One More Day.
Three words, and probably the three most controversial words in comic fandom today. For those who've been hiding under a highly impenetrable rock for the last week, here's the deal. It's all about Spider-Man, see? You know the score - lovable loser, bitten by radioactive spider, uses powers for good after becoming accidentally responsible for his uncle's death. Fought lots of villains, girlfriend got killed, married a supermodel later on...
And there's the sticking point - Spider-Man is married. This happened 20 years ago, which is longer than many of today's readers have been following the title. But a lot of writers, and more importantly Marvel's Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada, don't think he should be. It's a reasonable viewpoint. There are a lot more situations you can stick Peter Parker in, at least as far as romantic angles go, when he's single. And perhaps it's no coincidence that the Spidey books were mostly good up until the mid-80s, and mostly crap afterwards. But leaving that aside, Joe Quesada (and others I'm sure) decides Spider-Man is no longer to be married, so married he will no longer be.
But there's a problem! A major goal of unmarrying Spider-Man is to make him seem younger. If he gets a divorce, he seems older. If his wife Mary-Jane dies, he becomes a widower and seems older. And you know, he can't cheat on his wife, or he's a rotten bastard. So what's the natural solution? Deal with the devil of course!
That's the story of One More Day. Peter Parker's Aunt May is dying, so Mephisto pops up and gives him a choice. He will save Aunt May's life at a price - Peter Parker's marriage. And because Peter's a very guilty sort, he more or less accepts. Cue Mephisto causing some temporal shenanigans, and the new status quo of Spider-Man is born, the basics of which are as follows:
* Peter Parker and Mary Jane never got married twenty years ago. They never got married at all.
* Everyone forgets that Peter Parker is Spider-Man
* Harry Osborn is alive again.
Now obviously, this plays havoc with Spider-Man's continuity - in essence, the last two decades worth of stories did not happen as written. Not to mention the ripples this should have on Marvel continuity as a whole, as Spider-Man is a pretty central figure who interacts with nearly everyone. This could ugly very quickly.
Needless to say, comic fandom has been pretty upset by these developments. This is not a minor retcon - it's an invalidation of hundreds and hundreds of comics. Sure, those comics still exist, and many of the events may have happened almost exactly as depicted, but the principle stands. Marvel have made their stance clear, and that stance is that its own history no longer matters. They can change anything whenever they wish, no matter how contrived the manner used to get there.
All this has been caused by one of the central conflicts that publishers face with superhero soap operas. A sizable portion of their audience, and especially the longterm readers, place a lot of value on continuity and character growth. They want to see the characters develop and progress through life as regular people do. They want to see Peter Parker graduate hihg school, move through college, get married, have children. They may even want to see him grow old, and have someone else take over his mantle. And why not, it works in a lot of other genres, doesn't it?
And then there's the other side of the coin. Many believe that every character has an iconic state that they should not progress beyond. The characters should not undergo permanent major changes in their lives, but rather exist in a state where change is temporary or cosmetic. This is a valid viewpoint as well - all successful superheroes have a storytelling engine that drives them, and tinkering with that engine can close off a lot of options. Taking Spider-Man as an example, look at his job at the Daily Bugle. He works as a freelance photographer, and this has a lot of storytelling potential - plus it's an easy way for him to hear about crimes. Recently he left that job to become a teacher, which is fine for a few stories, but it doesn't exactly work as a method for getting Spider-Man into superhero adventures.
So, growth or iconic stature? It's a difficult question, and Spider-Man is the character at the heart of the problem more so than any others. After all, he's the only A-list superhero to begin life as a teenager and grow into adulthood. He started in high school, and graduated after a few years. He progressed through college, and the love of his life was killed by his archenemy. And then he got married - what could be more natural?
The problem is that the core of Spider-Man's character is that he is a loser. He might win as Spider-Man, but he can't have to many victories as Peter Parker or the series gets dull. He needs problems, one after another after another. Money problems, work problems, supervillain problems, frail Aunt problems. And yes, girl problems. Obviously the marriage cuts the last of those off, because Spider-Man can't even entertain the thought of other women and still retain his rep as a virtuous guy.
I'm not sure where I stand on the situation. Is Spider-Man more entertaining as a single guy? Absolutely. But I love reading about the life of Peter Parker, and I love it as an developing story. I'm a continuity nut. Yes, I realise that not every detail can be adhered to. But for every character there are broad strokes that must apply. Spider-Man got married, and that's the status quo that Marvel should be dealing with.
The title's will be good for the foreseeable future, I've no doubt about that. Amazing Spider-Man is shifting to a thrice-monthly schedule, with rotating writers and artists. And with talent like Dan Slott, Marc Guggenheim and Bob Gale, it will entertain if nothing else. I'm just not sure that I'll care anymore, because who knows now when Marvel will shift the goalposts again?
There is one ray of hope. It is possible, however unlikely, that this is a finite story which will end in a couple of years with Mephisto's spell broken and Peter reunited with his wife. I can't see it happening, personally, but it's always possible.
The only solution I really see now is a complete reboot. Not just of Spider-Man - reboot the entire Marvel Universe. Give every major character a send-off, wrap it all up with a gigantic crossover, and start the whole thing over from scratch. Do this every twenty or thirty years, and you solve the problem. Characters can age and grow. Continuity will not grow to such an unwieldy level. And characters will remain fresh for every generation, never aging too much . And best of all, the characters get an ending to their story, instead of a never-ending series of events. It's not the perfect solution, but I do think it is the best one.
Henry10
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