Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by retailer Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in
Well, One More Day finally made it to comic shops, and since everyone else seems to have had their say, I suppose it wouldn't hurt if I had mine. First, I've got to admit the story had twists I never saw coming; unexpected consequence number one of 'the deal' being the resurrection of Harry Osborn. And while I like seeing an old member of the supporting cast come back, it changes so much of the series' history I half expect Marvel (not to give them any ideas) will announce a Spider-Man miniseries retelling how things in the past now 'really' happened.
But while they're in the process of correcting grievous mistakes the Spider-Man comics have made over the years, hopefully Gwen Stacy was never inexplicably impregnated by Norman Osborn who was never skewered by his bat glider, presumed dead and spent years sulking in
The truth is, as much as people (like me) really hate what Joe Quesada has done to Spider-Man, clearly something had to be done to rehabilitate the character (thanks to Civil War, the franchise hasn't been this profoundly broken since the Clone Saga). But what really got to me about One More Day is they're trying to sell Peter and Mary Jane giving up the last ten (relative) years of their lives as well as their supposedly perfect love to be somehow heroic, when it is really selfish.
To me the core concept of Spider-Man was Peter Parker's constant struggle to do the right thing no matter the cost, so it seems more than a little out of character for him to give up and accept a quick fix to his problems instead of living with the consequences of his actions (a lesson he should have learned when he was sixteen). Supposedly it's about his guilt over the shooting of Aunt May, but it's really about Peter's inability to live without her, so it's kind of strange in all the pages of dialogue preceding his decision, he never asked himself the only real question: Is this what Aunt May would have wanted?
No. Not the (let's face it) cardboard cut-out created by Stan Lee, and certainly not the very real character J. Michael Straczynski turned her into during his run. She wouldn't have wanted Peter to make that kind of sacrifice for her, and she certainly wouldn't have wanted him to consort with the devil to do it.
It can be painful when a work of fiction hits too close to home, like for the people who were incensed over the death of Lisa storyline in the Funky Winkerbean comic strip, believing that seeing a tragedy that had affected them being played out on the funny pages somehow diminishes it.* So if it seems like I'm taking all of this a little too personally, it's probably because I am.
Last year my grandmother died. She was ninety-eight so it was hardly unexpected, but she was the great joy of my life and my moral compass, and if I am any good at all it's because of her. I would have gladly given ten years of my life to make her healthy and happy again, but she wouldn't have wanted me to even if I could have. Her greatest wishes were for my happiness, and as much as I wanted her to stay with me, she knew it was her time and accepted it with grace, knowing the values she instilled in me would sustain me, and allowing me to accept the inevitable.
I suppose it says a lot about me that I want Peter Parker, a guy I grew up with, to do the same, but Joe's right; we shouldn't ask him to grow up. He owes the next generation the same opportunity we had to see him dating all the wrong people and beating the crap out of bad guys in rubber masks. One More Day has been called a great jumping off point for old fans, and I've got to admit as that it works great: because this is where I get off.
*Somebody please confirm this for me, but I'm guessing this is the reason Marvel never identified the disease Peter Parker was supposedly dying from during the interminable The Other sequence. The thinking being if they had identified it as cancer or leukemia, the company would've been barraged with complaints about how they were making light of a serious disease by having Peter magically recover from it.
The opinions expressed in this Talk Back article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
