One More Day Question for Spider-Man Fans

[Vaegrin]

But May has lasted longer than the length of a good movie. She dated, found love, even remarried. All after Peter saved her.

And May has disagreed with Peter's actions before, but she loves and supports him nonetheless. I would imagine that the same would happen here.

Oh, I don't disagree. I was exaggerating; of course it's comic books so an old lady can live forever.

Yes, May would have loved and supported Peter no matter what, but she would have hated this choice. That's all I'm saying. May lived her life for Peter's happiness. That he would give up his marriage, the little bit of happiness in his life that May devoted her life to providing him, to obliterate his love and his responsibility to his wife for May's sake would have been utterly horrifying to her.

[Carabas]

How do you get past the whole deal Peter and MJ made in the OMD story?

I so far still haven't.

[Carabas]

But May has lasted longer than the length of a good movie. She dated, found love, even remarried. All after Peter saved her.

And if Peter hadn't saved her, if he had let her die, then Aunt May would still have done all or most of those things (or different things of similar magnitude because different writers would have been involved), because this is comics and death is largely meaningles.

[Starrius]

Oh, I don't disagree. I was exaggerating; of course it's comic books so an old lady can live forever.

Yes, May would have loved and supported Peter no matter what, but she would have hated this choice. That's all I'm saying. May lived her life for Peter's happiness. That he would give up his marriage, the little bit of happiness in his life that May devoted her life to providing him, to obliterate his love and his responsibility to his wife for May's sake would have been utterly horrifying to her.

yeah
especially with May always wanting Peter to get with Mary Jane since Amazing Spider-Man issue #15
if she knew what happened, she'd be disgusted and heartbroken

[Rincewind]

Oh, I don't disagree. I was exaggerating; of course it's comic books so an old lady can live forever.

Yes, May would have loved and supported Peter no matter what, but she would have hated this choice. That's all I'm saying. May lived her life for Peter's happiness. That he would give up his marriage, the little bit of happiness in his life that May devoted her life to providing him, to obliterate his love and his responsibility to his wife for May's sake would have been utterly horrifying to her.

But the flipside of this is that Peter is also looking out for May, wanting her to be happy and healthy. And as we've seen countless times, Peter will sacrifice his own happiness to save the lives of others. He would save May's life even if he knew she wouldn't approve of his choice. And whatever her initial reaction would be, May would understand that he acted out of love for her.

[Vaegrin]

But the flipside of this is that Peter is also looking out for May, wanting her to be happy and healthy. And as we've seen countless times, Peter will sacrifice his own happiness to save the lives of others. He would save May's life even if he knew she wouldn't approve of his choice. And whatever her initial reaction would be, May would understand that he acted out of love for her.

I guess the point is this. I'm a husband and a father. I would gladly lay down my life for the happiness of my wife and children. Gladly. And I would not think that they have any right to make that decision for me. I certainly get that Peter made this decision to look out for Aunt May, but it is absolutely wrong of him to decide for her, when he must have known that she would never have made that choice.

Moreover, the fact that he abandoned his love and marriage with Mary Jane? It was not only Peter's happiness and fulfillment that he sacrificed; it was his wife's. Mary Jane is his wife, and he has a tremendous, non-negotiable responsibility to her, and to their marriage. While I understand that Mary Jane gave him her blessing to make the deal, what else was she going to do? I cannot assign Mary Jane any blame here. She had to allow Peter the freedom to make this choice if it was what he felt that he wanted or needed to do. It was up to Peter to make the right choice, and he made the absolute wrong one to abandon her.

I'm not saying that there's no possible way to rationalize what Peter did. I'm saying that it was wrong. It was wrong for him to deal with evil powers to mess with life and death and avoid the consequences of his own choices, it was wrong for him to rob Aunt May of her autonomy by making a choice on her behalf that she never would have made for herself, and it was wrong for him to abandon his wife.

[Starrius]

I guess the point is this. I'm a husband and a father. I would gladly lay down my life for the happiness of my wife and children. Gladly. And I would not think that they have any right to make that decision for me. I certainly get that Peter made this decision to look out for Aunt May, but it is absolutely wrong of him to decide for her, when he must have known that she would never have made that choice.

Moreover, the fact that he abandoned his love and marriage with Mary Jane? It was not only Peter's happiness and fulfillment that he sacrificed; it was his wife's. Mary Jane is his wife, and he has a tremendous, non-negotiable responsibility to her, and to their marriage. While I understand that Mary Jane gave him her blessing to make the deal, what else was she going to do? I cannot assign Mary Jane any blame here. She had to allow Peter the freedom to make this choice if it was what he felt that he wanted or needed to do. It was up to Peter to make the right choice, and he made the absolute wrong one to abandon her.

I'm not saying that there's no possible way to rationalize what Peter did. I'm saying that it was wrong. It was wrong for him to deal with evil powers to mess with life and death and avoid the consequences of his own choices, it was wrong for him to rob Aunt May of her autonomy by making a choice on her behalf that she never would have made for herself, and it was wrong for him to abandon his wife.

Mary Jane agreed to the deal first, and she talked to Peter into it. Peter agreed, and he didn't have to do that.
She was being guilt-tripped while Peter talking about he would apart from not being able to deal with May's death being his fault.

Joe Quesada noted that Peter didn't make the deal.


any ways...both Mary Jane and Peter were written out of character

[Miles To Go]

Mary Jane agreed to the deal first, and she talked to Peter into it. Peter agreed, and he didn't have to do that.

Joe Quesada noted that Peter didn't make the deal.

MJ was as hesitant as Peter in the actual story, but Peter guilted her into it.

[Starrius]

MJ was as hesitant as Peter in the actual story, but Peter guilted her into it.

I edited and added the guilt tripping, and then I saw your post.

I agree with you about MJ being hesitant as Peter and Peter's guilt tripping into her it

Even though Joe Quesada noted that Peter didn't make the deal, he apparently did.
Peter did tell Mesphisto "Do it"

Both of them were written out of character any way
the storyline is forced and nonsensical

[Vaegrin]

MJ was as hesitant as Peter in the actual story, but Peter guilted her into it.

Exactly right. At the end of the day, this comes down to Peter.

[Starrius]

Exactly right. At the end of the day, this comes down to Peter.

I agree, but Quesada is trying to make Mary Jane the scapegoat

[JasonEsta]

I can't believe they had Peter Parker make a deal with Mephisto..take the easy wasy out. Talk about not knowing a character's heart and soul...you can't sell out Peter like that. He s li ke the ultimate good guy character next to Nightcrawler..it was a horrible storyline..the worst of the era next to how Bendis carved up Wanda Maximoff to push his New Avengers agenda.

[Celgress]

Here is how I would have wrote the Deal -

Peter faces a snap decision to take the Deal or allow say a bus full of innocent school children that he cannot otherwise save, and who have been placed in jeopardy, at least indirectly, by his actions, to die. A condition of the Deal being that Peter remembers the difference but if he ever tells anyone else the kids all die. Peter thus truly sacrifices his own happiness for the greater good. In the process, he becomes an even nobler and more tragic figure rather than an immature and selfish one, at least in my opinion, as he did in canon.

[MrBigFeathers]

I really don't see why anyone was opposed to the marriage to begin with. I grew up reading Spidey and he wasn't married when I started. I never once thought wow, Spider-Man being married is really holding back stories I would like to see. I really liked Peter being with Gwen, I really liked Peter being with Black Cat, and I grew to love his being married to MJ. I would have been fine if he ended up with any of those 3, but to get rid of the marriage with the one he did end up with just so Peter could be a player in the comics is ridiculous. Other than him having the different love interests I don't see what stories couldn't be told with him being married. Quesada basically had a vendetta against the marriage and that is the only reason. To say that they couldn't tell the stories they wanted to is BS. If writers couldn't keep telling stories then they were being lazy. But, I digress.

[WebLurker]

Here is how I would have wrote the Deal -

Peter faces a snap decision to take the Deal or allow say a bus full of innocent school children that he cannot otherwise save, and who have been placed in jeopardy, at least indirectly, by his actions, to die. A condition of the Deal being that Peter remembers the difference but if he ever tells anyone else the kids all die. Peter thus truly sacrifices his own happiness for the greater good. In the process, he becomes an even nobler and more tragic figure rather than an immature and selfish one, at least in my opinion, as he did in canon.

Never heard that one.

One alternate OMD fan scenario I've heard was to have MJ be the one who got shot instead of Aunt May. The conditions of the Mephisto deal are the same, but the difference is that instead of saving his mom by stabbing his wife in the back, Peter's being given the option to save his wife's life at the cost their lives being altered so that they were never together in the first place.

It still wouldn't chance the fact that OMD was a "garbage in, garbage out" agenda to push on the series, but I suspect that a lot more readers would be understanding of why Peter would take the deal in that circumstance.