In the mid 90’s, Marvel Comics decided that Spider-Man needed some help. The sales were down, the stories had become routine and they already regretted marrying Spidey to his long time flame Mary-Jane Watson (in 1987). Referencing a tale from the 70’s, the believed dead clone of Peter Parker returned, calling himself Ben Reilly after his aunt and uncle. This individual was later indentified as the true Peter Parker and that the married Peter, the one we’d followed for 20 years was the clone.
This attempt to revitalize the Spider-Man books is considered one of, if not the, lowest points in the history of Spider-Man comics, if not comics altogether. Due to turmoil behind the scenes at the publishing house, a possibly intriguing story became increasingly convoluted and complicated. Fan reaction was increasingly poor and sales became affected. It was soon explained that the test showing who was a clone was a trick, Peter had always been Peter and Ben had always been a clone. Long believed dead Norman Osborn (aka the Green Goblin) revealed himself as the mastermind behind this and other assorted recent traumas in Peter’s life. By the end of the final battle, Norman was once again the Green Goblin, Peter Parker was once again Spider-Man and the clone was dead.
Time passed. The stories improved. I believe sales slowly rose. Spidey remained married to Mary-Jane (she would disappear for periods of time but they remained married).
Leadership at Marvel changed. Once again it was determined that Spidey lacked … something. Tinkering was made to his abilities, most of which were largely forgotten about as soon as they were granted. The marriage to Mary-Jane was once again considered a problem. Spider-Man revealed his secret identity to the world. Things grew complicated.
But! There was a plan. We were told not to worry, all would be fixed in ‘Brand New Day’.
First, all the bad things had to come to a head in ‘One More Day’.
As part of Peter’s revealing of his secret identity, his family became a target. His Aunt May, a character who had been depicted as old and feeble since the comic was launched in the 60’s, is accidently shot by an agent of one of Spidey’s villains. The wound is fatal and she barely clung to life. Peter’s life is based on guilt and this additional guilt becomes too much to bear. Losing his mind, he does whatever he can to fix this, do whatever to have her healed, despite the fact that multiple individuals, including Doctors (such as Strange and Richards), note her age and that it might just be her time. Only one individual offers him a ray of hope. “I can heal her,” the demon Mephisto says, “make it like it never happened. But I want something in return: your marriage. I fix this for you and you will have never been married to your wife.”
They will never remember the marriage, nor their deal with the ‘devil, but everything will be fixed. Mary-Jane whispers something in Mephisto’s ear, the offer is taken and, magically, history is altered. Aunt May was never shot because now no one remembers who revealed themselves to be Spider-Man, Mary-Jane is off somewhere and long-dead Harry Osborn is returned to life.
The stories after have been good. Perhaps sales are returning. But ‘One More Day’? Worse than the Clone Saga.
While the premise of the Clone Saga was a reboot, it used the history of the Spider-Man comic to provide the ‘out’ for the reboot. While many felt at the time that this would have made 20 years of stories ‘worthless’ since they were the adventures of a ‘fake’ Spidey, it is not a complicated premise to understand. The stories all happened, even if it was to a ‘fake’ Spidey.
With the change to history caused by ‘One More Day’, it is unclear what has been affected. How is Harry now alive? How are thousands of other stories affected by this change? If this doesn’t alter ‘everything’, what has it all changed? It’s complicated. And annoying. They found a way to make things worse in their attempt to make them better.
(Post 175)
