Spider-Man: One More Day Review
Sony and Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: No Way Home is on the horizon, and with that the urge to consume as many Spider-Man comics as humanly possible increases! The hunt to uncover any potential details from the stories of Marvel’s past in an attempt to get a small glimpse into what No Way Home might have in store for us is a daily obsession. However, I’m happy to report we here at Careful 4 Spoilers are going to help you narrow your search! After watching the first few trailers for No Way Home, it is clear this film is drawing some inspiration from the 2008 Spider-Man story, One More Day, which is an odd, yet I think fitting choice, especially considering the position in which our MCU Peter Parker currently finds himself.
I say, “odd”, because Michael J. Straczynski and Joe Quesada’s four-issue event, Spider-Man: One More Day, is quite possibly the most polarizing Spider-Man story of all time. The series kicks off after the events of Civil War. Peter Parker has revealed his secret identity to the world, and in doing so has caused a multitude of issues for himself and his loved ones. The most impactful of which is the accidental shooting of Aunt May. As May staves off death in a coma, Peter recruits the help of Doctor Strange with the hope that our Sorcerer Supreme will be able to assist him in saving May's life. Sadly, despite all of the mystical Doctor’s “timey-wimey” attempts to help Peter, they are unable to change the past and Spider-man is left with only one choice… consulting the devil. Well, Marvel’s version of the devil at least, Mephisto (#MephistoConfirmed, just kidding.). Mephisto leads Peter through a series of interactions in which he is shown alternate versions of himself, all of whom were never bitten by the radioactive spider, but lived out their lives in ways that always resulted in Peter being alone. These interactions culminate in Mephisto giving Peter an ultimatum, in exchange for saving May’s life, Peter and MJ must erase their marriage from existence.
The story as a whole has a lot of redeeming qualities, however, I can see why Marvel fans at the time were so upset by the direction the publisher was taking. Marvel had exploded comics’ longest-running relationship, and Peter as a character seemingly experienced no change after having his marriage erased and his mind wiped. It was business as usual for our friendly neighborhood (now bachelor) web-slinger. We the fans were the ones cursed with remembering Peter and MJ’s relationship, and the knowledge that what had transpired between them would never be.
In spite of all of this, there are elements of this story that I still think work well. While the book’s finale doesn’t fully deliver on this idea, the “acceptance of death” is a topic consistently pushed into the forefront of Peter and the reader’s mind over the course of the first three issues. Mortality is the most basic of human conditions, and coping with the eventual loss of a loved one, or even our own personal demise is something that almost everyone can relate to. Watching Peter react to May’s looming passing allows the reader to reflect on how they would handle the situation, and thus makes Peter more relatable (even more so than he already is). On top of that, in the final issue, the goodbye between Peter and MJ is emotionally resonant and gets me every time I read it, regardless of how it impacted the greater Marvel Universe after the fact.
We don’t know exactly how much of One More Day is going to be adapted for Spider-Man: No Way Home, or to what degree the MCU’s Peter’s meddling is going to negatively impact his life going forward in the films. Is the MCU’s Peter going to lose another loved one? Is his relationship with the MCU’s M.J. going to be dispelled and forgotten? I guess we’ll have to wait until December 17th to find out! In the meantime, pick up Spider-Man: One More Day to tide you over, and we’ll see you at the theater!