By: Joe Quesada (writer), Paolo Rivera, Quesada, Danny Miki & Richard Isanove (art) & Joe Caramanga (letters)
The Story: One Moment In Time lurches toward the finish line. Will the ending make any sense? Will Dan Slott punch his boss in the face for messing up this series’ momentum?
What’s Good: I’m going to go ahead and give a SPOILER warning because there is really no way to discuss what I liked about this issue without getting into spoilers.
I am generally a comics optimist. I enjoy the hobby and have enough passion to spend my free time writing reviews, so I (mostly) just roll with the punches and don’t get too worked up about the stupid stuff that happens from time to time.
And you really need to have that attitude to pull anything good out of OMIT. Just deal with it and accept that for whatever reason, Joe Quesada wanted to put Spider-Man into a different place with a new status quo. He’s the editor and he gets to make that decision and for all the people who bitch about stuff like this, just remember that no one is perfect and that Quesada has mostly made okay decisions during his tenure as EIC at Marvel.
There are many things wrong with this issue, but it is crystal clear what is going on at the end. The first three issues were actually very, very hard to review because I felt the urge to try to explain what happened but I was confused myself. That is gone and we have a definitive status quo at the end of this issue: Peter and MJ care for each other and MJ knows that he is Spider-Man, but doesn’t want to be romantically involved with him because doing so puts her loved ones at risk. That logic is circular, but this is a very clear direction for the series and it frees Dan Slott (the new ASM writer) to tell stories in a world where things are pretty darn clear. And that’s good because Quesada has made Slott’s job difficult by pissing off the fanbase.
What’s Not So Good: I joke only a little when I say “everything else”, but it is an honest assessment. The Quesada art is dreadful: MJ and Peter both look fat and when they don’t look fat their faces just look weird (and inconsistent from panel to panel). Even Paolo Rivera’s art (which was the saving grace in early OMIT stories) looks rushed and unfinished.
The dialog is just painfully awkward. Here is an actual MJ line from the issue: “Oh, God, Peter! Oh. God — Ahuh — Huuh. I know I promised — Ahuh — I promised you I would never — Oh God!” To which Peter says: “What? What are you saying?” My thoughts exactly, Tiger!
And, I’ll say one more time that this story just didn’t need to happen. I didn’t even want to read this issue and reading it was like being a little kid with a splinter when your parents start coming after you with tweezers saying, “You have to hold still! If we don’t pull out this splinter (a.k.a. address this continuity) it will get infected!” But, then when they pull the splinter they drag it out over a hour (a.k.a. the four issues of OMIT) and after an hour of blood, screams and crying you are thoroughly traumatized for life. That’s OMIT!
Conclusion: This was just a shit story arc. But, it is over and we have a new direction. Hopefully Dan Slott will write an awesome first story arc and make me forget OMIT.
Grade: D- (for not even having good art)
– Dean Stell
Grade
Conclusion