30. A lot of them are super famous and some of them are just there.

Let me take it even further. I live in Rego Park/Forest Hills Queens. The area I live in has a huge demographic of Georgian Jews and Bukharian Jews (from Uzbekistan.) 95% of the people I went to school with graduated high school by the age of 16-18, went on to college, got married and had children by the time they were 22-25 years of age. So Quesada's reasoning is just the dumbest thing i have ever heard.

Sins Past has to the worst comic book story I ever had the displeasure of reading.

One More day had a purpose. While you might not like all the beats of the story or how it played it, the characters actions at least made some sense and set up future story potential.

Nothing in Sins Past made sense and even IF JMS had done it the way he said he wanted to it STILL wouldn't have made any reason sense or worked as a story.

To me "Sins Past" are one of those stories writers make to destroy a character.
It adds nothing to the story of the character.
The writer is saying "please hate this character".

The whole [I]"bargain with the devil"[/I] One More Day story was so unbelievably stupid, like why not get them divorced -- have MJ move out of state for a while and focus on single Peter. One More Day was just a way of overcomplicating, what should have been a simple thing all because editorial didn't want Peter's "golden boy" image tarnished with a divorce on his record. With that said, Sins Past was something that just didn't need to happen. Period.

Both are equally atrocious, if for different reasons. Sins Past attempted to posthumously character assassinate Gwen Stacy for no obvious purpose. But at least Sins Past didn't make everyone in the Marvel Universe look incompetent and useless (c'mon they can't save one old woman who was shot, please) so Mephisto could "save the day". OMD is bad contrived writing 101. OMD is a glaring example of plot armor at it's illogical worst. Everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves for publishing such a pothole-ridden "story" regardless of their "good" intentions. IMO (and I'm far from alone many, many, many other fans & critics share my view), Big Joe's legacy has been forever tarnished because of OMD, which is sad given his body of work.

[QUOTE=xpyred;4968769]Which is still the dumbest load of crap i have ever heard - especially by towards standards.

Take a look at Instagram. You have a load of "influencers" who range from average to great to extremely freaking hot. A lot of those women have average looking boyfriends and children at ages that range from 18-30. A lot of them are super famous and some of them are just there.

Let me take it even further. I live in Rego Park/Forest Hills Queens. The area I live in has a huge demographic of Georgian Jews and Bukharian Jews (from Uzbekistan.) 95% of the people I went to school with graduated high school by the age of 16-18, went on to college, got married and had children by the time they were 22-25 years of age. So Quesada's reasoning is just the dumbest thing i have ever heard.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, definitely agreed there.

[QUOTE=Celgress;4969003]Both are equally atrocious, if for different reasons. But at least Sins Past didn't make everyone in the Marvel Universe look incompetent and useless (c'mon they can't save one old woman who was shot, please) so Mephisto could "save the day". OMD is bad contrived writing 101. OMD is a glaring example of plot armor at it's illogical worst. Everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves for publishing such a pothole-ridden "story" regardless of their "good" intentions. IMO, Big Joe's legacy has been forever tarnished because of OMD, which is sad given his body of work.[/QUOTE]

Exactly.

[QUOTE=Spiderfang;4968975]The whole [I]"bargain with the devil"[/I] One More Day story was so unbelievably stupid, like why not get them divorced -- have MJ move out of state for a while and focus on single Peter. One More Day was just a way of overcomplicating, what should have been a simple thing all because editorial didn't want Peter's "golden boy" image tarnished with a divorce on his record. With that said, Sins Past was something that just didn't need to happen. Period.[/QUOTE]

That's even more stupid, as Peter having a divorce is something that happens to real people all the time. Hell, they could have just said that the stress and tension of Civil War was what did it, and had Peter "break MJ's heart to save her from being a target of his enemies" or something like that.