Kevin Church has the last word on “One More Day/Brand New Day”:
My take? They’ve reset things to the point where they’re now telling stories about a single 30something nerd that lives with his mother figure, has dated two girls, and is perpetually broke.
This is Marvel’s attempt to “relate” to their average fan, isn’t it?
Oh no he ditn’t! Look, we’ve milked this thing as much as the next blog, but we’re kinda sick of the wildly over the top reactions.
Do you remember when Superman and Lois Lane were married because they got married on LOIS & CLARK?
Neither do we.
How many fans are going to do as Joe Quesada suggested:
The truth of the matter is that if the fans truly want a married Peter and MJ with kids, then we have an incredible book called “Spider-Girl.” If this is truly what fandom wants, to see Peter go through the natural progressions of life, then I expect orders on “Spider-Girl” to go through the roof in the next month.
That will be the real test.
“Joe Quesada suggested:
The truth of the matter is that if the fans truly want a married Peter and MJ with kids, then we have an incredible book called “Spider-Girl.” If this is truly what fandom wants, to see Peter go through the natural progressions of life, then I expect orders on “Spider-Girl” to go through the roof in the next month.”
Well by that same logic, if fans wanted to read stories about an unmarried Spider-Man, they have a book called Ultimate Spider-Man.
Holy smokes! I can see it all so clearly now.
The unmasking, OMD, BND, the fan uproar… it all has been part of a deviously calculated plan by Joe Q. to drive sales on Spider-Girl!
I don’t buy the Spider-Girl argument. No matter what, Amazing Spider-Man is, and always will be, the *real* Spider-Man. All other versions are alternates, fakes, impostors. Ultimate Spider-Man is a great book, and I’ve even got the first 90 or so issues. Spider-Girl looks intriguing, and I hear its well written. The problem is that they aren’t THE Spider-Man. That’s what every comic geek inherently feels and understands. And this is a reaction because people want THE Spider-Man to be a certain way. That’s why Spider-Girl doesn’t sell as well: it’s a pretender to the throne. However, if you want to play around and test with ideas, then do it in one of the alternate books; not with the real deal. I for one agree with that.
The argument that Quesada made that they can tell one kind of story with a married Peter Parker and they can tell many kinds of stories with a single Pete is invalid. The reason that doesn’t work is because this is (as many others have pointed out before me) the entire reason Ultimate Spider-Man was started. It began to tell those very stories that won’t be told in Amazing Spider-Man.
Further to the point, why does Quesada want to tell these stories of a single Peter Parker that he points out were so mastefully done by Lee and Ditko and so many others? Why is that an important need? If those stories were so great and they were what made Spider-Man amazing….why do you want to rip those off now? They were done, and they were done exceptionally well. So why are you going to try to rewrite them?
That’s ultimately the biggest problem I have with this other than the incredibly lame story telling that sparing a 117 year old aunt is more important than your true love, and so much so that you must LITERALLY make a deal with the Devil. Not only was this change done wrong, but it didn’t need to be done at all.
This is just a wild guess, as I don’t read any of these comics, but isn’t the lead character of Spider-Girl, well, Spider-Girl, and not Spider-Man?
“And the Oscar for Best Willful Ignorance of the Circumstances Goes To…
JOEY Q AND HEIDI MCD! COME ON DOWN!!!”
It might help if Spider Girl was actually, y’know. Any good.
BTW, according to Brian Cronin’s Comic Book Legends Revealed, the Superman/Lois marriage decision was a lot more complicated than that.
“This is Marvel’s attempt to “relate” to their average fan, isn’t it?”
Whoa … the comic-book fan stereotype is trotted out. Wasn’t expecting that one.
Note to self: before speaking of Spider-Man ever again, I must remember the complete lack of irony on comics internet.
(I’m pretty sure I missed a “the” there.)
Well, not if you were attempting a bad Russian accent stereotype to pair up with your comic book fan stereotype.
Buy Spider-Girl if you want, but another title I think those fans would like is Invincible by Robert Kirkman.
Let us not forget that the adventures of married Peter Parker can also be read EVERY DAY in the newspaper strip FOR FREE!!
Everybody wins!
>>>No matter what, Amazing Spider-Man is, and always will be, the *real* Spider-Man.
The “real” Spider-Man is a corporate character who is subject to the whims of his corporate masters.
>>>
>>>No matter what, Amazing Spider-Man is, and always will be, the *real* Spider-Man.
The “real” Spider-Man is a corporate character who is subject to the whims of his corporate masters.
Just like Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny.
TheBeat: “The ‘real’ Spider-Man is a corporate character who is subject to the whims of his corporate masters.”
Sphinx Magoo:”Just like Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny.”
Yes. EXACTLY like that.
The Marvel characters have been product since the day Stan declared “no more change; now we will have the illusion of change.” And that was over 35 years ago!
1. I already get Spider-Girl. Am I supposed to add another copy? Or three?
2. I addition to Invincible, I would also suggest people pick up Blue Beetle. I like it at least. It features a Spidey-like teenage hero dealing with various and sundy problems. But it does seem less angsty than what Brand New Day appears to be.
3. I am a fan and I found Mr. Church’s statement at the very least witty if not funny. Of course, I am 30 something, married and am in pretty good shape financially. And I dated 3 girls! Or is it four?
4. And my main beef about this, if they are going to make major changes to continuity, have it make sense and be explained logically. No “It’s magic, it doesn’t need to be explained” or “We’ll explain it all…later”. I want it all to work out now. But that’s my failing. I’m a continuity junkie.
5. Oh, and the whole “deal with the devil thing irks me”. Not from a religious stand point but more from not wanting a Wertham-esque witch hunt from the religeous right.
Now, I will try and do as Heidi commanded, and shut up about it. Emphasis on “try”.
And in five years Joe Q will be gone and the next geek turned EIC will come along and say “Let’s retcon the retcon” and they’ll both wake up and it will all be gone.
If Mephisto wanted to screw them out of “perfect love” why didn’t he go to Pete the day after the marraige and say “Hey! Give up your marraige and you can have your Uncle Ben back”?
“5. Oh, and the whole “deal with the devil thing irks me”. Not from a religious stand point but more from not wanting a Wertham-esque witch hunt from the religeous right.”
Is that really a concern anymore? Devils and violence don’t rise the ire as much these days. Now sex, that will always raise the ire. Like let’s say that now that Peter and MJ are not married, but still knocked boots, and you have a scene were MJ is talking to her girlfriend about her choice of birth control in a mature, responsible fashion providing very sound advice to young people in an indirect way. That would have the RR on you like nobody’s business.
The whole DWTDT still irks me though, because it’s weak storytelling. It’s a very easy, very boring deus ex machina, and it smacks of a ham-fisted editing job.
The best thing I’ve read is Quesada didn’t want to have them get a divorce because then parents would have to explain to the kids that Spiderman is divorced.
So instead they can explain making a deal with the devil. In fact read any interview he’s done and see how many times you go “So instead Pete makes a deal with the Devil???”
The best part of that is it was Joe Quesada who said the ten year old comics reader doesn’t exist. So WTF was he worried about?
Want to make Spiderman or any character more accessable? STOP SCREWING AROUND WITH THEM!!! Stop changing costumes. Stop having someone else wear the costume! Stop killing and bringing characters back to life. Does anyone get the lack of drama in a death story when you know the character will be back??? Stop allowing nineteen different writers write nineteen different versions of the same character in nineteen different titles every month. Have an OUNCE of control in your own company!!!
The whole DWTDT still irks me though, because it’s weak storytelling. It’s a very easy, very boring deus ex machina, and it smacks of a ham-fisted editing job.
Amen Brother!!
I betcha it’ll be revealed that it wasn’t really Mephisto. It’ll be revealed to be the Scarlet Witch in a Mephisto disguise. “No more marriage” indeed.
Or a Skrull. Maybe Mephisto was a Skrull.
What would be really cool is if Mephisto offered Peter a deal that would erase Joe Q’s tenure as Marvel EIC.
I’d buy that story in a heartbeat.
2 customer comments at my LCS early this afternoon:
1—I am boycotting Marvel except for the Brubaker books.
2—I am never buying a Marvel comic again.
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3 other guys were heatedly bitching about the poor storytelling of OMD. All 3 were family men.
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On behalf of thousands of disappointed Spider-Fans:
“Hey, Quesada, kiss our asses!”
“I am boycotting Marvel except for the Brubaker books.” “I am never buying a Marvel comic again.”
I think that says a lot more about those people than it does OMD, it sounds like something a hysteric 10 year old would say. I will admit i dont quite get the whole fuss about removing the (editorially mandated) marriage but i can understand if people would stop buying Spider-man, but stop buying Marvel comics they enjoy in some sort of silly protest seems so immature.
As one of few Spider-girl fans, that book has no right being called “incredible.” It’s alright, but it retreads old ground with old characters. I dropped it and I keep an eye out for it to introduce new characters and stories. The actual writing is good, though.
Anyway, Spider-girl is alternate universe. People like the universe of the present more than some future “what if?”
I do want to see Spider-man have a kid, because he’s just had Aunt May for so long and no family of his own. It feels like a natural progression for a guy like Peter Parker to have new people to care and fight for, and maybe a child to teach about power and responsibility.
I also think, if I’m not mistaken, that DC planned a marriage first, and then “Lois and Clark” had the idea later. The thing was that they wanted to sync up the show and the comic, hence “Death of Superman”
“3. I am a fan and I found Mr. Church’s statement at the very least witty if not funny. Of course, I am 30 something, married and am in pretty good shape financially. And I dated 3 girls! Or is it four?”
I’m in pretty good shape, financially … NOT married, but date women, live in my own apartment, and dated a number of women in college. I would have found Mr. Church’s comments funny if they aren’t echoed in EVERY comment/article/feature about comic books. Please, people … the William Shatner skit on SNL was nearly 25 years ago … we need to consign this one to the joke vault.
SwanShadow Says:
“What would be really cool is if Mephisto offered Peter a deal that would erase Joe Q’s tenure as Marvel EIC. I’d buy that story in a heartbeat.”
Now THAT was funny.
“I think that says a lot more about those people than it does OMD, it sounds like something a hysteric 10 year old would say. I will admit i dont quite get the whole fuss about removing the (editorially mandated) marriage but i can understand if people would stop buying Spider-man, but stop buying Marvel comics they enjoy in some sort of silly protest seems so immature.”
Maybe, maybe not. Remember the early/mid 90s? I think the yearly cross-continuity epics (“And NOTHING will ever be the same again!!!!!”) finally tired out fans. Now look at today’s comic marketplace. It seems there are least two or three company-wide cross-over story-arcs going at any one time. Civil War … Skrull … other stuff … whatever … Maybe swearing off Spider-Man and Marvel altogether is a sign of “Event Fatigue”.
I am so glad I quit getting Marvel before this.(i.e. ever since Civil War and all the crap that followed)Until Joe Quesada’s family deserts him and he is butchered like the big, fat, disgusting, oboxious pig that he is, DON’T MAKE MINE MARVEL AT ALL!
I am so glad I quit getting Marvel before this.(i.e. ever since Civil War and all the crap that followed)Until Joe Quesada’s family deserts him and he is butchered like the big, fat, disgusting, obnoxious pig that he is, DON’T MAKE MINE MARVEL AT ALL!