Re: Amazing Spider-Man series discussion (spoilers)
No. The ending was, "Okay, we dissolve the marriage without having to have them be divorced. Mephisto magics it so we get classic Spidey back."
JMS then wrote, "The last 20 years never happened."
Marvel said, "We can't do that, can you try to write what we originally agreed upon, please?"
JMS said, "I think this is the better story."
Marvel; "Seriously - this will mess up all the Spidey titles we've got ready to go. It causes an enormous amount of problems."
JMS; "Okay. I'll do what I can."
That's it. No big controversy or "WRITE WHAT WE TELL YOU STRACYZNKASZORGI!"
I totally agree with you.
A lot of people like to look for controversy where they can in the relationships between creative types and upper management, and thus will blow the tiniest disagreement out of proportion.
That said, without having read much of previous discussion on this whole One More Day situation --- and I have only started commenting on it because I've only started catching up --- I have more remarks.
I felt like Peter's decision to save his aunt's life was completely selfish. It was all about how he couldn't live with the guilt, rather than her death itself that seemed to matter more to him.
I understand that guilt is pretty much a theme that the character has always wrestled with, but it felt like the choice he had to make was less about May vs. Mary Jane, and more about what Peter could "live with". In that sense, it cheapened the situation because both the marriage and May's life were reduced to commodities in which the lives involved didn't matter.
I think the Mephisto Ex Machina only made it worse, because instead of it being a literal choice to be made --- as Bass has cleverly pointed out some months ago --- it was a choice that was made without suspense: The time in which May had and the time which the decision had to made was entirely up to Mephisto, rather than the natural forces of deathification.
Hypothetically, you could have Mephisto give Peter days and days to decide while he magicks May's deathification process for as long as his patience lasts. (Which of course, would buy the situation time to be resolved by other deus ex machinas, but oh wait, Dr. Strange 'can't do anything')
Another thing: The goal of One More Day was ostensibly to reset continuity --- even though Peter's unmasking was followed by promises that there wouldn't be any undo buttons for a year or two --- in order to make the character single again and more accessible to a YOUNGER audience, and stripped of old guy things like 'marriage', 'children' and 'dying parent figures'.
As I've said earlier, the means in accomplishing this was just stupid because it basically told us that Marvel is run by an editor that is SOOOOOO morally conscious as to refuse to depict smoking in comics, yet is okay with having Peter Parker --- arguably one of the most morally introspective, albeit neurotic, characters in comicsdom --- make a deal with the Devil.
And as I've said above, the decision was never about Peter trying to do something FOR May, it was about Peter trying to do something for HIMself. Let's face it: Peter refuses to experience the passing of his aunt, the way a mature person should and the way a 'role model' should encourage younger readers to.
