One More Day

One More Day

Amazing Spider-Man #544-545, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #24, and Sensational Spider-Man #41

Originally released in 2007

Written by J. Michael Straczynski (#1-4), Joe Quesada (#4)

Art by Joe Quesada

This is one of the more infamous Spider-Man stories out there, and one where the negative effects are still being felt in the franchise over a decade later.  Unlike the Clone Saga or Sins Past, the events of this can't exactly be brushed under the rug.  I read this story years ago, and I remember disliking it, but maybe I'll be able to find things that I like about it now.

...This is the first panel, on the first page, and I'm already hating this.  After Peter revealed that he was Spider-Man during Civil War, and left the pro-Registration side for their role in the death of Goliath, Kingpin hired a sniper to kill Peter.  The sniper shot Aunt May, and while Peter ruined the Kingpin's reputation (effortlessly beating him up in the prison that Wilson was being held in and making it clear that the Kingpin had never been a threat to him), the damage was done.

Now Aunt May is hospitalized, and to make matters worse, the hospital is demanding a ton of money or else they'll send her to a charity ward, where her death goes from "near certain" to "guaranteed". (the only way they won't do that is if Peter has a "bottomless checkbook", which seems like a damning criticism of the American medical system)

Peter is forced to go to Tony Stark to beg for help, but neither one comes across as being great in this scenario.  Peter seems immature, an issue that will remain throughout this event - he lashes out at Tony, claiming that it's all his fault for convincing Peter to unmask and saying that Aunt May and Mary Jane will be safe, leaving out the fact that Peter left that protection of his own free will.  Meanwhile, Tony continues his Civil War-era habit of being a colossal asshole, saying that he can't/won't do anything because it would mean aiding and abetting a criminal, even though (to my knowledge) Aunt May isn't a criminal. (he's referring to Peter with that remark, but it seems like a stretch to extend that to Aunt May)

Tony does change his mind, having Jarvis pose as Aunt May's cousin and giving him millions of dollars to get her better treatment at the hospital, but it's not going to change the inevitable.  Peter rushes off to see Doctor Strange, figuring that if anyone can defy fate, it would be him.

Doctor Strange gives Peter a magical artifact that lets him be everywhere at once, and yet everyone that he goes to says that they can't do anything.  I get that Doctor Octopus and Reed Richards might not be able to help despite having the motivation to (Peter's a longtime friend of the Fantastic Four, and Ock is in love with Aunt May) because they're not medical doctors (though I'm sure that, at some point in their history, they've shown skill in that area).  However, he even goes to Doctor Doom, who would love to have a friend of the Fantastic Four under his thumb, has access to a time machine, and could be convinced with four words: "because Reed Richards can't".

It's not like this was a Vibranium bullet, or some sort of bullet that negates mutant powers (one mutant, Elixir, has an ability that is basically "heal anything") - it's just an ordinary bullet, and yet it's impossible for anyone to save Aunt May.  Everyone, from a doctor in the hospital, to Doctor Strange, to (in issues outside of One More Day) Aunt May's soul or God Himself gives Peter the same advice - "everyone has their time, and the most important thing you can do is be with your aunt and cherish the time you spent together."  Peter refuses to accept this, feeling that if Aunt May dies, it will be his fault.

At this point, Peter is confronted by people who are heavily implied to be versions of him from other lives that he could have had, along with his future daughter.  He doesn't pick up on this until it's spelled out for him - one version of Peter comes across as directly insulting the audience, as he became obsessed with escapist fiction (much like the comic book that you're reading this story in!) because his own life is so unfulfilling.

Another version of Peter used his inventions to become wealthy (like Tony Stark levels of wealthy), but even with enough money to buy just about anything, he's still unhappy because he never found love. This culminates with the Devil appearing before Spider-Man, offering him a deal - he can make minor changes to the timeline if, and only if, one of the key players agrees to it.  He can save Aunt May's life, but at a cost.

This entire story was intended to remove Peter and Mary Jane's marriage, nothing more and nothing less. Despite this being the premise of the story, Mary Jane has surprisingly little to do with anything until the final issue, where she outright tells Peter "you know what, maybe we SHOULD make a deal with the Devil!"

It feels insulting that Mary Jane's main involvement in this story is to convince Peter to take the deal.  While both J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada are credited for writing issue four, I have a gut feeling that Quesada did most of the writing for that one, because the quality seems to take a dramatic slide downwards.

After being given one day to decide, they ultimately agree to the deal. The art quality seems to decline as well, with Peter and Mary Jane looking off in several panels. Maybe it's the shading, or maybe Quesada is working in the idea that being married "ages" Peter somehow.

Mary Jane gets a good line in about how, even if this deal with the devil is undoing their marriage, they'll still find each other, but it rings hollow when over fifteen years later, no progress has been made in their relationship. Every time it seems like they're going to move forward, Marvel editorial forcefully shoves them apart (as seen with Paul in Zeb Wells's Amazing Spider-Man run).

It's framed as though it's a heroic act, with Peter and Mary Jane sacrificing their happiness for the life of someone who's dear to them.  However, I can't help but feel like this betrays the core method of Spider-Man: with great power comes great responsibility.  In spite of his rant to Tony earlier, this situation was caused mostly by Spider-Man's own actions, and rather than understanding this, he makes a deal with the Devil to avoid having to take responsibility for his mistakes.

Peter wakes up in a world where he never married Mary Jane, who has split up with him due to some unspecified incident.  Aunt May is alive, and Peter's living at her house, making it feel like he's regressed back to his high school life.

The only other significant change is that Harry Osborn is alive again, when he originally died years ago after taking on the mantle of the Green Goblin.  We're also introduced to Carlie Cooper, who will become much more prominent shortly after this, and not in a good way. (She becomes Peter's new love interest, with everyone from Mary Jane to the Black Cat to Gwen Stacy insisting that she's absolutely perfect for Peter no matter how out of character that seems)

There's a good message here about grief, acceptance, and cherishing the time that you have with your loved ones, but that falls flat when Peter aggressively ignores this message at every possible opportunity. Peter comes across as a teenager throwing a tantrum, Mary Jane is barely in a story that should be partially about her, the entire Marvel universe loses its collective intelligence to make this plot happen, and Mephisto gets what he wants and continues to get what he wants for the past seventeen years as of this writing, with nobody being aware of it or able to stop it. To add insult to injury, the issues of One More Day end with excerpts from older comics, with the final issue containing a bit from the wedding of Spider-Man and Mary Jane.  This means that this comic, which is actively dedicated to destroying that marriage for no apparent reason, ends with this:

One More Day may have a few emotional moments in there, but it's nowhere near worth it to dig through the mountain of garbage to find them, and the premise of this story and the decisions of Marvel's editorial during and since then make most of them ring hollow. This comic seems to come from this mean-spirited or bitter mindset that Spider-Man can't be interesting if he's happy or in a stable relationship, and it makes me want to read more issues where Spider-Man and Mary Jane are married to see them both being happy with each other.