Spider-Man: One More Day

Comic Info

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (1) #24

Reprints Amazing Spider-Man (2) #544-545, Sensational Spider-Man (2) #41, and Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (1) #24 (November 2007-January 2008).  Aunt May is dying after being shot by a bullet meant for Peter Parker.  Now, Peter is out to save May’s life at any cost…and it literally could cost him everything.  The task of saving Aunt May could be monumental and the most precious thing in Peter’s life could be the price!

Written by J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada, Spider-Man:  One More Day is a Marvel Comics event series.  Preceded by Spider-Man:  Back in Black, Joe Quesada also provided the art for the series and the issues in the volume were also collected in The Amazing Spider-Man by J. Michael Straczynski:  Ultimate Collection—Volume 5.

Spider-Man:  One More Day is one of the most polarizing Spider-Man storylines.  After Spider-Man being “outed” by Peter himself, the Spider-Man of the comics barely resembled the Spider-Man of previous years.  J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada attempted to right the story by returning Peter Parker to the status quo…minus one big piece.

Amazing Spider-Man (2) #545

Mary Jane and Peter Parker’s romance was one of the things of legend.  They started out friends, developed into more, and eventually became partners both in marriage and the truth behind Spider-Man.  Rarely have superheroes had such a storied romance that has been the subject of multiple comics and movies (Lois Lane and Superman are probably the only other real comparable one)…and here, that history is essentially negated.  I liked the idea of resetting Peter to anonymity and the whole identity reveal became a big “What If?” to satisfy fans who always questioned what would happen if Peter Parker ever was known as Spider-Man.  The means in which this resetting occurred was quite pointless.

I do give both Straczynski (who I am not a fan of) and Quesada credit in that despite crafting a bad storyline, it wasn’t done badly.  If the story had to play out this way, it was done stylishly and looked good.  It is just the overall content of the story that is poor and not the actual writing or art.

Spider-Man:  One Day More did undergo some manipulation after its publication.  The events of what broke up Mary Jane and Peter Parker were revealed in Spider-Man:  One Moment in Time in Amazing Spider-Man (2) #638-641 (September 2010-October 2010) which help fleshed out exactly what happened with Mephisto’s actions…it doesn’t really make it better, but it does give a direction to it.  With comics, you know that “this too shall pass”, and it took a while (longer than normal comic book time), but it did.  Spider-Man:  One Day More also set-up the change in writing teams and ushered in the Dan Slott era of Spider-Man.  Spider-Man:  One Day More was followed by Spider-Man:  Brand New Day.