Monday, December 31, 2007

End of a Marriage…start of a brand new day.

On Friday 12/28/07, Marvel comics released Amazing Spider-man #545 which was the last part of a four part cross-over called “One More Day”, written by J. Michael Straczynski and illustrated by Joe Quesada.


This controversial mini-series was going to change the life of Spider-man forever starting with the removal of his marriage.

But before we get to that lets give you a back story on all that has been happening in the world of comics.

In 2006 Marvel had a company wide cross-over titled Civil War, which had heroes against heroes in a battle over the need for a Superhuman Registration Act in the United States., during this cross-over Spider-Man deciding to prove his point reveals his secret identity as Peter Parker to the world.

After realizing that he was on the wrong side of the battle, Peter joined the rebellion in a losing cause. With his identity known to the public he and everyone he knows became a target.


Almost immediately following the Civil War, Peter’s Aunt May is shot by an unnamed assassin hired by the Kingpin to kill Peter. With Peter being a fugitive due to the registration act, he is unable to provide Medical help to Aunt May and she slipped into a coma. After Failing to get help from the most powerful people in the Marvel U, Peter begs god to help him no matter what, but instead of god he gets mephisto ( who is Marvel's Satan) who offers to save aunt May's life and in return he wanted Peter & Mary Jane's marriage. The catch, as there always is with the Devil, is they would both feel some pain of loss from losing their marriage without knowing what that pain is from.


Peter & Mary Jane have a decision to make Peter says that he could never live with himself if he let aunt May died because he believes it was his fault she got shot in the first place and Mary Jane only cares about is Peter's happiness. With both of them taking Mephisto up on his offer, Peter wakes up the next day living with aunt May and having his friends back with no recollection of his prior life toasting to a brand new day.

One of the things that has made me and a lot of fans upset, was that the decision to do this storyline was the editor in chief's idea, not the writer. In fact J Michael Straczynski mention on his blog that he wanted to take his name of this story line but was talked into keeping it. Joe Quesada (marvel's Editor in chief) has mentions several times that one of the problems with Spider-man was that he was married and there are no new stories to be told with him being married, that many of the younger audience didn't relate to a thirty year old married spider-man. So he decided that the best way to take care of this, is to have Peter make a deal with the devil.

I'm sorry but this is a horrible decision on the part of Marvel, to get rid of something that was precious and long lasting in the world of comics (this is the 20th anniversary of their marriage)
just to push the envelope, just because one person can't relate to the character anymore.
there are many alternatives books to read if you want a story about an un-attached spider-man (ultimate spider-man, marvel adventure series), i personally don't need a younger spider-man, i grew up on those stories and i want the characters to grew with me.

Marvel you will always have a die hard fan in me, but your pushing your fans away this time and i lot of them are not going to come back.

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