So, I have been an avid follower of this website, forums, reviews, etc. and I finally decided to take the plunge and join this community I have unofficially considered myself a part of for quite some time. I have wanted to address for a while the treatment and reception of a widely hated Spiderman story arc that I just don’t fully understand: One More Day. I would like to begin by stating that though I am rather knowledgeable in Spiderman ways and history, forgive me if I make slight errors in references or timeline consistency, etc.

From what I've read and seen over the years, One More Day is typically referred to as the worst story arc for Spiderman, period. I understand the outrage and some of the issues with the story, but in truth, most of the deemed "flaws" and "downfalls" I actually consider to be the strong points that make it a good Spiderman story. The breaking of the marriage, the sheer ludicrous idea that Mephisto of all people only wanted a marriage as a price to save a life, and the overall reboot of single Peter Parker are the common reasons people throw at their list of hating this story. I'm going to explain MY reasoning's for why this was necessary AND perfect for the life and style of Spiderman comics.

If I told you to list your most moving or memorable Spiderman moments, (whether ultimate, amazing, spectacular, avenging, etc.) you would more than likely find yourself listing sad pivotal moments in Peter's life. For me, my list would be as follows:

1) The death of Uncle Ben (which he finds out he could have prevented)

2) The death of Captain Stacy and later Gwen Stacy

3) Spiderman visiting the Timmy Harrison and revealing his identity to him.

4) The death of Jean de Wolff

5) The rocky relationship of Peter and MJW

6) Spiderman unmasking during Civil War and later turning to the side of Captain America

7) The marriage of Pete and MJ

I'm sure there are many more, but realistically as a Spiderman fan, those are the most moving and memorable moments I can just rattle off. If you look at the list, most of those are sad moments that make him seem more human than super in our eyes. Spiderman draws the reader in as a story that people can relate to. He's young, unpopular, his job pretty much sucks, and he struggles with school, relationships, and money. Peter Parker is me! (Minus the spider powers, of course.) All of this stabs at my emotions and draws me deeper into his world. It makes me wonder IF he will truly win every time he encounters a challenge. The feeling he invokes in me as I read his experiences is what makes Spiderman one of the more interesting reads no matter the story arc. With that established, I will explain why I think One More Day is in truth one of his best, or at least an integral, arc's in Spiderman continuity.

Assuming you've read OMD at this point, you know that May gets shot and Spiderman goes everywhere and does everything in his (and Doctor Strange's) power to help his dying aunt. Then, when all is lost, Mephisto comes and offers Peter help. Mephisto offers to save her at the cost of... Peter and MJ's marriage!? Really!? This is the point where most people deemed this title stupid and just refused to read it for what it truly is. Most people consider Mephisto's deal just downright dumb. But, if you think about it, Pete's marriage is the perfect cost for such a deal. If I was Peter Parker, at that point in my crazy life I could easily say that my marriage was the one thing I truly had going for me. Random people hate my persona, my boss made me help make Spiderman's life hell with constant negative publicity; I have lost many close people to me that helped define who I am. Now, to top it all off, everyone knows who I am and more importantly who my loved ones are. I have been the cause of death for almost everyone I love, but despite all of that, I still have Mary Jane Watson. The beautiful butterfly caught in my hectic spider web. So, from that train of thought, taking Peter's marriage essentially takes everything happy he has left. It takes the part of Pete that had finally found a bit of solace. Of peace. That realization as a reader truly makes me sad. I understand that it gives writers a chance to make people forget his identity and ret-con his character as single Peter Parker again, which for the future and longevity of the series is genius; however, it also makes me feel Peter's pain as he is given the choice to sacrifice one of the two points of happiness he has found.

Before Peter makes the deal final, he is encountered by a few people that could have been; most importantly, his daughter with Mary Jane. Just another stab in the heart as he sees what true happiness he has to give up to save his aunt. As we all know, he takes the deal and MJ makes a deal with Mephisto herself so that everyone forgets he's Spiderman. With the final loose end covered for Spiderman's ultimate ret-con, the story wraps up with an encounter between MJ and Peter. The encounter implies that there is a possibility that MJ's deal with Mephisto allowed her to keep her memories of the marriage, leaving the reader even more emotionally devastated by what they have read. Now, having read the story, it's not what I would have envisioned for Peter and a scenario I would have loved to avoid. That being said, it does not take away from the symbolism and masterful writing that the story contained, nor does some other solution promse to evoke my emotions as much as OMD did.

I hope that this may have given you a viewpoint on OMD that might change your mind as to its quality. If you still feel the same, I cannot change that, but I tried my best. Ideally, this will take some of the negative light off of OMD and bring appreciation to the crew who helped make it a reality. I realize that my opinion might mean little to nothing to you, but I could no longer sit idly by as this title gets constantly massacred with no one coming to its aid. It's truly okay OMD, I accept you.

**Despite what you may think of my post, thank you for reading and being a part of my first official comicvine post. It feels good to be home**

Welcome to ComicVine.

I'm not that knowledgeable about OMD. What did Mephisto get out of those deals with Peter and MJ? What does ending their marriage do for him?

I still think it's it's one of the worst Spider-Man stories ever, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

The execution of the story is not the problem. If you want to do that concept, it couldn't have been written much better imo.

But people don't like the concept of retcons for the most part. And so they ignore the writing, despite the fact it has some beautiful moments.

I however, think the greater crime of OMD is what happened afterwards. We lose MJ to save Aunt May...and then they pretty much neglect Aunt May ever since, even writing her off to Boston married with JJJ. Sure, she's happy which is great - but we traded 1 of Peter's best supporting cast for another...and then lost that one too. It was just dumb.

@irishx:

Mephisto said that the marriage of Peter and MJ was one made out of pure love and it was consecrated by god himself and taking it away from him made him happy (or something between those words).

He didn’t want Peter's soul because it's to pure, brave and honest that make's him sick

I didnt like that Spider-Man made a deal with the Devil.That's it.Nothing more......i could agree that a married Spider-Man is going nowhere and i could also agree that a single Spider-Man is more interesting......I could also agree that a married Spider-Man is natural progress,and that the character is maturing and evolving......opinions.

But MY Spider-Man doesnt make deals with the Devil.Period.

@punyparker: Agreed. I understand why some people find Peter unlikable after that story (which is a shame).

@peppeyhare: @punyparker: these. A satanic pact (especially with a demon of whose work he's well acquainted with), the destruction of a chunk of his life to save an old woman who wanted to have peace and be with her husband again.

Nothing, Marvel's master manipulator who always has a thousand schemes and and contingencies and power plays did it basically for s**ts and giggles. See now if Mephisto had done this as part of some master plan to take over the Earth I might even be okay with this but the fact that he did it basically just because he liked seeing Spider-man bummed out was not only a slap in the face to Spider-man fans but to the character of Mephisto and his entire history as well. Yes, he is a huge asshole but he always has a reason behind his behavior. Basically OMD turned him from the Devil into Maury Povich.

They understood they blew it with the unmasking thing,and Quesada didnt like MJ....(he still doesnt...)...what to do?!....Let's make Peter Parker,the most iconic comic book character,sell his soul(marriage) to satan,so his bloody 500 year old Aunt will live,and everyone would forget who he is....even people like Norman Osborn and his aunt..who hadnt known for like 40 yrs and when she finally discovered,3 years later BOOM....Mephisto:"SPELL,BITCH!"

I personally dont like May after that.....Slott will be a helluva writer if he kills her in Goblin Nation.... :-P

Before Peter makes the deal final, he is encountered by a few people that could have been; most importantly, his daughter with Mary Jane.

Well, lets look not on the whole idea of dealing with the devil, lets look on details where he is always hiding. Lets think about daughter who goes to oblivion after that deal. Peter sacrificed not only his love, his happiness, but whole life of his daughter. Consider it.

I have never read OMD and I never will. I'm however a Spider-man fan read many of his stories (btw Aunt May knowing SM Identity and mailing a letter to the Bugle is memorable as well. Now I haven't read it for several reason.

It goes against Peter's character to make a deal with the devil.

It was a terrible idea to end the Marriage of MJW and PP - an editor forcing in his ideas and wanted to be a writer. Editors edited, writers write. It would have been more mature to let the split apart go get a divorce like so many other people in the western world have done.

It change a lot of the stories a love and care for (like Death of Jean DeWolf where Spider-man and Daredevil show there identity to each other. Now that is gone and that was a part of their mythos.

They should just let Aunt May die and let him deal with it move on. But no PP can't grow up. He can't get a child, his aunt can't die and he aren't allowed to be married. Let the character grow instead of letting him be a teenager in a mans body that keeps on doing the same mistakes over and over again and is always worrying about his aunt. It gets redundant.

Technically MJ is the one who made the deal, because she knew Peter never would.

Well,yeah,but still it's delivered as a Spider-Man X Satan deal.....so...
But you're right,eventually.

for me it was the fact that peter had closure with aunt mays death and accepted it before omd came out. also peter and mjs marriage was a big deal and it really showed how much peter had developed over the decades and that got rid of most of it. i personally hate clone saga more

honestly i dont read much spiderman but i have to say i the story was interesting. i was amazed at how he blamed stark for having spidey reveal his idenity to the world

The reason I hate the story is that we lost so much progress and it was Marvel officially saying we never want Peter to be anything more than he is. Joey Q said that he did that storyline because he felt Spider-man the idea of Spider-man going older maturing or possible having kids would lead to the idea that he must die one day and confront the mortality of Superheroes. To me that made no sense because superheroes tend to stop aging when writers want them to I mean look at Sue and Reed Richards they have grown older together had children and a long marriage and I do not see them confronting their mortality.

So IMO the reason OMD was and still is hated is the fact that many readers grown up with Spider-man he went threw the same rights of passage as they did. People grow they get married they have kids its just the way life goes. What OMD did was say No Peter will never grow up or get past that single college frat boyish stage of his life he will stay a 16 year old even if he is what in his late twenties in the books.

I could ramble on for paragraphs why I hate OMD but I'm going to because many people have already stated their opinions and I feel similar to them. It's just annoying that both Marvel and DC are so adamant about their characters staying the same to the point they'll do anything for character development to regress. OMD is a prime example of that.

Well, this right here is a prime example of why I finally joined this website and started this. Many of you make very valid points that I either never really thought of, or never considered in that way. I guess for me, MY Spiderman would risk it all for the one he loves. Even go against character and make a deal with the Devil. And having closure about someones death doesn't mean they want it to happen. I agree that May could/should have died by now, but I'd much rather it be for natural reasons than me getting her assassinated if I was Peter. A lot of you make good points about them not doing much (if anything) with her after they saved her, but that isn't in the arc and if anything, are issues after the fact that people seem to hold against this story. Yes, Peter shouldn't need to be ret-conned for us to keep reading, personally, i thought the handling of ultimate Peter's death and Miles Morales taking over was masterfully done.I wish that they could just run a character through a real time life (should time affect them as it does us all) and then find replacements or cool new characters to fill that role. But, I appreciate all the feedback and opinions and now have a better understanding as to the heavy dislike of this story. Thank you for a warm welcome with a good discussion and hopefully I will see you guys around here,

I don't understand why they thought unmasking Peter and being married took away from his character.

His identity is compromised, his involvement in the Civil War makes him (Spider-Man and Peter) a fugitive, his aunt died and he really doesn't have anywhere to go. Yeah, no story potential there (sarcasm).

Ironically they brought things back to the status quo with OMD and then they complain that Peter was too stagnant to justify the Superior Spider-Man.

That!

I'm surprised people didn't mention how peter stopped aunt may from reuniting with uncle ben.

I say this One More Day is a bad story but marriage was a creative mistake

so peter sacrificed his true love, his CHILD and happiness so his 1000 year old aunt can leave a couple more years, that totally makes sense though...

marvel wants spiderman to still be the hero teenager he once was, but its kind of hard when he's like 30 now

@fil123: 32 according to marvel

Well said.

I have mixed feelings about OMD. I liked the storytelling and tone of it and BIB before it, but not the outcome. I do like how Slott dealt with it, though.

this exactly

How about that it goes against everything SpiderMan stands for?

Most of my problems with the story can be summed up in the At4W Linkara review of the story as well as a summation of what happens when Spider-Man is written badly. Really Linky sums it up better than I ever could. Check it out but be warned it is the 200th milestone review for the series and it will not feature a straight review.