From the desk of Brian Salvatore, friend to all the Jews:
L’chaim! The Multiversity Comics staff is a multicultural bunch, and wanted to spread around the holiday cheer to our chosen brethren with our new series: Multiversity Lights the Menorah!
Each night, at sundown, we will light another candle on the Menorah and tell a tale of a story, creator’s run, or general theme in comics that, much like the oil that lasted eight nights for the Israelites, went on for far longer than any of us could have expected. Walter Richardson is going to try and tell the entire “One More Day” saga before the Hanukkah candles burn out, and that is going to be quite the challenge.
So, grab the shammus and light the third candle, Walt!
Click here to relight the second candle, or here for the first candle.
The Catwoman/Batman sex scene in Catwoman #1, the objectifying portrayal of Starfire in Red Hood and the Outlaws, the decision to put Barbara Gordon back in the Batgirl costume; sure, all of these attracted an impressive amount of fan backlash, but if DC really wanted to piss off their readers, they should have taken a lesson from Marvel. I guarantee that I do not need to explain to you what happened in 2007’s “One More Day,” and I’m sure you readers would agree with me were I to claim that Joe Quesada and J. Michael Straczynski’s “One More Day” was perhaps the most fervently reviled comic to be published by Marvel in the 2000’s; angry readers flocked to the internet in droves to complain about Quesada’s story upon its finale, and the outpouring of reader outrage continues to this very day – though it has been greatly stemmed. In my time as a comic reader, I have never seen anything quite like the critical and fan slamming that “One More Day” received, and yet here we are, nearly a full four years later, and Marvel hasn’t looked back. And you know what? I’m glad.
Don’t get me wrong, I despised the decision to separate Mary Jane just as much as everybody else did, when it first came out. In fact, I was one of the many outspoken people who said something along the lines of “I will never read a new Spider-Man comic until “OMD” is undone/Joe Quesada is fired/some other inane demand.” I was part of a very large and very vocal portion of the readership – which, unfortunately, included some borderline insane people who took Marvel’s choice to be a personal attack. There were, of course, people like me who were fans of JMS’s run on Amazing Spider-Man, which focused a lot on the relationship between Peter and Mary Jane, and were offended on the behalf of the writer that then-editor-in-chief Quesada would strong-arm JMS into writing a story that effectively undid a massive part of his run (though, in the end, it didn’t really, but more on that later). Other readers were just upset that one of the most iconic relationships in comics was broken up. Let’s face it, when most people think Spider-Man, they think Mary Jane – the general public doesn’t even know who Gwen Stacy is. And, of course, there were the more sensible people who understood wanting to break up the characters and allow room for more stories, but hated the incredibly clumsy attempt at a retcon that could have been solved with a simple divorce, especially considering Peter’s fugitive status. For every voice that said “You know, this isn’t that bad,” it seemed like a thousand were saying “This is the worst garbage ever published.”
Still, Spidey’s “Brand New Day” went on, no matter how many porn commissions of an ill-equipped Peter Parker being cuckolded circulated the web (you don’t want to know). For those who were patiently waiting for everything Quesada did to be undone, as they knew would happen, hope appeared in the oddest place: the daily Spider-Man newspaper strip. Following the 616’s decision, the daily strip removed Mary Jane from Peter’s life, dropping the whole, you know, deal with the devil thing and instead offering no explanation. Enough readers of this strip complained to the syndicate that, after a few stories, Peter’s life sans MJ was revealed to be all a dream! Hopes that the same thing would happen in the mainstream Marvel Universe were dashed, though, when “One Moment in Time” was published, a story written by Quesada to fully explain the effects of “OMD.” The effects, it seemed, were here to stay, but ardent opponents such as myself had since been drawn back in by solid post-“OMD” stories such as “New Ways to Die” and “Shed.”
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To this day, I still consider “One More Day” a piece of garbage, and “One Moment in Time” isn’t much better. That being said, though, I’ve recognized the good the much-despised story brought with it – “Brand New Day” really opened up opportunities for multiple character-driven minidramas that smacked of classic Spidey tales, and really brought the character back to his roots in a great way. And, of course, we wouldn’t have Dan Slott’s current great run were it not for his part in the rotating Brand New Day team, and that would certainly be shame. Marvel stuck to their guns, rather than try to appease the raving masses through yet another retcon that would have probably made an even bigger mess, and I can firmly say that they made the best choice – though 2008 me would hate 2011 me for saying.
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| This actually happened, guys. |
