10 Amazing Comic Storylines Derailed By Editorial Politics
7. One More Day
Peter Parker, aka, Spider-Man's marriage to supermodel girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson, had long been a polarizing development within Marvel's circle of creators and editors. Some thought it made the character more relatable, while others thought it was harder to identity with a middle age-ish superhero with husbandly responsibilities.
Regardless, the Peter/MJ dynamic was at its very best when written by Amazing Spider-Man scribe J. Michael Straczynski, who reunited the couple after a multi-year separation in the early 2000s. But despite all of the excellent Peter/MJ stories, JMS was tasked by Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada with breaking them up for good. Straczynski was reluctant to do the story, dubbed One More Day, and even asked to have his name taken off the comic in protest, but later backed off so as not to sabotage Marvel or Quesada.
Quesada remained very adamant that the Spider-Man series would be better off without Peter's marriage to MJ, so the story went forward, and ended up being what many consider to be one of the worst Spidey stories of all time. In the set-up to the story, Peter's Aunt May is shot by a sniper bullet and he is offered a deal by Marvel's version of the devil, Mephisto, that he could say May's life in exchange for his marriage being wiped from existence.
Readers were shocked that Peter accepted. Not only were 20 years of continuity wiped from existence, but Spider-Man, a beloved character with established morals, made a deal with the devil to set it all into motion. Critics railed against the story, calling it editorial interference run amok, though the marriage remains annulled more than five years later with no sign of it being reinstated.