By: Joe Quesada (writer), Paolo Rivera, Joe Q., Danny Miki & Richard Isanove (art) & Joe Caramanga (letters) Spidey-Sundays by Stan Lee & Marcos Martin
The Story: Marvel wants to do more Peter Parker and Mary Jane stories in the future and that means they think they need to reconcile some inconsistencies in the continuity that occurred during One More Day.
What’s Good: This issue is very strong from an editorial art standpoint. We are given a mix of new pages that happen “now”, old pages from ASM Annual #21 (from the late 1980’s) and new pages that are adding additional information to ASM Annual #21. So, it is impressive that editorial managed to get this all to come off from a technical standpoint. It reminded me of watching the re-released Star Wars movies in the late 1990’s and trying to guess what elements were new CGI stuff and what was old.
The art teams also do a nice job throughout. I like how they’ve made MJ look like the girl next door and not some super-model like some artists. I also think they did a pretty good job of aping the art style of ASM Annual #21 with some of the newly added interstitial pages.
I also think it’s nice that they clearly have some interest in doing some Peter-MJ stories. As a kid who grew up in the 1980’s, I’m too young to really remember Gwen Stacey as an active girlfriend. And, I was out of comics in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, so seeing MJ & Peter together just feels “right” and has been missing of late.
What’s Not So Good: I really hate that Marvel felt they needed to do this story. I can understand their rationale: (a) lots of fans felt betrayed by One More Day, (b) Marvel wants to do more MJ-Peter stories, but (c) how can MJ and Peter get together and not talk about One More Day? I’ll tell you how. You do what comic companies have been doing with crappy continuity for decades: You Ignore It! You certainly don’t pick at the scab (“Hmmmm……if I really dig, perhaps I can get some blood to come out!). I should reserve a little judgment because Marvel has a few more stories in this OMIT story-arc, but I’d rather just see them throw Peter and MJ back into action and ignore (not contradict) OMD.
This issue really suffers from mixing the 80’s style ASM Annual #21 with a modern day comic. I think 80’s comics look weird just seeing them printed on glossy paper. The whites were NEVER that white in the old days and the colors are a little too vibrant. But, when you have them back-to-back with “modern” comic art and its more realistic sensibilities, it is just jarring. And the 80’s style writing sticks out like a sore thumb as when Electro’s henchman is handing him his shirt and thinking, “Gotta be careful! One touch from his bare hand would fry me like a strip o’ bacon!” I was sick of that kind of writing by my teenage years and that’s part of why I left comics. I don’t mind this writing when I get out a pile of back issues to read on Saturday afternoon, but it’s weird to see it mixed up in a modern comic.
Conclusion: Why did we need this? I know the fanboy community has many who dislike One More Day, but I didn’t hear the vocal cry for an issue that reconciles continuity inconsistencies. I wish they’d just kept moving forward with the goodness of Gauntlet and The Grim Hunt.
Grade: D
– Dean Stell
Grade
Conclusion