OK, so I know I've already made my position clear. And you are all probably tired of me ripping on One More Day.But I've got a few more things I've got to rant about. No more about how idiotic and offensive the general idea was, though. This time I'll focus on how sloppy and abysmal the actual execution was.
A) Does anyone at Marvel have any sense of irony? The last page is a list of testimonials on how great JMS's run on Amazing Spider-Man was...in a story that effectively wiped out what, 85% of the stories he wrote? 90%? 95%?
B) Speaking of which, this is stunning--this is a Crisis on Infinite Earths level of continuity reboot, which Marvel generally hasn't done. Yet it affects only one character. It's as if DC had re-done only Superman's continuity after Crisis, while everybody else stayed the same.
Aside from Harry Osborn remaining alive (which you think would impact all the Goblin stories post-Harry's death, not to mention Norman and Thunderbolts), what about all the myriad Marvel heroes and villains who knew Peter's identity? Did Mephisto wipe out only the grand Super Hero Registration Act revelation of Spidey's secret ID? What about Daredevil, or Venom? Does Norman Osborn still know?
Speaking of which, what about the Civil War? Spider-Man revealed his ID to Tony Stark BEFORE the Civil War...did that still happen? Do the rest of the "New" Avengers still know his secret? Did Spider-man still play such a pivotal part in the Civil War? If he's unregistered and still super-heroing, well, the head of the Thunderbolts and maybe Tony Stark know his civilian identity...so much for keeping Aunt May safe, eh? Or has EVERYTHING been wiped out?
I'm not sure why such an extensive revision of history was needed (and geez, if Mephisto has that much power over time and space, wouldn't he own everybody's soul by now?). Hopefully Quesada will give us a flow chart or something. But just you wait--with our luck it will turn out that all of Spider-man's recent history EXCEPT for "Sins Past" will have been wiped out...
Of course, none of this ridiculously confusing reboot would have necessary had Quesada merely had the courage of his convictions and actually ended the Peter/Mary Jane marriage rather than pretending it had never happened.
C) Just so no one thinks that I'm letting JMS off the hook here, let's note the sheer hypocrisy of his infamous blog post: He was going to take his name off the last two issues of OMD, but he didn't because he "didn't want to sabotage Joe or Marvel..." Fine, except rather than going through with the "silent" protest of removing his name, he publicly calls out Quesada and Marvel on his blog. So that's less sabotaging, JMS?
Also, why is it that whenever JMS writes an arc that proves intensely unpopular with the fans, it always turns out to be the fault of the editors? Just askin'...
D) Hey, Joe Quesada: just how slow do you draw, man? Given the number of panels that were photocopies in this issue, I shudder to think when this storyline would have finished had you actually pencilled EVERY page...
E) Remember the marketing tagline, "What would you do...with one more day?" Apparently, the answer is "Sit around a dark motel room for 24 hours." And judging by the lighting effects on page 10, spend most of that time frozen in one position.
F) Well, at least this means Mary Jane won't turn out to be a Skrull. Doesn't it? Then again, I must admit it would be a very Mephisto-y turn if he saved "Aunt May" only to have Peter shattered when she turns out to be a Skrull. OK, now I'm kind of rooting for that...
G) Remember how a large chunk of Part 3 consisted of Mephisto taking Peter around and showing him alternate versions of Peter? What exactly was the point of that? By showing Peter how unhappy his life could have turned out without Mary Jane, isn't he actually making it less likely that Peter would accept his deal?
And really, was there any reason, besides sucking still more money out of us, to have this be a 4-parter? They could have dumped the reprints (of only half of stories!!) and Handbook pages, condensed down the events of 1 & 2 into one issue, cut out the "Possible Peter tour" and done a little less Xeroxing, and we've got a 2 issue story here. Yeah, it would still suck, but I'd be $8 less broke.
All right, that's enough. I've got to sleep now.
UPDATE: After posting I saw that Caleb had previously posted similar thoughts on OMD, especially my points A & B. Sorry, bro. I promise I didn't steal...just warped minds thinking alike.
4 comments:
I read both yours and Caleb's and though some points were similar, both were good reading.
Though I've little to no interest in Spider-Man these days - and I'd say the same is true of any "editorially mandated" project at either company - I am curious to find out how much of a continuity quagmire has been created here.
I've been calling for a reboot of the Marvel universe for a while now, just to undo all the stupid stuff they've done since the 90s really. Sometimes I think they don't do it just because DC'S stolen all the "good" ways of doing it.
For example, they should reboot the MU just to get rid of this particular reboot.
The funny thing is, Marvel had their reboot--the Ultimate universe. But instead of having the balls to do it as a reboot, they just made it "another" universe alongside the "real" one.
That's cool; I imagine there's a LOT of overlap griping about this story, considering the amount of griping going down. And it was nice to see someone else noting that they sat in the exact same position for 24 hours.
Yes, you'd think they'd at least move around a little bit, take part one last time in some activity they enjoy together, rut like bunnies...something!!
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