How To Ruin A Great Character

A few days later than expected, I got my hands on Amazing Spider-Man # 545 today, which contained the final chapter of the "One More Day" storyline. To the surprise of no one - including your Humble Blogger - this sad tale ended with Peter Parker and his wife Mary Jane choosing to erase their own marriage in an effort to save the life of Peter's 100-year-old aunt, May. About the only twist to be found here that wasn't expected involved the undoing of Spidey's secret identity being public knowledge (hey, it lasted for more than a year, but only just!), which simply serves to confirm this one little comic book as the Single Greatest Cop-Out of All Time! (Way to go, Joe Quesada!)

My head swims at the notion of how many stories from the past 20 years are now invalidated by the fact that Peter and MJ never married (retroactively-speaking), as well as all of the tales from the past year, that revolved in one way or another around everyone knowing that Spidey and PP were the same person, which can no longer exist. In fact, that sucking sound you hear is my willing suspension of disbelief evaporating. What a craptacular way for Marvel to finish off 2007! I guess it's fitting somehow, though.

As someone on the Internet suggested, "One More Day" is so bad that it actually makes the "Gwen Stacy had children with Norman Osborn" disaster of a few years ago seem benign by comparison!

[Update: If, for some strange reason, you'd like to read more about this assinine development in the life of the Web-Slinger, click here. Several comic journalists post their thoughts about "One More Day" there, and it ain't pretty!]

[Update # 2: The controversy continues to build on the various Internet sites. One person brought up the whole question of, if Peter believes "With great power comes great responsibility" then how is that in line with making a deal with the devil? That prompted me to think that perhaps we should change the famous Spidey refrain to "With great power comes great deal-making!"]