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Double Page Spread from the One More Day storyline

The big news currently floating around the comic blogs is the recent resolution to the Spider-Man “One More Day” storyline where Spider-Man (Peter Parker) attempts to save a dying Aunt May.

Proceed no further if you don’t want the story spoiled.

To set things up, Aunt May was hit by a sniper’s bullet–originally meant for Spider-Man/Peter Parker. Early in 2007, Peter Parker revealed to the world that he was Spider-Man. After leaving the protection of the Avengers, his immediate family (Aunt May and Mary Jane) were placed in danger. That leads us to Aunt May taking a bullet from the sniper and being in critical condition in the hospital.

It’s a commonly know fact that current Editor-in-Chief at Marvel Comics (Joe Quesada) did not like a married Spider-Man. For those that don’t know, Spider-Man married Mary Jane Watson in 1987. It was a media event back then and received a lot of news/press coverage. Joe Q. stated many times that he wanted to erase the marriage, but didn’t want to divorce the couple.

So. . . To make this long story short, Peter and MJ essentially make a deal with the devil (the Marvel Universe version is referred to as Mephisto) who “takes” their marriage away stating that he will feed off of the pain it will cause the couple. At the end of the story, Pete wakes up to find Aunt May alive and well downstairs cooking him wheat-cakes for breakfast and later goes to a party where it’s revealed that his long-dead friend Harry Osbourne is now alive and well again (Mephisto’s idea of a joke or a bonus?).

The two problems with the story are so evident that even Jill pointed them out when I described the story to her (bear in mind, she has only seen the Spider-Man movies) and she pointed out the following two reasons she didn’t like it (which mirror my own):

  1. Aunt May would not have wanted Peter to make any kind of deal with anyone to save her. It it was her time to go, she would have accepted it and expected Peter to do the same.
  2. The Devil. Seriously. Does anyone think that Peter Parker would make a deal with the devil (or a devil)? Really. Divorce is too bad for kids to read about (Joe Q.’s reasoning) but it’s ok for Pete to make a deal with the devil?

Finally, ComicBookResources is running a 5-part interview with Joe Quesada about the entire story and I found this little nugget in part 3.

The truth of the matter is that if the fans truly want a married Peter and MJ with kids, then we have an incredible book called “Spider-Girl.” If this is truly what fandom wants, to see Peter go through the natural progressions of life, then I expect orders on “Spider-Girl” to go through the roof in the next month.

That’s marketing talk right there. If fans really wanted to read the adventures of an unmarried Peter Parker, then they could have been (and like have been) reading the 110+ issues of Ultimate Spider-Man that Marvel also publishes. That series has been the only consistently good Spider-Man book for many years.

Joe Q. wanted an unmarried, adult-aged Spider-Man, and being the EIC, he gets what he wants.

Even with all of this griping and disagreement with the method, I’ll have to admit I’m intrigued by the creative teams they have lined up to produce the “Amazing Spider-Man” comic 3 times a month. Names like Dan Slott, Steve McNiven and John Romita Jr. could get me to read “Amazing Spider-Man” again and enjoy the stories.

At the end of the day, I don’t have to like the method, but maybe, just maybe, the results will be good.

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Spider-Man By Carter - Age 4

It’s plain to see that this is a drawing of Spider-Man. If the red and blue doesn’t give it away, the webs coming from his hands should. Awesome!

He’s made such an improvement in coloring and drawing in just a few weeks. Suddenly he’s attempting to draw faces and characters and coloring almost completely inside the lines. We try to color or draw at least a few times a week.

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Mark Bagley Draws the JLA and Avengers

According to Newsarama, in 2008, longtime Marvel Comics artist Mark Bagley will make a switch to DC Comics after over 20 years at Marvel.

Bagley just recently finished an unheard of (in this age) run of 111 issues on Ultimate Spider-Man (with writer Brian Bendis). Newsarama (and DC) did not name the project that Bagley will be working on, I’d love to see him on Teen Titans.

With his track record and speed, he’d be a great candidate for any book. He’s one of the few artists in the industry that can still produce a book (or more) in one month. Maybe he’ll be involved with DC’s third weekly series that will likely follow Countdown to Final Crisis and the 7 issue limited series Final Crisis, by Grant Morrison. Whatever the project, I’ll definitely check it out.

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Superman Clone (Kel) from the 41st Century in the Legion of Super Heroes Season 2

A few preview images have popped up over at Comic Book Resources for the Season 2 premiere of Legion of Super Heroes. The Legion looks older, which is a move that surprises me. I would have thought the younger kids/teen Legion would market better. I do know, the older Legion presented here looks more interesting to me. The premise for Season2 has a few interesting tidbits, like a clone of Superman from the 41st Century–Legion is set in the 31st. He recruits the Legion to help him battle Imperiex, who actually follows the Superman clone to the 31st century and gathers all of the Legion’s villains into an army. Lots of heroes and lots of villains – cool.

Eddie Brock from the new Spectacular Spider-Man animated seriesNext up, be sure to check out the ENI interview with Spectacular Spider-Man animated series director Victor Cook. He offers up a few bits of interesting information, but the highlight of the article are the character drawings featuring the main cast. They’ve done a great job in updating the characters while retaining the uniqueness of that character.

For instance, look at Eddie Brock. Counting the original, the Ultimate Spider-Man version, and the Spider-Man 3 version, that’s 3 different version of the character the series could have adapted. Instead, the version on the left looks like a perfect melding of those versions. He’s big and bulky like the original, but young like the Ultimate version. I always liked the huge Venom as opposed to the mirror image of Spider-Man that the film portrayed. He’s more menacing and threatening. Can’t wait for this show to premiere later in the year. It’s previewed so well, the original season has been extended from 13 to 26 episodes. Be sure to check out the rest of the images at ENI.

Finally, I just now discovered this Season 5 interview with the Teen Titans animated series head writers. It’s full of information on the fifth and final season and answered a lot of questions. The fifth season was always planned as the last, but 20 episodes were originally ordered instead of the typical 13. If you’re a fan of the Cartoon Network Teen Titans show, it’s definitely worth a read.