What Would You Do If You Only Had One More Day?

When it comes to comic books, the devil, heaven and the rest gets really fuzzy and interactions with these entities get weird. This is why I’m confused on why the premise of a comic series altering book’s premise is based solely on a deal with the devil (and why a superhero would take part in said deal, even in such dire straights). While Mephisto isn’t exactly the devil, he is exactly the devil (I told you it got fuzzy). Anyways, let us not descend (or ascend, whatever your view is) into theology; let’s talk comics. Spider-Man: One More Day is quite an interesting comic. It starts of with a pillar of Marvel Comics, Aunt May, getting shot and the lengths to which Peter Parker will go to save her life (Oh yeah, the spoilers after this point will be major (but since Aunt May gets shot in two other books first, and it’s on the first page, I thought it’d be okay to let lose that one without a warning)). Peter goes to all of his friends (including Tony Stark who is now technically his fallen father figure (this part was sweet, a good mirror to Spider-Man walking out of (okay, getting shot out of) Stark Tower in Civil War)), and even all of his enemies in trying to save Aunt May’s life. Tony comes through with a check, but it can’t save Aunt May; it can only make her final days easier. Then comes along a little girl who says she has the answer, leads Peter through some very poignant and very interesting parallel universes (my favorite part of this book), turns out to be Mephisto who offers a deal; Aunt May’s life for Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage. The scenes leading up to the destruction of the marriage were very touching. After it was all said and done, one of the greatest fictional marriages and couple was undone.

While I don’t entirely agree with the angle they went with, I find Mephisto’s reasoning very interesting. Also, I’m very glad that they didn’t bring back Gwen Stacy (as was originally written); her death was sadly so important to the entire industry (her death is often also called the death of the silver age of comics) that the consequences would be way too much for anyone to maintain. Also, even though I am angry they undid Peter Parker and Mary Jane, after all these years of longing and fighting, I am sort of okay with it because I just know that they’ll get back together (I’m hopeless like that). Lastly, the artwork was very well done.

This story was very touching at the base of it, even though it’s a weird idea; it took away everything that happened in The Other (which was weird; cool, but weird) and it led to the Brand New Day run which I am very much enjoying. While this is a raw deal, that rawness is also a part of the story and I think it should be felt by all Spider-Man readers.

Judgement: 4.5 “Wait, really?”s out of 5