Did anyone enjoy Spider-Man in spite of One More Day?

[Kevinroc]

Pretty much. Plus, the whole point of Mephisto is to have the iconography of the devil without any of the baggage. It allows for the "He's not the devil, he's a magic space demon introduced in the Silver Surfer comics" excuse.

Comics are absolutely ridiculous, lol.

[Mister Mets]

Plus at least with a cosmic devil deal it allows Marvel to forever dangle carrots and keep readers invested in a possible redemption arc and reversal. It makes just as much sense to keep hope alive and make more money.



Marriage-Era MJ is a far superior character than you let on. There's a reason we've never been without that take on the character even when OMD was put into effect, and I don't think it robbed her of any agency...and what's wrong with her being relevant to just Peter? That's the primary function of a supporting cast player. MJ's had her chance to be defined outside of a life with Peter in Iron Man and nobody really took to it. Her life is enhanced more by being the best friend and rock for Marvel's leading hero and being by his side. Some characters just work better that way.


Only it didn't mark the end of marriage stories. They continued, so it failed.

One More Day ended the marriage in the main universe. That was the important thing. There's nothing wrong with the continued publication of Spider-Girl or with the Renew Your Vows books, set in different universes.

The idea that Marvel's trying to make money by teasing the return of the marriage seems to be under the assumption that everyone else cares about it as much as the most intense fans of the marriage. That's not the case.

Except that was the problem. Well, one of them.

It didn't end the marriage. It magically erased it, essentially letting the bad guy win. And in letting the bad guy win, it never felt like anything had ended at all. I mean, that was Mephisto's plan, that a part of Peter would always remember and always be tortured and blah blah evil rant blah blah. So for as long as Pete still exists in the Mephistoverse, so the story is still being told.

OMD basically became a loose thread, a loose thread that more than ten years later still dominates discussion, that still effects the comic, that still splits fandom. Killing MJ would have sucked but I think people would have moved on quicker because it would have been part of Peter's ongoing story. Likewise splitting them up would have equally sucked, but again, it could have been a grown up story about two adults making a decision (assuming Quesada hadn't written it, naturally).

But would either of those options have had the same lingering impact that OMD continues to have, all this time later? I'd be inclined to say no, they wouldn't.

Any method of ending the marriage would split fandom.

The magic erasure has some advantages over other forms of potentially ending the marriage, especially as other characters aren't aware of it and it wouldn't inform the subtext of their conversations with Peter.

...Except Quesada confirmed across several CBR interviews the pregnancy never happened. Tom Brevoort is on record with disgareeing with that, but it's never been outright verified in the main books, which even went out of their way to avoid referring to the pregnancy during flashbacks in Clone Conspiracy

I could see why Marvel doesn't want to touch that thread, but interviews are not canon.

[boots]

Pretty much. Plus, the whole point of Mephisto is to have the iconography of the devil without any of the baggage. It allows for the "He's not the devil, he's a magic space demon introduced in the Silver Surfer comics" excuse.

yeah, look...they can say that and for me, he’ll only ever be a hilariously ineffective red elf

but know your audience marvel

[boots]

interviews are not canon.

ok, you are definitely on the wrong message board

[Celgress]

Pretty much. Plus, the whole point of Mephisto is to have the iconography of the devil without any of the baggage. It allows for the "He's not the devil, he's a magic space demon introduced in the Silver Surfer comics" excuse.

While I agree with you on this point I think you are dead wrong when you say a single Spider-Man is necessary for the comic series to continue. Single, Married or any other status quo can work as long as the writer is creative enough. Hell, the aging the character argument is also wrong because of how long elderly, near death, Aunt May, has been around. In a realistic timeline, Aunt May would be long dead by now. Marvel could keep Annie, for example, young forever if they wanted to just like how they keep Aunt clinging to life and Peter around thirty (at max).

[Celgress]

According to them, even though the marriage never happened, EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE BOOK still happened, with the same amount of weight to it. So at that point, considering just how serious in a relationship they were in and for how long, that's literally just marriage without a piece of paper.

Also for the law of cause and effect, this would never work deal or no deal. If you change one event everything else that happens later would have to change in some way and those changes would inevitably add up over time Mephisto or no Mephisto. Even by comic book logic, this idea is beyond assinine.

[boots]

Also for the law of cause and effect, this would never work deal or no deal. If you change one event everything else that happens later would have to change in some way and those changes would inevitably add up over time Mephisto or Mephisto. Even by comic book logic, this idea is beyond assinine.

there’s a lot of angry butterflies reading OMD

[Celgress]

there’s a lot of angry butterflies reading OMD

No doubt about that.

[SuperiorIronman]

Some people feel like the breakup of MJ and Pete's marriage caused them not to read Spider-Man after that but was there anyone that enjoyed and still enjoys despite One More Day? Anyone that actually like One More Day?

I hate OMD and I hate pretty much everybody involved with it. Not only because in a literary sense it's hot garbage that hasn't washed off Spider-man to this very day and not worth the paper its printed on, but because it fundamentally misrepresents the character and throws the weakest arguments for what is basically an editorial reset of status quo. It's a bad story in 2007 and its a bad story now. My enjoyment of Spider-man is not tied to his marriage to Mary Jane, my enjoyment of Spider-man is of good stories and even fun ones even if the plots aren't that great. But OMD blows chunks and nobody has ever been able to justify its existence. I don't mean the necessity of it, I mean the story itself. It could've been good, but the writing is so poor and the art is gross that I'm left wondering why nobody didn't just do a hard reboot without any lead-in if this is the book we got.

Spider-man as a character is effectively dead to me.

Slott's run since has had a few good stories and I will give credit where it is due. I do not view Slott as a god among men as a writer because even he has put out crap on a regular basis, but that comes with the territory in having been on a title for too damn long, statistically speaking he will release crap. It does not change my feelings towards Spider-man. As much as I like Big Time, No one dies, Ends of the Earth, or elements of Superior Spider-man, it doesn't change OMD to me nor my feelings on the character. Spider-man is still dead to me and until this is addressed in-story where there is some sort of resolution to all of this it will remain that way. It wont prevent me from picking up a Spider-man book in the future by Slott, Spencer, or anyone really, but why should I give a damn if something I like is going to be rest several decades?

[Yvonmukluk]

Pretty much. Plus, the whole point of Mephisto is to have the iconography of the devil without any of the baggage. It allows for the "He's not the devil, he's a magic space demon introduced in the Silver Surfer comics" excuse.

At that point you're just arguing semantics.

[Celgress]

At that point you're just arguing semantics.

Exactly as the character is still evil and otherwise acts like the Biblical Satan. Using Mephisto was a very stupid idea on the part of Those in Charge of Marvel due to this baggage. They should have chosen another character or method free of such negative cultural connotations.

[WebSlingWonder]

I hate OMD and I hate pretty much everybody involved with it. Not only because in a literary sense it's hot garbage that hasn't washed off Spider-man to this very day and not worth the paper its printed on, but because it fundamentally misrepresents the character and throws the weakest arguments for what is basically an editorial reset of status quo. It's a bad story in 2007 and its a bad story now. My enjoyment of Spider-man is not tied to his marriage to Mary Jane, my enjoyment of Spider-man is of good stories and even fun ones even if the plots aren't that great. But OMD blows chunks and nobody has ever been able to justify its existence. I don't mean the necessity of it, I mean the story itself. It could've been good, but the writing is so poor and the art is gross that I'm left wondering why nobody didn't just do a hard reboot without any lead-in if this is the book we got.

Spider-man as a character is effectively dead to me.

Slott's run since has had a few good stories and I will give credit where it is due. I do not view Slott as a god among men as a writer because even he has put out crap on a regular basis, but that comes with the territory in having been on a title for too damn long, statistically speaking he will release crap. It does not change my feelings towards Spider-man. As much as I like Big Time, No one dies, Ends of the Earth, or elements of Superior Spider-man, it doesn't change OMD to me nor my feelings on the character. Spider-man is still dead to me and until this is addressed in-story where there is some sort of resolution to all of this it will remain that way. It wont prevent me from picking up a Spider-man book in the future by Slott, Spencer, or anyone really, but why should I give a damn if something I like is going to be rest several decades?

That's a toxic mindset, honestly. One story cannot and should not ruin a character. If that's the case, then every bad story with other characters would kill their popularity and appeal.

[Miles To Go]

That's a toxic mindset, honestly. One story cannot and should not ruin a character. If that's the case, then every bad story with other characters would kill their popularity and appeal.

That's largely why I follow so few Marvel and DC titles these days.

[WebSlingWonder]

That's largely why I follow so few Marvel and DC titles these days.

Then I can't help you there.

[Miles To Go]

Then I can't help you there.

I enjoy reading positive things, with heroes I can admire, DC and Marvel are both, even now, still into deconstruction with a great deal of titles, so I don't follow them. Simple as that.