As bad as One More Day is...

[Thespeckledkiwi]

There are some aspects I like of the graphic novel. I just wished they hadn't basically destroyed everything that is Spider-Man. But the essence is still there. Spider-Man still has his humor, his charm, and his self-worth. There are some really, really bad parts though.

Though, Wolverine + Spider-Man = instant comedy gold. Those two work so well together.

 

[EnterpriseF]

My problem with "OMD" is the everything is same except that the marriage between Peter and MJ never happened. Using Mephisto to make this happen was a real turn off for me. I have since stopped reading AMS.

 

[Dream]

Erasing Peter and MJ's marriage was a mistake. It was sloppy. If they reallly wanted the two apart they should have had them divorce or have MJ die. Now at least that would have been interesting.

 

[TheBrew]

I'm of two minds: I think the retcon was a big mistake and handled poorly. However, I have been really enjoying BND. It has been fun, exciting, and a good time. Plus last week's Flash issue was really powerful (ironically, enhanced because of the continuity).

 

[Mike Farley]

One More Day, the Mephisto retcon book was certainly terrible.

However Brand New Day, the revamped 3 times a month Amazing Spider-Man title, has been great. For the first time in years Spider-Man is actually a good book. It has done much to reverse all the damage the last 20 years have heaped unto the character.

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

Sorry Brand New Day Stupid titles. But yeah, it's been good. I didn't like how they made Parker become a paparazzi. They introduced some better characters though, and I do wonder if Parker will become a teacher.

 

[TheBrew]

Sorry Brand New Day Stupid titles. But yeah, it's been good. I didn't like how they made Parker become a paparazzi. They introduced some better characters though, and I do wonder if Parker will become a teacher.

Yeah, but that was all for three issues before he quit and now works for Frontline.

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

Sorry Brand New Day Stupid titles. But yeah, it's been good. I didn't like how they made Parker become a paparazzi. They introduced some better characters though, and I do wonder if Parker will become a teacher.

Yeah, but that was all for three issues before he quit and now works for Frontline.

Okay...I'm behind.

 

[Cicero]

I'll admit that I'm of the X-Men/Batman/40s Superman school, but I really dislike Brand New Day. I care less about the how and why of the situation (see note) than I do about the quality of the stories, and have been badly disappointed. They just seem . . . pointless. I hadn't read more than four or five Spider-Man comics (not counting Spider-Girl) until just before the start of Civil War, but I've read quite a number since (though few of the more famous stories). This is the first time since the Larson era (well, the Weiringo era on Sensational was pointless but fun) that the book has seemed entirely inconsequential from month to month. There's a sense of impermanence and unreality to the writing; it seems as though what's on the page is just what the writers felt like doing with Spider-Man today, rather than being what's going on in Peter Parker's life right now. (I know the latter is always true, but it's really come through during Brand New Day; there's no sense of fictional reality.) It's like a serious pastiche of Spider-Man that happens to star the character himself.


(Note) I do wish Peter and MJ were still together, though . . . well, actually, I wish Peter and Gwen were, but understand why that should never happen.

 

[The Evil Dead]

Ultimate Spider-Man is the only Spider-Man.

 

[Cicero]

^ It does rather render the main Spider-Man pale.

 

[Forbin]

I've always been disturbed by the inability of comic (and some other medium) writers to handle permanent adult relationships. I thought the Pete/MJ marriage was the best thing ever (although I also wish it'd been Gwen). I thought geeting rid of MJ was the most immature, assinine, backward, cowardly move ever made by an editor. Ya hear me Joe?!

 

[LaxScrutiny]

I've always been disturbed by the inability of comic (and some other medium) writers to handle permanent adult relationships. I thought the Pete/MJ marriage was the best thing ever (although I also wish it'd been Gwen). I thought geeting rid of MJ was the most immature, assinine, backward, cowardly move ever made by an editor. Ya hear me Joe?!

I've always been disturbed by inability of real life humans to handle permanent adult relationships. We tend to muck things up pretty badly.

 

[suarezguy]

Don't read the comics consistently, but I think its cool that one of if not the last pre-OMD issues was Peter goading JJJ into hitting him, by Peter David, a pretty good conclusion/analysis to the relationship (although there've been precedents).

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

"one more day" is comic nerd gobbledygook. It's the sort of story that only the worst 'basement dwelling geek' stereotype could love.

 

[Philo]

I've always been disturbed by the inability of comic (and some other medium) writers to handle permanent adult relationships. I thought the Pete/MJ marriage was the best thing ever (although I also wish it'd been Gwen). I thought geeting rid of MJ was the most immature, assinine, backward, cowardly move ever made by an editor. Ya hear me Joe?!

I've always been disturbed by inability of real life humans to handle permanent adult relationships. We tend to muck things up pretty badly.

While that's a clever statement with some truth to it, I sincerely believe that reality is not nearly as bad as our fiction in media (including comics) represents it. Of course we muck it up -- that's how we can relate to and find fulfillment from that drama in media, but the population of the planet continues to increase and that tells me that more people are getting it right, proportionally, than our fiction (especially comics) suggests.

 

[Forbin]

I've always been disturbed by the inability of comic (and some other medium) writers to handle permanent adult relationships. I thought the Pete/MJ marriage was the best thing ever (although I also wish it'd been Gwen). I thought geeting rid of MJ was the most immature, assinine, backward, cowardly move ever made by an editor. Ya hear me Joe?!

I've always been disturbed by inability of real life humans to handle permanent adult relationships. We tend to muck things up pretty badly.

True enough, but, let's face it, there are a lot more successful relationships in real life than fictional media would make it seem.

 

[Philo]

Exactly. The divorce rate may be (higher than?) 2/3rds here, but if you were to look at the fictional worlds in comics and television, for instance, it'd probably be higher than 90%. It'd be far more challenging to write, but I'd like to see more of that 33% represented. There's a lot of drama that can be made from a successful relationship too.

 

[Cicero]

Exactly. The divorce rate may be (higher than?) 2/3rds here, but if you were to look at the fictional worlds in comics and television, for instance, it'd probably be higher than 90%. It'd be far more challenging to write, but I'd like to see more of that 33% represented. There's a lot of drama that can be made from a successful relationship too.

For first marriages, it's never even been above 41% in the US, where it stood only briefly during the very early period of divorce being acceptable.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

And you're talking generally superheroes. So maybe compare the rate to those of cops, which is also a higher than average divorce rate.

And let's not ignore long term dating relationships and living together that falls apart, those don't get into the divorce statisticts. Most comic hero relationships don't make it to the altar, Green Arrow/Canary, Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne and whomever their flirting with this week, etc.

Anyway, I agree that a LTR can have plenty of room for drama and conflict, I was married for 12 years, don't talk to me about conflict...

I think the problem is more, revolving writers and editors, as much as one writer might enjoy building a relationship up, the next one enjoys tearing it down. Peter and MJ built up and were stable and interesting during a period of pretty stable writing on the books, I think it was mostly Michelini and David then?