I received a link to an image scanned from a future edition of Comic Buyer’s Guide, where J. Michael Straczynski gives away the plot to Marvel’s One More Day.
Before clicking the link, be warned that it may be too much spoiler for you to deal with. I have a few thoughts after the jump.
In light of yesterday’s teaser release from Marvel, and the general comments made by top Marvel cats, the plot shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, and I know several message boards have been talking a potential Mephisto angle to this whole storyline. Frankly, after reading the spoiler, it reminds me of a lot of what The Spectre did to Wally West, and we see how that turned out.
For those who hate the Joe Quesada idea of Peter’s marriage to MJ is a bad idea, read the spoiler and look for the obvious plot hole.
Thoughts?
34 Comments
Uh Stephen, that last line kinda spoils the spoiler.
If done well, this could work, but it does remind me of a Byrne? plot idea that was shot down several years ago.
Stacy: not really since Joe Q is on record as saying if he could end the marriage he would.
Yes, if done well, it could work; I can personally see even Moralist Peter Parker deciding to let the old goat recede to where she was meant to be. From then on, the phrase would go “Nobody Stays Dead…Except for Uncle Ben, Aunt May, and Steve Rogers.”
However, as Stephen discusses, Peter’s memory of MJ won’t be gone – just the memory fo being marired to her, she’ll become an Old Flame again. Who knows, maybe they’ll just get together and have a legal partnership…
Tough decision?
Is there a promise o’ eternal life in this deal as well? Not to be insensitive but I think even Aunt May knows she’s not long for this world. She’s the world’s oldest 80-year-old. Hey Peter, give up everything you know and hold dear for a year or two more with your Aunt May. What. I like Aunt May too but if she is the woman I know she is, she would be appalled that Peter would even choose her over MJ.
Whatever else happens, it’s a brilliant way of getting rid of the marriage if that’s your goal. It makes the loss of it a noble sacrifice and that’s something that won’t hang over the stories for years to come. Not sure if I agree it’s a good idea, but we’ll see.
She’s the world’s oldest 80-year-old.
So how many years has she been eighty?
Well if the Swing Shif story from Free Comic Book Day is any indication, Peter will go with Aunt May. While MJ goes on to do other things like play the role of the mysterious Jackpot. Also, we keep thinking this is a choice that Peter makes. Perhaps MJ sacrifices their love to save Aunt May and Peter….
I agree with Gin. An old womans few more years of life over the possibility of decades with your love. Aunt May would never go for that. Though I imagine she won’t have a chance to chime in on the subject. I suspect that Peter will do what he always does; Save lives.
Brother: I like you take on the plot.
I think it’s pretty hokey. I don’t understand why they can’t just get divorced? The supernatural elements makes it too easy for editors to do something crazy (for… ahem, sales) and then un-do it when the plot becomes an albatross (marriage, un-masking, May’s shooting).
Adding to this is the Spider-Man “Swing Shift” one shot by Dan Slott that came out for FCBD. In May, I thought this was out of continuity but now appears to be within. In this story, there is a red haired super hero who assists Spidey. Now, she has also appeared in previews for Slott’s first arc in ASM. Her name? Jackpot! So the fans lose the marriage but gain MJ as a hero? Perhaps not the worst outcome but personally I’d rather have kept the marriage with a writer who can do something with it.
In a perverse way, I hope this is exactly what it appears – Quesada’s attempt at eliminating the Peter/MJ marriage. Mostly because I want to see whether or not we’re all wrong. Mayhaps I’m suffering from selective hearing, but I have yet to hear anyone outside of Quesasa indicate this was a good idea. So I would really like to see it happen as a lithmus to whether JQ really does know the audience better than we select few.
Ugh. The mystical angle stinks, reeks of ‘The Other’. Remember how Peter died, and came back with enhanced powers? Oh you don’t … that’s because it’s been wholly ignored by the greater Marvel continuity. I’m really worried about this one.
DDAY (aka Jon): The role Mephisto plays in OMD is purely speculation on the part of the Internets and nothing that has come out (or hinted) by Marvel. I only point it out in this article because it makes since in relation to the spoiler information. Heck, there could be a time travel angle to all of this.
Stephen
Additionally, we haven’t talked about this also possibly being the deus ex machina to wipe out all of that secret identity reveal stuff. Hey? Do you think Captain America will STILL be dead after this is all over?
I thinking ending Peter and MJ’s marriage is a GODAWFUL IDEA! Peter & MJ have become the Superman & Lois Lane equivalent (only not as tired and played out as DC has made it.) And ending it to save Aunt May….. seriously Aunt May wouldn’t want it and Peter is a fool if that is the deal.
I hate that Spiderman has to continuely suffer. He can never have anything good, What CRAP. It is a cop out for a writer to think that Suffering is the only good plot device out there. Seriously they should Just Nail Peter to the cross and let him die and leave him dead.
Spiderman MUST suffer is as tired as the idea that the DCU MUST be rebooted every 10 years. I’m sick of it give me something new.
Hey. This is my first time writing anything here (I hope it is free), and I am from Spain, so, sorry about my english…
That said… I hate the whole “Joe Q vs Spiderman Marriage” thing… If he does not like it, I think he should resolve it by divorcing them, or kill her, not erase it only because being a widover will Peter look older… Cyclops is an on-off widover, and nobody has a problem with that. And we have a young Spiderman in ultimate… do we really need nother?
If this is a Mephisto thing… you do not struck a deal with the devil… he would do something like Mary Jane forgeting Spidey and their marriage, but Peter don´t
As more evidence of MJ = Jackpot, in the free comic, Jackpot also calls him ‘Tiger’.
As Jim noted, it now seems that that story could well have been a glimpse of future continuity (especially with the preview artwork of ASM #549 [I think it is], with Spidey and Jackpot together on a roof). To me, that makes this entire concept of “One More Day” nothing more than a huge copout on the part of Marvel, as even if Pete chooses May over MJ, I can hardly believe that Jackpot/MJ won’t become his major love interest anyway. Hell, they can even have a marriage down the road to appease the fans if the reaction to a breakup is overwhelmingly negative.
Well let me throw this into the mix, based off Brad’s comment. One of the earliest tenets of the Spiderman character concept is that despite the moral victories and successes he experiences as a superhero, his realtime life is unsuccessful. My question is, is that still valid? Does it really add nuance to have Peter have problems with his job, making rent, etc or is it ultimately a distraction to what we find interesting? Case in point, rarely did stories center around Steve Rogers – it was potentially irrelevant. Did you care about Jubilee’s grade point average was at the Xavier School? Proooobably not.
My point being, is it relevant to have Peter suffer anymore as a character? I tend to say no, because I don’t necessarily “relate” to Peter because he’s having rent troubles, I find I relate to him more because he has an everyman perspective even in the strangest of circumstances, demonstrated in his propensity for wisecracking. Not as a Three-Stooge-esque dork (like Deadpool), but more that I can relate to his reactions. (My penultimate favorite being the time Dr. Strange asked him to meditate during I think the Other storyline, and after several panels of him sitting in a chair being quiet… he goes to the men’s room. That made me laugh out loud.
I say get rid of it. It’s not relevant, and it clutters plot.
You know what? I still fail to see why this is such a big deal to Quesada. He says death or divorce leaves baggage to deal with. Well, guess what? You’re the EIC. You can do either of those things and then ban writers from referring to them for a few years. It’s only baggage if you use it! Batman and Iron Man should be incredible downers because of their respective histories of dead girlfriends and failed relationships but they’re not. Instead we get four issues of boring story. Lucky us.
Aunt May gripping on to life with her shriveled talon like fingers is now Marvel’s Superboy-Prime punch.
Well Peter is a highly intelligent guy right? Well he should know better than anyone (since he died) that Aunt May is old and that death is inevitable and Aunt May is about ready to go. this shouldn’t be a question he should go with MJ.
Now your the writer, EIC, whatever, if you don’t want MJ in a story, here’s a novel idea, don’t include her. She can just make cameos every once and awhile as a target or showing concern for Peter, but to erase the wedding and memory of it is dumb. You don’t have to write her in every story just becase she’s married to Pete. She’s doesn’t have to always be a liability. Let the good guy have a hot wife, it does happen from time to time. Like many others on here Peter has had enough crap in his life why take away a very good thing.
Let’s take any other Superhero with a side kick or friend, relative, they are not constantly in trouble or included in every issue. Take batman for example, was Alfred in every issue? Commisioner Gordon? Robin? etc, etc, etc. Just because a character has loved ones, side kicks, employees, etc they don’t appear in every issue but they don’t have to be erased from memory do they?
Write a story about Spiderman, Pete fighting an enemy and let MJ be at home cooking dinner, watching a dvd, getting back into modeling, acting, etc, off panel home, safe, not in danger or a target, not in the story, but at the end of the night Pete can swing home and have some adult fun with his wife off panel. We don’t have to see her and Pete doesn’t have to mention her, but they are still married.
If it’s a Mephisto story, it gives them an out for Peter to somehow reverse it if there is enough uproar from the fans, IMHO just stay clear of this all together and just let Aunt May join Uncle Ben.
If Peter chooses May over MJ, then he’s not the hero I thought he was. It would be a mistake I could see him make, but it would really disappointing and probably ruin Spidey for me. It’s not what May would want and it’s not what Uncle Ben would teach him to do. IMHO, choosing May’s like takes a lot of the heroic out of Peter.
Thanks a lot, Joe Q. It wasn’t ban enough to ruin Iron Man for me, he goes after Spidey too.
BTW, Batman is a downer and it’s why I rarely read any of his books (“Batman in a relationship? Gee, I wonder what will happen?”)
Wow, what a desperate way to write a Reset Button into the situation.
“I will save May…but in return, you become a bachelor again!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! CHOOSE!”
“Wow, I thought you’d want my life in exchange for hers…or my soul, or something. I’ll still know Mary Jane, right?”
“…Well, yeah. But all your memories of love and marriage will be gone! And the photos! The wedding album will be MINE FOR ALL ETERNITY! AHHHHHHHHAHAHAHA!”
“Will you restore her virginity then?”
“That’s not an issue and you know it!”
“What’s going to fill in all that blank space in her memory?”
“SUDOKU! Sudoku and the Internet! HAH HAH HAH HAH HAAAAAAH!”
“Now you sound like Phantom of Krankor. Did I wake up in DC or something? This makes Superboy Prime Retcon Punch seem, I dunno, LESS stupid.”
“SHUT UP AND CHOOSE! I DO NOT HAVE A BET GOING WITH DIDIO ON WHO CAN WRECK THEIR COMPANY FIRST! THAT’S A LIE!”
“What? Say, what’s behind this curtain?”
“DO NOT LOOK BEHIND THE CURTAIN!”
I find that idea that Peter could love May so much more than MJ that he’d be willing to make a deal with Mephisto rather than let May rest in peace with her late husband kind of disturbing (maybe in a Jerry Springer way). Pulling in Mephisto just kind of comes across like they threw their hands in the air because they couldn’t think of a better way to do things.
Didn’t John Byrne blow up MJ a few years ago?
Didn’t John Byrne blow up MJ a few years ago?
Yeah, but it turned out she wasn’t on the Plane, she’d been kidnapped and held by her Stalker…who was secretly a spastic mutant whose powers made him look just like Peter and have Peter’s memories and want to, I don’t know, ABSORB Peter, and his way of doing this was to keep Pete’s Wife hostage for a month or so, and THEN he went and exploded himself after the phrase ‘With Great Power etc.’ turned him emo.
In Byrne/Mackie we trust…to give us the perspective to know that this isn’t the WORST thing that could happen.
Looks like this deus ex machina is Mephisto based on preview covers with that red hand and the shard of glass from the broken image of Peter and MJ. Loki could be another option since he owes Peter a favour from earlier in JMS’s run and with Thor back now, Loki can’t be too far behind.
It’s funny though that in Greyhaven’s Life Of Reilly article, which details the behind scenes stuff for the Clone Saga, they reveal that they discussed having Mephisto come in and magically solve all the problems and wrap up the Clone Saga. They dismissed it saying that cosmic or magic based solutions to the street level and every-man character of Peter Parker would be a slap in the face to readers and a horrible ending to any Spider-Man story that would cheapen the characters. Yet here we are 10+ years later and they are doing that exact ending to fix somethign that isnt even broken.
Kirk Warren
The Weekly Crisis
http://www.weeklycrisis.com
Happenstance: you had me laughing out loud. I still think Mary Jane is the one that makes the choice…not Petey. I wonder if there still is another curve ball Marvel’s planning while we’re playing Monday Morning Spoiler:)
Rather than Mephisto, can Peter just face off with Joey Q. in the comic? That’s who really wants the marriage. I mean, come on, why does Mephisto give a cr@p that Peter is married? …And I want to echo the sentiment that Peter chosing May over MJ is creepy. Should he stop dating and move back in with May? I can understand that they don’t want Spider-Man to age, but do we want him to regress?
It wouldn’t exactly be a situation in which Peter would be trading his marriage to MJ just for Aunt May’s life as some of you have said. I presume that the deal would undo Peter’s revealing his secret identity and thus protect his remaining loved ones from suffering May’s fate. Not that this makes the upcoming storyline a good idea but I’m sure it won’t be all about saving Aunt May.
I say it still sucks, even if they restore his secret identity. Just shows that Joe Q is more shock than story. I mean, how many years did Wally go without one until that Deus Ex Machina that gave it back?
It hasn’t been even a year and we’re retconing it now for a marriage that only a select few have a problem with? It wreaks of bad story telling. It also diminishes (IMHO) Spiderman as a hero. Could you see any married supehero make the trade that Joe Q wants Peter to make?
Also, the stick that married heroes aren’t relatable is old. I’m sick of hearing that almost every hero marrige has to end in a break up because the thought of it makes tween-boy nervous. I’m also sick of almost every heroes kid getting bumped off because it makes the character old. If you think about it, it’s surprising that Liam Harper is still around.
I personally think that MJ re-inforces the “everyman” feel of Spidey. I mean before making these major decisions he talks it over with his wife over coffee. How much more everyman can you get then that?
J’osh: Apparently Quesada would like to reinforce the belief that today’s “everyman” is an out-of-work single criminal.
And when people ask me why I don’t read Marvel anymore, I just point to this kind of crap.
Why does Marvel continue to torture one of my favorite childhood heroes? MJ is one of the only bright things in his life and they’re talking about possibly giving Peter the choice between her and Aunt May. Now unlike alot of the people in this forum, one of the reasons I relate with Spider-Man is his life isn’t perfect. I feel like one of the reasons that people relate with this character so much is that like in alot of peoples lives, things just never seem to go right for him. Everytime something good happens to him, something bad comes along to balance it out. He has real problems like you and I, and he is the true “unsung hero” of comics, that why he is constantly made to suffer. There are other ways that Marvel can go about making his life hell than taking away the one good thing he has in it, MJ. I agree with the person that said that Peter would never do such a thing. I’ve put up with the Clone Saga, and Gwen Stacy having an affair with Norman Osborn, but if Marvel does this, I’m done with reading their stuff.