When the conversation inevitably arises amongst comic book fans regarding which storyline is the most controversial, nine times out of ten, Spider-Man: One More Day will enter the mix, and rightfully so. First premiering in 2007, the storyline written by J. Michael Straczynski and drawn by Joe Quesada ended the marriage of Peter Parker and Mary Jane in such a way, that many readers are still reeling decades later. With so much time behind us since Mephisto arrived in New York City, now seems like as good a time as any to revisit the event and how the devil’s bargain still lingers over the wallcrawler to this day.
To give you a brief synopsis of what this storyline was all about, for those who might not know, the events of Marvel’s Civil War in the comics saw Peter revealing his secret identity to the world. In doing this, the Kingpin of Crime, Wilson Fisk, ordered a hit on Peter and his family, grievously injuring Aunt May in the process. Finding no help from the medical and/or superhero community, Mephisto appears and offers May’s life in exchange for Peter’s marriage. Begrudgingly, Peter and MJ accept the offer, leading up to the storyline “Brand New Day” while also bringing us back to a single Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson.
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Besides the absurdity of Mephisto of all people appearing in Peter’s life and creating a devil’s bargain to end the marriage, the destruction of Peter and Mary Jane’s relationship was one that readers still struggle with to this day. For me personally, the idea of a single Peter Parker could work in terms of creating not just friction in Spidey’s life but also simply in creating more interesting storylines for the decades-old character. It’s in this point however that I think Marvel Comics has never truly been able to capitalize on what the fallout of One More Day was.
Since 2007, Peter has been in a handful of relationships with the opposite sex. We’ve seen Parker bounce off the likes of Carlie Cooper, Silk, Lian Tang, Mockingbird, and the Black Cat. What we’ve also seen is Peter get back together with Mary Jane, only to then lose her again thanks to alternate reality shenanigans and the roadblock that readers know as “Paul.” All of these relationships have somewhat failed to capitalize on the easy enough premise of “can these new, or recurring, love interests exceed the marriage of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson?” Unfortunately, the answer to that question has been a resounding “no.”
Peter’s on-again, off-again love life hasn’t been able to justify his “single status” in creating stories that feel as though they need a single Peter Parker to be in them. For me personally, in writing this article, I went back and re-read quite a few stories that focused on Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage and a lot of them were extremely interesting and helped both characters mature and change as a result of their union. For example, Peter would fight Venom, come back to Mary Jane (who had a lingering fear of the dark doppelganger), and the married couple would have a conversation about his troubles and his balancing of his superhero duties that would last throughout the night. One of the justifications for the marriage being destroyed was to make Peter more relatable but in all honesty, it seems to have had the opposite effect so far. To be fair also, Peter was never really that much of a “relatable” character to begin with. How many of us have created web shooters in our garage and had internships with multi-million dollar science conglomerates after all?
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One of the biggest weaknesses, I feel, has been Marvel Comics’ inability to explore some of what could be wild storylines for Peter that we had never seen before. Now to be fair, Dan Slott’s run on the character did see him briefly dating Hawkeye’s ex-wife Mockingbird but their relationship almost felt like an after-thought. Bobbi was always on the run working for S.H.I.E.L.D. and Peter was a bit of a couch potato at the time thanks to the troubles happening in his life. It never felt as though the relationship became serious enough that Peter was introducing Bobbi to friends and family and/or struggling with the activities of their respective superhero duties. To say nothing of not exploring the potential drama of Parker and Clint Barton having a chat about these events.
There are quite a few superhero dating possibilities for Peter out there that haven’t been mined as well as they could have, the biggest being Carol Danvers. Peter and Captain Marvel went on one date, they had a decent enough time, and the teases for something more in the future were there. Spider-Man has been a character all about responsibility and Captain Marvel is a serious, no-nonsense character that would work well at balancing him out. It would almost be the inverse of Peter’s relationship with Mary Jane in every sense of the word, making it an interesting foil to the relationship. Now Peter might be the one worrying at home while Carol fights a cosmic threat, unable to help her thanks to not being in her weight class.
This being said, Carol isn’t the only single superheroine in the Marvel world today. Characters like Jessica Drew, Jennifer Walters, Julia Carpenter, and others might create an interesting dynamic for Peter. In a past storyline, Marvel even hinted at the idea of Emma Frost seeing Peter Parker in a favorable light thanks to reading his mind and a relationship like that would work exceptionally well in terms of creating wild drama and even bringing Spidey closer to the X-universe. The sky should be the limit for a single Peter Parker but it’s never felt as though Marvel has managed to more than scratch the surface.
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When it comes to the idea of checking off the boxes of what makes a relatable Spider-Man truly work, every facet of this is covered by Miles Morales. Miles is a young, single, high-schooler who is trying to balance his superhero responsibilities with his daily life. In a lot of ways, Peter has simply moved on from this stage in his life in the comics and often it feels like Marvel is attempting to “have its cake and eat it too” but stumbling in all directions as a result. For every storyline that is needed to make Peter relatable, you can simply slap it onto Miles these days. Morales is now a household name and has easily been able to have his own solo series, allowing more storylines to potentially explore wild shifts in Peter’s life.
In the latest The Amazing Spider-Man comic book storyline, Peter is struggling once again to find a job while fighting against the likes of Itsy Bitsy and Hobgoblin. This story works first and foremost in clashing Spidey’s mundane activities with his super heroics but again, feels like a story that could have been done with him married to MJ. While he is dating Shay Marken at the moment, it’s still a fresh relationship, though there is potential there. Shay was previously a nurse at Ravencroft Insitute, the closest thing Marvel has to an Arkham Asylum, so fingers crossed the comics can take this story to some interesting areas.
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In my humble opinion, Peter hasn’t defeated the storyline of One More Day yet, almost twenty years later, but I feel like he will get there one day. Unfortunately, it feels like there are only really two options for this to happen and that’s to eventually bring back Peter and MJ to the marriage or by simply nixing Mary Jane from Spider-Man’s supporting cast once and for all. With her now swinging the city streets as the new Venom, the idea of the latter seems that much more difficult to achieve. Now to be fair, the eventual meet-up of Peter and “VenoMJ” is sure to be a good one though that doesn’t douse Mephisto’s shadow.
Looking to MJ’s past, one of the most interesting storylines that Watson has been a part of since One More Day’s conclusion was her role at Stark Industries. Working with Tony Stark for a brief time during Brian Michael Bendis’ run on the iron avenger, Mary Jane was able to shine in a role not associated with Peter in the slightest but still keeping her interesting and a definitive part of the Marvel universe. There are plenty of avenues for Peter and Mary Jane moving forward but to truly overcome One More Day, the comics need to “commit or quit” with the marriage.
Want to see if One More Day will eventually be defeated by your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man? Follow along with ComicBook.com for the latest updates on Peter Parker and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.
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