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.