::@:: Reality of Dreams ::@::

This is about comics, so please feel free to ignore…

So the “One More Day” arc has just finished, I was going to rant at length about this but my feelings are covered by others out there, such as here in Bureau 42 and here in a Newsarama round table.

For those who don’t know it basically is a plot where Parker and MJ make a deal with Mephisto (basically the devil) to sacrifice their marriage in exchange to save Aunt May (the deal itself is only mentioned at the end of episode 3 of 4) and also wipe out the knowledge of who Spider-man is (which happily happens as an apparent side effect in no4).

I have to say that I am extremly disappointed in the way this has all turned out. I really do not think this was well thought out idea, in any of the forms I have heard it could have taken (that includes JMS’s, which is odd for me to say). I mean, Deus Ex Machina has its place, and if well used can be alright, this was a hideous implementation and poorly thought out leaving more problems that answers. Even if it is as Quesada (head guy at Marvel) says that MJ and Parker were still always a couple but just never got married in regards to previous storylines, then that is just rubbing salt into the wound and making it even less of a good idea. A further quote from Quesada didn’t help (found here):

Now, instead of having to build up this pact with Mephisto to dissolve the marriage, why not just divorce them?

Sure, that would have been a very easy solution. However, how would a parent feel when they had to explain to their kid that Spider-Man just got divorced from his wife? How would that headline read across the AP or on USA today? The same can be said with an annulment. Sure, divorce is a reality of life, but Peter Parker and Spider-Man are not the types of characters that would do that. Spider-Man is a worldwide icon and is considered one of the good guys, like Superman. There’s always the option of killing off MJ, but over the years way too many key characters in Spider-Man mythology have been killed off. Much like the marriage, those deaths hurt the book. The Spider-Man books were better with Harry in them, as well as Norman. Also, how much older would Peter seem as a widower — yikes!

That annoyed me on many levells lest of all that Peter had to the one who divorced MJ, why not the other way round? I don’t think it makes them suddenly not a good-guy if they did get divorced either! Grr… so many annoying attitude in one paragraph!

I really think Marvel have shot themselves in the foot with one, which they (and DC) seem to be doing an awful lot of at the moment. I’m of to cool down again… at least its snowing.

EDIT: - JMS weighs in again - here, makes for some interesting reading.

EDIT2: Marvel have released an image to try and quell the growing annoyance at OMD, you can see the new status quo here, and simultaneously on their forums they start getting a bit tetchy, I can understand not wanting personal attacks but then going off on one about there being no such thing as free speech, seemed rather, well, odd. In case you couldn’t guessed I’m still a bit miffed, not as much as some, but I guess time will tell, its probably quite unlikely that its permanent… I hope.