The Big Picture: The Devil & Mr. Parker

malestrithe

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Aug 18, 2008
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I do not hate One More Day for existing. It was a massive retcon that probably was long overdue. I do not have the serious case of nostalgia goggles.

All it did was reaffirm one thing that I've always suspected about Spiderman. He can give lessons about being emo to even the most harcore goth out there. He was happily married for 20 years, but he still managed to find something wrong with that. He has done great good in his life, but he focuses on the tragic events of his life more often than the good. He chose his almost 100 year old aunt over his marriage. Those actions are the definition of emo.

Then again, knowing internet fans, if Aunt May did die, there would be an equally mountainous amount of letters and complaints telling the writers, how dare they mess with our fanboy nostalgia.
 

thereverend7

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Aug 13, 2010
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This comic was so bad. I'm not even a hardcore comic reader (that would be my older brothers thing) and even I thought this was no more then a cheap sell-out.

I read the entire "One more day" story and by the end i was just like... bwah? ok? I guess thats what we're going with...
 

Tanis

The Last Albino
Aug 30, 2010
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The reason comics don't do to well is that Western mentality is that anything 'cartoon' is for kids...unless it's porn or CGI.

The reason manga does do well is because the Eastern mentality isn't so limited.
 

AssassinJoe

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Oct 1, 2010
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HankMan said:
The Devil's in the details!
no kidding........

And what the hell! When Peter Parker makes a deal with the devil he forgets his marriage, but when I do it, the devil creates the Jersey Shore? That's not fair at all!
 

A Curious Fellow

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Nov 16, 2010
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For a series entitled "The Big Picture", you seem to have chosen one of the smallest possible pictures to dwell on. Thumbs down.
 

Charles Scholle

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May 25, 2010
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First, I'm going to have to agree that the end of One More Day...let's say it performs anatomically improbably actions that have no place in polite conversation. Or if you'd prefer me to be explicit, it's the literary personification of a puppy rapist. I didn't really get into Spider Man until the new arc in the 2000's, with Ezekiel and the spider totem and all that, and you know what? I loved it; I loved the fact that spider man was growing as a character, I loved the fact that a comic book wasn't mindless spectacle, but being driven by story and the characters. And then they pull this shit...

I'm still convinced that this decision came about because someone told Quesada they weren't pulling in that critical pre-teen girl reader demographic that makes Twilight so much money, and they decided that making dreamy Peter Parker single (and thus open to fantasy) was the solution. Fucking hacks.
 
Aug 25, 2009
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It's a really bad moment of characterisation really. For several reasons. It's not bad because it erases the marriage (though really if an editor feels he needs to resolve his parental issues in a comic, maybe he should consider getting some real therapy to go with it) it's bad because it isn't Spider-Man.

I'm not even a fan of Spider-Man, I haven't read anything but the Ultimate Universe comics for over ten years now, and I still know about this hunk of shit. Spider-Man reveals his identity, Aunt May, a ninety year old woman who's lived a good long life, gets shot. In other words it's his responsibility for revealing his identity. Remember the entire cornerstone of Spider-Man's existence?

'With Great Power, comes Great Responsibility'

You know, the most important phrase in the entire goddamn continuity EVER. Parker trying to get Aunt May back is him not taking responsibilty for what he has wrought. Also, it's just bad writing that in the entire Marvel universe, including people who have come back from the dead and peopl like Doctor Strange who are the greatest magicians alive, and no one can heal a simple gunshot wound?

Then, Peter sees Aunt May, who tells him she's ready to die. Does he take this to mean 'She's a ninety year old woman, it was going to be her time anyway, and I really should start accepting responsibility for my actions?' No, he decides that he's going to bring her back despite her own wishes! In a hospital if someone gives the DNR approval, you DNR!

There's several other things wrong. Including that Quesade directly promised that Peter revealing his identity wouldn't be undone with 'some magic retcon' (his exact words) and then a year later he proceeded to do exactly that.

It's not Peter Parker in this issue, and it sure as hell isn't Spider-Man, it's Joe Quesada working out his issues with his parents and using a beloved comic book character to do it.

The real Big Picture here is that editors should never ever be allowed to mess with writing the comics. J Michael Strasinski nearly had his name removed from this piece of crap, which should really tell you something about it.

Also, it says something that one of the single most popular Spider-Man related books of recent years was Spider-Girl, which told the story of a happily married Peter and MJ with a young daughter, and is widely considered one of the best Spider-Man storylines ever. If you read that, then trust me you'll wish it was the real continuity.
 

WaderiAAA

Derp Master
Aug 11, 2009
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Compared to this, I'd say the 1997-2002 period in which I read Spider-man must have been one of the least weird eras of the comic.
 

RatRace123

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Dec 1, 2009
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TsunamiWombat said:
I saw the title and read the description and then I said OH SHIT THIS IS ABOUT SPIDERMAN!

Edit: Went back and watched it. The point, I think your missing it. The Devil stamped out their marriage because they had "true love", and Mephisto felt this was a fantastic way to give a fuck you to god, Cause he's the devil thats what he does.

What you need to understand is leading up to this Peter was consoled by superhero's, great sages, the soul of Aunt May, EVEN GOD HIMSELF, CAME AND SPOKE TO HIM, and told him to LET THE 90 YEAR OLD BAT FUCKING DIE BECAUSE SHE'S FUCKING 98 GODDAMN SON LKJHFJKAD but he said fuck you to everyone, his relationship, his unborn child (MJ was pregnant or heavily implied to be, making this also a pseudo abortion story)

I don't hate BND because it erased continuity, I don't give a shit - I think every comic should have a period reboot to keep shit from getting too complex. The reason I hate Quesada and BND is because it was a complete editors decision, made no sense from the characters standpoint, and has turned Peter Parker, once lovable down on his luck jokester, to a fucking loser with bad relationships whose basically, kind of a dick. The writing for him since BND has been atrocious, none of the old spidey fun or responsibility is still there, and now there's some mary sue named carlie who is an expy of Quesada's actual daughter being forced on Peter and the fans are piiissseed.
This about sums up my feelings on it.
It's not that BND erased continuity, it's that it did it in a really really shitty way.
Even in a universe where people die and come back so often that even Kratos is impressed, One More Day and Brand New Day are still horribly written and wildly out of character for spidey.

It even goes against the motto of his freakin' series, "With great power comes great responsibility". Oop, nope scratch that, "With great power comes the option to deal with satan to save your elderly aunt while erasing your marriage and keeping your identity secret" yeah, that's better.

Ignoring the fact that Spidey's also in the same universe as the entire Norse Pantheon, the universe's foremost scientific genius and the master of magic and no one can cure a freakin' bullet wound.
And there's the issue with the expy of Quesada's daughter (probably some freudian theories on that one) hooking up with Spidey.

It's just a bad story.
 

WaderiAAA

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Aug 11, 2009
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Charles Scholle said:
First, I'm going to have to agree that the end of One More Day...let's say it performs anatomically improbably actions that have no place in polite conversation. Or if you'd prefer me to be explicit, it's the literary personification of a puppy rapist. I didn't really get into Spider Man until the new arc in the 2000's, with Ezekiel and the spider totem and all that, and you know what? I loved it; I loved the fact that spider man was growing as a character, I loved the fact that a comic book wasn't mindless spectacle, but being driven by story and the characters. And then they pull this shit...

I'm still convinced that this decision came about because someone told Quesada they weren't pulling in that critical pre-teen girl reader demographic that makes Twilight so much money, and they decided that making dreamy Peter Parker single (and thus open to fantasy) was the solution. Fucking hacks.
Man, I remember how disappointed I was at the end of the Ezekiel story. I mean, Spider-man was in a possition where he really needed to make a choice. He either had to stand by his politically correct prinsciples and spare the bad guy, knowing that he would keep on killing and possibly one day come after Spider-man again and kill him, or he could choose that the ends justified the means and kill the guy. What happened? The bad guys lakei killed him instead as the writers' way to save their own hero from making a choice. Up until that point I agree that the story was pretty awesome though.

Actually, I'd say Spider-man was more similar to Twilight before, in that Peter Parker on paper should have no chance at getting the stunningly beautiful Mary Jane Watson, but does and of course with the faithful to one man/woman ethics. Though I guess pre-teen girls prefer it when it is the guy who is the amazing one and the girl is a nobody.
 

ANImaniac89

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Apr 21, 2009
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WOW mentioning the clone saga and one more day in the same sentence, I thought there where laws forbidding that. but my god does Peter get kicked in the gut as far as story telling goes.
what the hell marvel?
 

PedroSteckecilo

Mexican Fugitive
Feb 7, 2008
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Personally I blame Civil War, but then again it and House of M pretty much undid all the comics I'd been reading since I started reading comics again (around 2000, 2001) so all these retcons were a big "Fuck You" to the stories I'd been reading for 5 years, you know THE STORIES I WAS READING WHEN I EFFECTIVELY STARTED READING COMICS, hence I cried "well fuck this" and stopped reading comics.

Good on you Marvel
 

lead sharp

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Nov 15, 2009
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You know I think I should have learnt from the Cap' A video.

What was the point of ANY of that? We know all that, you covered no new ground, in fact you barely covered the ground you were trying to cover.

When comic readers choose to read what they like (and they more than often do) and accept which cannon they want to get fired out of (Doctor Who fans have been doing this for literately decades)then it doesn't matter if it was a clone that made a deal with the devil to wear a black suit of Iron Spider armour whilst developing new powers under the guidance of a spider god, a fan will pick out what he likes and run with it.

These books have been running for (again) literately decades so of course the films audience don't stand a chance of just diving in, but there's enough well informed shop keepers out there to guide a potential new reader to the stuff that will satisfy.

Optimistic? Why not?

As to the whole 'The Big Picture' feature, to quote Spider-Man 'Stick a fork in me, I'm done.'
 

Mr. Omega

ANTI-LIFE JUSTIFIES MY HATE!
Jul 1, 2010
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All he did was analyse the event, not give a real opinion, which is what I wanted to hear.

I don't mind that they did OMD. I tend to let comics get away with a lot of stuff. What I DO mind is WHY they did it. Just seems lazy to me. Not to mention, it was VERY poorly executed. Y'know what, let me rephrase that: I didn't mind the concept of OMD, but it was done very poorly, and for all the wrong reasons.

And listening to this, I agree, this is the stupidest deal with the devil I've ever seen. What exactly did Mephisto get from this? They aren't married. Well, since they don't know they were ever married, it makes no difference. There's no misery, no suffering. Hell, for some reason, his dead friend is alive again. The only reason they conceivably went with Mephisto is because he's the only guy evil and powerful (and even that's a tough sell...) to pull it off.

This isn't a just bad retcon, it's a LAZY retcon, and that's even worse!

On a side note, an opinion would have been nice, not just Comic Events 101.
 

For.I.Am.Mad

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May 8, 2010
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Instead the word 'weird' to describe comics I would have used the word 'bad' as in this comic writer is really really bad. I like how Satan had multiple women around him. Only the devil would do that.
 

TheEnglishman

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Jun 13, 2009
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Not bad, Linkara has pretty much already explained why One More Day sucked, but this is an interesting angle, you could have said a little more, not much knew ground was covered here.
 

standokan

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May 28, 2009
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hmm, i prefer a timetraveling villain who erases marriages but who am i to bring into the argument Dr Timetravelling Antimarriage.