Brand New Day, Same Old Idea

This charming fellow is Anti-Venom, the new character set to debut in Amazing Spider-Man when writer Dan Slott returns to the book in August. If you remember what happened in Slott's first Amazing story, which just so happened to be the first "Brand New Day" story, then you'll remember the character Slott previously introduced, Mr. Negative. Here's what I wrote about Mr. Negative then:

"There’s a new villain named Mr. Negative. He has the power to…um…be the opposite color of what he should be…or something. He’s a low level crime boss who’s trying to take out the heads of the mob families in New York so that he can run the show. He has a bomb, some kids are in danger, Spidey saves the day. Mr. Negative escapes. The end. The whole thing seemed nothing more than a generic super hero adventure. And with someone as bad ass as The Hood running around trying to take control of New York’s criminal element, Mr. Negative seemed all the more pointless."

And since nothing's been done with the character since, I stand by that assessment.

And it seems once again that Dan Slott's introducing a new character that seems to have nothing new about it but an inverted color scheme. Anti-Venom's origin could be tied into that of Mr. Negative but since he wasn't that interesting of a character to begin with I'm not that thrilled. Come to think about it, I'm not that thrilled with most of the new characters since "Brand New Day". They just seem like rehashes of old Spider-Man characters, just with maybe a new wrinkle or two thrown in and some window dressing slapped on. For example...

Mr. Negative is a crime boss trying to take over all the organized crime in New York in the same vein as Big Man, Kingpin, Hammerhead, and Silvermane. The fact he's secretly Mr. Li, the nice guy Aunt May works for at the Feast Center, is just like how Big Man turned out to be Freddie Foswell, Peter's friend from the Bugle.

Dexter Bennett might as well be called J. Jonah Jameson Jr. He doesn't have it out for Spider-Man the way J.J. does, but he has the same loud mouthed, sensational, anything-to-sell-papers attitude.

Freak is reminiscent of the Lizard, Morbius, Vermin, and all the other "accidentally-changed-into-a-horrible-monster" villains Spidey's faced over the years. Freak even has Curt Connors tied up in his origin. The fact that when you kill him he comes back to life immune to whatever killed him is a nice touch, though.

Menace is the Green Goblin made over. We've even already had somebody impaled on a goblin gli...um, excuse me, menace glider. And if Menace doesn't turn out to be Harry Osborn, I'll owe you a Coke.

One could argue that there's nothing new in comics anymore and that everything is a rehash of something. But if they're going to market these Spider-Man stories as "Brand New Day" you think they'd have more than one brand new idea.

Enough already!

I did not post anything on One More Day while Casey's countdown was going on out of respect for my friend and co-author. Eventually, it kind of faded on me until I saw a posting on Comics Should be Good saying that nothing done in Brand New Day couldn't have been done with a married Peter Parker. No real backup - just stating the point.

To this I say ENOUGH ALREADY!

We get it - you didn't like One More Day. Fantastic. Move on. The stories are going forward, why the hell can't you? The repeated belly-aching about this story has gone on way past the point where it has any right to. It's like driving from Point A to Point B using Road C instead of Road D, even though Road D is a lot prettier. Are you going to moan about it for months past the trip? No! You got to Point B. Well done.

I have not heard anyone complain that Spider-Man needs to go back to organic web shooters, unmasked, and on the run from the government. The general consensus is that, despite how he got there, Peter is in a more comfortable place for readers now. The trip has ended. We've reached the destination. We aren't going back and taking another route now. LET. IT. GO.

And that's it. I've said my piece, and now I will heed my own advice and wash my hands of this debate.

Ten Reasons "One More Day" Is the Worst Spider-Man Story Ever

#1 - Continuity, Shmontinuity

The biggest thing wrong with "One More Day" is that it throws at least twenty years of Spider-Man continuity out the window. Ask Joe Quesada or even Dan Slott and they'll tell you that it doesn't. That every story is still completely intact. That it all still happened, only people remember it differently. Well, that argument falls apart after examining a couple of the key new developments of "Brand New Day". Even accepting the memory change, things simply could not have happened exactly as the last twenty years worth of Spider-Man comics says they did and still arrived at "Brand New Day."

First off, Spidey's organic web shooters. After mutating into a giant spider, he managed to revert to human form but retained the ability to shoot webs without the aid of his mechanical shooters. If that all still happened exactly the same way, then why does Spider-Man need the web shooters again? Does he still have the organic webbing ability, he just doesn't remember he has it? Or does he not have it anymore, which would mean that the story in which he got the ability never took place?

Harry Osbourne. Is he back from the dead or did he never die? Or did he die and people just don't remember that he died so the Harry walking around now is simply a figment of everyone's imagination?

What about all the people who knew Spider-Man's secret identity, even those who learned it before Civil War? How can those characters still have the same relationship with Spidey when they suddenly forget who he is? (Side Rant: And aren't people like Dr. Strange and Charles Xavier going to question why they suddenly had one particular memory erased? It's not as if they never knew, as the first issue of "Brand New Day' states that Spider-Man did in fact unmask during the Civil War, but now for some reason no one remembers his name or what his face looks like. They seriously aren't going to try to get to the bottom of that?)

Those are only a few examples. There are many more continuity questions raised by "One More Day" and the resulting "Brand New Day". What parts of Spider-Man's history have been changed? What parts are the same? The story opens up that last twenty years of continuity and allows any writer to go in and change anything they see fit and simply point to "One More Day" when a fan asks for an explanation. I didn't like it when DC did it with Infinite Crisis and I certainly don't like it when it happens to my favorite character.

Ten Reasons "One More Day" Is the Worst Spider-Man Story Ever

#2 - Is This Seriously the Best They Could Do?

Let's say for a moment that Joe Quesada was right. Peter Parker's marriage to Mary Jane was dragging Spider-Man down. Stories were boring. Sales were hurting. The fans were clamoring for an end to the marriage and something needed to be done.

Even if that were the case, the sloppy, heavy-handed solution brought about in "One More Day" was the best Quesada could come up with? Even with J. Michael Straczynski and all the writers of Marvel at his disposal? A deal with the devil and then a fast and quick resolution that changes everything and explains nothing. Oh wait, they do offer an explanation. "Everything still happened the same, people just remember it happening differently." For example here's the way Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 actually happened:


After the new status quo of "Brand New Day" here's how we remember it happening:


Ah yes, who could forget the issue where Peter showed off his snazzy new tux. A classic moment in the character's history. Come on. You have to admit, that's a little lame and a little lazy. It's almost as if they simply wanted to change things and said "Don't worry, we'll explain it later. If we get around to it."

Ten Reasons "One More Day" Is the Worst Spider-Man Story Ever

#3 - Who Ordered the Single Spider-Man?

The average comic book reader is 20-25 years old. The average age a which child learns to read is five years old. Do the math and that means that the majority of people who're reading new issues of Spider-Man now (not back issues, trades, or reprints) and have been for any extended period have been reading married Spider-Man the entire time. (That's exactly where I fit in, by the way.) Mary Jane is a huge part of the Spider-Man mythos to these readers. So who were the readers calling for her to get the boot? I'm not saying they don't exist, but I don't recall reading or hearing about it. Except, of course, in interviews with Joe Quesada. He's always been clear that he wanted Mary Jane out of the picture. Now, I understand that Quesada runs the Marvel Comics and that he can do what ever he wants, but surely there must be some impetus for drastically changing a character's history other than Joe Quesada wanted it to happen. With fan backlash and even one of the most well respected writers in the business telling him it was a bad idea, he must've had a damn good reason to go through with it.

There's two main reasons, that I can think of, for doing something in comics:
1-It's what the fans want. Give people what they ask for, they'll pay money for it.
2-There's a good story in it. Even if people criticize at first, if the resulting story turns out to be good they'll enjoy it.

Well, "One More Day" certainly wasn't what the majority of Spider-Man fans wanted. That said, there had better be some damn good stories coming out of the newly established "Brand New Day" status quo.

Ten Reasons "One More Day" Is the Worst Spider-Man Story Ever

#4 - The Spider-Man Swings Alone

As much as the intended purpose of Civil War was to tear the Marvel Universe apart, it did an excellent job of bringing things together. After setting it up in House of M, Civil War established an over arching theme to the entire universe. You really got the sense that all of these characters, even in their own books, existed in the same universe at the same time. What happened in books like Captain America and Iron Man had ties to what happened in other books like Wolverine and New Avengers, and so on. Not in the sense that you had to read everything to get the whole story but that you’d get some bonus insight and background information if you did. One can argue that Marvel’s always been like that, but to me it seemed much more prevalent post Civil War. I was such a fan of this newly integrated universe that I started collecting five new Marvel titles after Civil War.

Right there in the thick of things was Spider-Man. This was a relatively new place for him. Before joining the New Avengers Spidey had mostly swung solo, sticking to his own book(s) and doing his own thing, barring the occasional team-up or special guest appearance. He was sort of where Daredevil is now, and even he has some dealings with The Hood to tie him into New Avengers. I, for one greatly enjoyed the character’s wider integration into the universe over the last couple years. Peter’s friendship with the Avengers, his mentor relationships Captain America and Iron Man, and even the new spin on old connections brought about by the unmasking. Realistically, what more could you have done with Spider-Man and J. Jonah Jameson?

"One More Day" and the resulting "Brand New Day" storyline have effectively wiped away those stories and pulled Spidey back into his own corner of the Marvel U. All of his relationship and character developments over the last twenty years, but specifically the last three, have been called into question. Who does Spider-Man know and not know? What did he do and not do? How will writers tackle the issue of Spidey's place in the Marvel Universe without throwing their hands up and saying "It's magic, we don't have to explain it."? Will it even be attempted or will Spider-Man just stick to his own books and drop by New Avengers merely to shoot webs at something and say a funny one liner? My money's on the latter.