10 Terrible Mistakes That Almost Ruined Spider-Man For Everyone‏

3. One More Day

The Other was totally his mess, but Straczynski can't take the blame for the One More Day/Brand New Day debacle. Despite the fact that we've proven ourselves so resistant to change time and again in this feature, the natural evolution of his character is another one of the great things about Spider-Man. We identify with him because he's a regular person and, like a regular person, he grows up and his life changes. A baby may have messed things up, but Peter's marriage to MJ added an interesting new dynamic to Spider-Man's stories, and was a necessary piece of character development (not to mention a merciful cap on the sort of will they, won't they storylines that drag down long-running sitcoms). Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada couldn't disagree more. In fact he'd long held the opinion that Spidey's marriage had "broken" the character, and he made it his personal mission to fix him. Having worked his way into the most powerful position in the bullpen, he issued a decree: Peter Parker and Mary Jane's marriage was over. No matter what it took. Except they couldn't get divorced, or split up, or anything like that. Straczynski, the writer put in charge of a story he has been on the record about not wanting to write, did the best he could under those conditions. Still, the best he could do was a story where creaky old Aunt May gets shot by an assassin and so Peter and MJ sell their marriage to the devil in order to save her life, instead of finally putting her out of her misery. For some reason Mephisto accepts, and it's as if the pair never tied the knot. One More Day didn't quite ruin Spider-Man, but it certainly tried, undoing one of the strongest and most beloved relationships in comics at the whim of a misguided editor, telling a ridiculous story in the process and reverting Spidey back to the web-swinging bachelor days that hadn't been seen in the comics for thirty years. Now Spidey is no different from any other superhero, trapped in a permanent narrative stasis, never allowed to grow or change with any permanence. Still, could be worse, we suppose.