Atop the Fourth Wall #200: One More Day
By
Arcanaville,
Posted on: 2012-07-31 09:23 in Comic and Hero-Villain Culture
What I'm curious to find out is if OMD actually helped sell more Spidey comics or hurt it?
I bet the story itself sold well as people likely bought it as a collectors deal. But I can't help but think more people left because of it, than stayed.
Ending the marriage wasnt bad. It was a choice. How they did it was bad.
Peter may have loved his aunt, but I can't imagine anyone going "Screw the love of my life and my wife, lets save my aunt!"
Yes, it would suck that a family member was killed, but to give up his wife to save her? I think even Aunt May would be all "Peter, MJ, are you both THAT stupid?"
Then to do it and take all that character developement and throw it away so Peter can live with his aunt again?
There was numerous ways to go with Spidey, OMD was just terrible, both in writing and in concept.
BrandX Future Staff Fighter
The BrandX Collection
I recall hearing that one of the reasons to eliminate Peter and MJ's marriage was because it put limits on the kind of stories that could be told. I stopped reading Spider-Man for a while after OMD, then picked up a few issues before OMIT, trudged through that god-awful dreck of story telling, read a few issues after, dropped, and picked up for Spider-Island and kept on. As of yet I really haven't found anything in the story telling that makes it leaps and bounds better than what was told when Peter was married to MJ.
Paragon Unleashed Forums
Twitter: @Alpha_Ryvius
All of it is made worse by the fact that Aunt May has been, in effect, written out of the book. She moved to Boston like 25 issues back, and the most appearance she makes these days is a couple of panels every 10th issue or so.
Thanks for eight fun years, Paragon.
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I'm a huge fan of JMS' Spidey run. It brought me back to Spider Man after years of lackluster writing. Even so, Q's influence was felt several times over the course of the run. The Goblin's children arc was originally written so that the twins were Peter and Gwen's children, not Gwen and Norman's (can anyone say "Ewwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!). Q thought that the idea of Spider Man having sex out of wedlock was too edgy and mature, so he forced JMS to change the story. Never mind that the story then became one where Gwen had sex (it's a little unclear whether it was consensual or not) with a man three times her age who was also a sociopath. The same sociopath who later kills her. Isn't that a whole lot more edgy and mature?|
Originally Posted by BrandX
What I'm curious to find out is if OMD actually helped sell more Spidey comics or hurt it?
I bet the story itself sold well as people likely bought it as a collectors deal. But I can't help but think more people left because of it, than stayed. |
I considered picking up One More Day to complete my JMS run. As I understand it, the first three issues leading up to the final issue are fine, but Joe Q. did not like the ending that JMS penned, and rewrote it almost entirely. JMS demanded that his name be taken off of the book, since he did not write the story contained therein. After this, it would only take one more straw of editorial interference to drive JMS away from Marvel (Marvel promised him he could have complete control of the Squadron Supreme, and then interrupted him mid story for a crossover event with he Ultimate universe, One More Day, and Siege interrupting his Thor story). Out of respect for JMS, I will not buy OMD. No story in the Brand New Day continuity has interested me enough to come back.
tl;dr: yes, OMD cost them at least one customer, I don't think I'm alone.
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Ending the marriage wasnt bad. It was a choice. How they did it was bad. Peter may have loved his aunt, but I can't imagine anyone going "Screw the love of my life and my wife, lets save my aunt!" Yes, it would suck that a family member was killed, but to give up his wife to save her? I think even Aunt May would be all "Peter, MJ, are you both THAT stupid?" Then to do it and take all that character developement and throw it away so Peter can live with his aunt again? There was numerous ways to go with Spidey, OMD was just terrible, both in writing and in concept. |
New story arcs coming soon (ARC IDs will be aded when I finish the arc):
So, you want to join the Hellions? (level 1-14 Villainous arc)
Sparks & Steel (level 5-20 Heroic arc)
and
So you want to join the Skulls? (level 1-14 Villainous arc)
I liked a lot of JMS' touches on Spider-Man as well. The Avengers interactions were really well done, and the Civil War tie-ins really had him shining. Plus, Back in Black was fun. It's just a shame that OMD left a sour note to his issues.
Thanks for eight fun years, Paragon.
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Or kill her off. It's not like MJ is too interesting of a character to keep around if she is no longer related with Spiderman, and her death can trigger an interesting story arc (in the right hands.)
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Originally Posted by BrandX
Not only that, ending the marriage the way they did was the worst idea ever. A simple divorce would of been better (and I say that as someone who hates divorce stories).
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Is that possible? Because that summary made it sound beyond pants on head bad.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
They should retcon Quesada and spend the next ten years publishing the alternate history version of their comics if he hadn't tampered with their stories.
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"I have something to say! It's better to burn out then to fade away!"
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They tried that, it didn't work so she was retconned back and then they separated for a time then got back together. Then later comes Mephisto.
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Originally Posted by Starsman
Or kill her off.
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You are pretty much correct about JMS regarding how he was interfered with by Marvel and how Joe Q rewrote the last part of OMD. I think JMS's plan, please note I am NOT 100% positive of this, was that he would have altered the past so that Gwen Stacy would not have been killed by the Green Goblin. Thus she would live and she would have been with Peter and thus Peter never marries MJ........however I have to say that undoing the death of Gwen Stacy would have also been a bad idea, perhaps not as lame as what Joe Q slapped together with OMD and especially OMIT, but still a bad idea. |
Originally Posted by Lightfoot
I'm a huge fan of JMS' Spidey run. It brought me back to Spider Man after years of lackluster writing. Even so, Q's influence was felt several times over the course of the run. The Goblin's children arc was originally written so that the twins were Peter and Gwen's children, not Gwen and Norman's (can anyone say "Ewwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!). Q thought that the idea of Spider Man having sex out of wedlock was too edgy and mature, so he forced JMS to change the story. Never mind that the story then became one where Gwen had sex (it's a little unclear whether it was consensual or not) with a man three times her age who was also a sociopath. The same sociopath who later kills her. Isn't that a whole lot more edgy and mature?
I considered picking up One More Day to complete my JMS run. As I understand it, the first three issues leading up to the final issue are fine, but Joe Q. did not like the ending that JMS penned, and rewrote it almost entirely. JMS demanded that his name be taken off of the book, since he did not write the story contained therein. After this, it would only take one more straw of editorial interference to drive JMS away from Marvel (Marvel promised him he could have complete control of the Squadron Supreme, and then interrupted him mid story for a crossover event with he Ultimate universe, One More Day, and Siege interrupting his Thor story). Out of respect for JMS, I will not buy OMD. No story in the Brand New Day continuity has interested me enough to come back. tl;dr: yes, OMD cost them at least one customer, I don't think I'm alone. Agreed. I wish I could have read JMS' original ending. My guess is that it had Peter refusing the deal, Aunt May dying, and Peter divorcing MJ in order to "protect" her. According to interviews with Q, divorce is also too mature and edgy a topic for Spider Man to deal with. |
Also Joe Q is an idiot for thinking that divorce is something Spidey shouldn't have to face.....
Fun episode. It more than made up for the previous episode which gave far too much praise to Star Trek IV. My only complaint is that the episode needed a Snowflame bit tacked on to the end.
Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound
I skimmed the thread. Took a few posts to actually understand what is being talked about. The absurdity is beyond believable.
But it did make me re-realize my fondness for the 400 issue ASM collection I did collect and how glad I am that I stopped collecting more than 10 years ago. It was getting dumb back then and I just couldn't put up with it anymore; the stuff in this thread sounds magnitudes more-so.
I've already forgotten about most of you
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Now see, that is already leaps and bounds a better way to do things.|
Originally Posted by Lightfoot
Agreed. I wish I could have read JMS' original ending. My guess is that it had Peter refusing the deal, Aunt May dying, and Peter divorcing MJ in order to "protect" her. According to interviews with Q, divorce is also too mature and edgy a topic for Spider Man to deal with.
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Even just killing MJ off would be better!
Here's the sad part really. They killed her off, but brought her back because fans didn't like it?
But they'll do a story that fans hate more and stick to it?
Now I'm the Spidey fan who wants Peter with Felicia anyways, but I don't want a bad storyline like that to make it a possibility (even if it isnt one
)Spidey would never make a deal with the devil and MJ never would of made a deal with the devil. Though, I could totally buy into the devil putting the deal out there.
BrandX Future Staff Fighter
The BrandX Collection
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