Friday, January 18, 2008

Justice League is distracting

I would have posted earlier, but with homework and breaks consisting of me trying to watch the entire Jusitce League TV show, I didn't have time.

Anyway, One More Day and Brand New Day. For those of you just joining us, I hate Brand New Day. Brand New Day is what is taking place in the Marvel Universe as a retcon of Spider-Man. This includes a lot of spoilers, so be careful. When Spider-Man revealed his identity in Civil War, he realized this was a mistake and switched sides. When he did that, he was on the run, with everybody knowing who he is because of his blind faith in Tony Stark. The Kingpin discovered where he was hiding, along with his wife and aunt. He hired an assassin to take out Spidey, but Spidey's Spider-Sense went off and he dove, protecting MJ, but Aunt May was shot and fell. After taking her to the hospital, he has never forgiven himself. He went through his period where he dressed in black to try and show that he was black on the inside too (it was stupid, but fit in time with the timing of the third Spider-Man movie). Eventually, May's condition demanded either more money or to be put aside with other people with small amounts of money, so Peter went to Avengers Tower, looking for Iron Man. When he found Tony, he was able to eventually convince Tony to lend money, which he did through Jarvis. The doctor said he would make her comfortable, but there was nothing he could do. Spider-Man knows a lot more people of course, so he went to Dr. Strange who could not help, but allowed him to go to other people who might be able to help, all at the same time, all over the world. Unfortunately, all of them, including Mr. Fantastic, Black Panther, The Wizard and Dr. Doom all said there was nothing. After a vain attempt to try and go into the past, Spidey eventually was walking somberly when he ran into a little girl with red hair who convinced him that he should stop thinking about himself all the time. Then, he ran into a computer programmer, who told his story as a version of Peter Parker who never got bit and just went through life ignoring people and everything. Then, he ran into a super successful rich version of himself who used the spite for him to become motivation and used his considerable intellect to make a fortune. Eventually he ran into Mephisto who told him that all three were versions of him, and that Mephisto could save May, but wanted Peter and MJ's marriage in return. They discussed this and, in one of the most idiotic choices, ranking up there with trusting Tony Stark, although maybe worse, he decided to take the deal, and Mephisto revealed that the little girl would have been theirs if they had not taken the deal. Still, the deal goes through and they never became married and Spider-Man's life gets completely and utterly retconned.
Now, everything is crazy and stupid. Don't get me wrong, the art is great and the story isn't half bad, but it doesn't fit at all. It should be an alternate universe, hey, maybe it should get its own series, but it should not be the Spider-Man series. I am appreciative of the story, but it feels like it should be set in the 70's or something, and I hate how they set it up. Peter is intelligent, right? He made some bad choices, but he also has made some good choices in his life. The entire story that was told in One More Day 1-3 made the case for Peter to let her go as it would make the most sense, and he had to accept it. Sure, he semi-caused it by being Spider-Man and being a target for assassination by the Kingpin, but May knew the risks, as did MJ, and both were willing to risk their life. Plus, in the last issue of Sensational Spider-Man before One More Day, God showed up and let Peter know he was doing a good job. You read that correctly. God shouwed up and said that he was doing a good job. How much clearer can it be than that? Peter might make a few mistakes, but he keeps on going and he doesn't just quit. He did that in One More Day.
I hate it because it is out of character. Yes, he would want to save his aunt, and he would do "anything", but he has lost her before. He has lost his uncle before. He has lost Gwen Stacy and even has lost MJ for a time (thought to be dead), but he continued on. This was his fault? So was Gwen Stacy. He moved on. Uncle Ben he always blamed on himself, but he became a superhero because of it. Peter is an intelligent individual. He invented his webshooters, he invented spider-tracers that he can find with his Spider-Sense. That was when he was a kid. He doesn't always think things through fully, and doesn't always have great common sense, but he is not an idiot. Otherwise, he never would have survived 46 years superheroing. There was a time I remember where Darkhawk had the opportunity to try and go back in time to help his father from dying, and Spidey said that he would do anything to change Uncle Ben's death, but (to himself, said that) he knew that he shouldn't do anything to try and change the past. Why did the writers think this was a good idea? I don't think this was all Stracyszinki (or however you spell it), but he made some bad ideas. He redeemed himself in my eyes a little when he said he wanted to change the Gwen getting pregnant thing from Sins Past during One More Day, but wasn't allowed, but that he made it in the first place and that he made Spider-Man more "magical" always made me sad.
All in all, it just doesn't make sense for Spidey to agree. I know that MJ semi-convinced him, but he should know better than to deal with Mephisto. Mephisto, also usually known as Mephistopholes or Satan or the Devil. YOU DON'T MAKE DEALS WITH THE DEVIL! Oy. Well, as for the story itself, I find it kind of fun, but mostly when I imagine it as being a story set in the 70's and not in present day (with Harry around and stuff like that). It's not the best story in the world, but it could easily be worse, and it works for what it is, I guess.

IT JUST DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!

2 comments:

David said...

Don't worry, I'm sure Krypto will wake up and have it all be a dream of his... Oh wait, Marvel doesn't have that option... Damn...

Pi_3.14159... said...

I like Marvel because they don't have Crisis like events. There have been retcons in Marvel, but nothing as serious as a Crisis event. Probably the biggest is this upcoming Secret Invasion, in which a lot of things are going to be retconned as "Skrulls did this." But Marvel doesn't go as far as wiping out the entire universe and recreating it. Probably the biggest reason for this is that Marvel doesn't have the same type of cosmic scale as DC. Too mnay DC heroes are incredibly powerful and have cosmic-level power. WIth that, they can easily take place in Crisis like events. it's a lot harder for Marvel.

On one hand, I want someone to wake up and have Brand New Day and One More Day all be a dream. On the other, I don't like retconning on that scale, even if it is in response to a retcon on that scale.

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