One More Day (Spider-Man)

"This comic... is actually better than I remember... OF COURSE IT ISN'T! THIS COMIC SUCKS!"

- Linkara

One More Day is a four-part comic book crossover storyline connecting the three main Spider-Man series (Amazing, Friendly Neighborhood and Sensational) written by J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada providing the artwork. In this arc, it concludes the fallout of Spider-Man's actions during 2007's Civil War crossover.

Plot
After his Aunt May is shot by an assassin hired by the Kingpin (who learned of his true identity in prison during the events of Civil War), Peter Parker/ Spider-Man seeks help to save her life with the aid of Doctor Strange. After Strange refused to strict his magic over forbidden sorcery rules to heal his aunt, Spider-Man encounters mysterious silhouettes that promises "help" to save Aunt May... at what great cost?!

Why Mephisto Should Erase This Story

 * 1) One More Day is infamous for having Peter Parker/Spider-Man make a deal with the devil named Mephisto, who erases his marriage with Mary Jane Watson when the Kingpin, who knows his identity in the events of 2007's Civil War, hired an gunman to assassinate them and Aunt May.
 * 2) This story arc mostly existed as an excuse for Marvel editorial's lazy attempt to fix and resolute Spider-Man's status-quo at the hands of it's editor-in-chief, Joe Quesada, who was a massive Spider-Man fan during his childhood that considered Peter being married to Mary Jane as making him too old to be Spider-Man for years to come. This is since Quesada co-wrote it with J. Michael Stracyznski, whom loved Spider-Man and Mary Jane as a married couple and never wanted to approve his decision.
 * 3) Focuses too much on Peter acting very out of character and constantly whining about how his exposed identity to the world during Civil War, and Aunt May's assassination was his fault, but that he couldn't live with himself for May dying. As a result, he comes across as selfless person who refuses to let go of the past and accepts Mephisto's deal of wanting their love and marriage away.
 * 4) Peter/Spider-Man even visits Iron Man, who has the technology to heal Aunt May's bullet wound, but he refuses with the lame excuse that it'll undermine everything he's worked for since Civil War.
 * 5) * He then consults Doctor Strange, Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic, T'Challa/Black Panther, Hank Pym/YellowJacket, and even villains like Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus and Victor Von Doom/Dr Doom, with none of them can heal a bullet wound.
 * 6) ** As a reminder, T'Challa/ Black Panther is the ruler of Wakanda, a city that can use Vibranium technology to heal people. Yet, he can't heal a bullet wound.
 * 7) **For Doctor Strange in One Moment In Time (a follow-up revealing how Mephisto erases Spider-Man and Mary Jane's marriage), he did help Spider-Man help save Mary Jane from a bullet wound in his Sanctum, So, why didn't he take Aunt May to Doctor Strange's Sanctum?!
 * 8) Not enough fight scenes and is just about focusing on Spider-Man finding ways to save Aunt May from a bullet wound and doesn't grow to be a regular adult, it's only Spider-Man fighting Iron Man and webbed him up in self-defense.
 * 9) There is also a filler story in The Sensational Spider-Man, where Peter meets a little girl who is probably supposed to be his own daughter along with meeting his 2 alternate counterparts and a woman in a red dress, and all of them are illusions by the devil, Mephisto himself.
 * 10) *it has a rather insulting moment where an alternate Peter Parker, who is a video game geek claims that people play games and read books because there's "something missing in their lives" and that "the world we got wasn't the world we were supposed to get".
 * 11) ** There is another timeline where Peter became a wealthy billionaire with everything he wishes, and yet he whines about how he'd trade it all for the girl he loves, making him come across as whiny, especially since he could've easily found another girl who he would love.
 * 12) When the deal is done, this led to lots of changes removed and forgotten (such as Harry Osborn is alive when he died in The Spectacular Spider-Man #200, Edwin Jarvis's relationship with Aunt May forgottened) that are shown in One Moment in Time, which details the impact of how Mephisto took the marriage away.
 * 13) The title is a lie and is just Spider-Man accomplishing nothing but complain over his guilt.
 * 14) The ending is rather insulting as to add salt to the wound, with Peter (who no longer has organic webs and still uses web shooters) reuniting with his supposed-dead friend, Harry Osborn as it ends with Peter holding the cup in a party saying "Speak of the devil and he appears!", indicating that his problems accomplished nothing after the deal was done.
 * 15) It is considered as a disgrace from Spider-Man fans, who don't want to see Peter/Spider-Man deal with evil people.
 * 16) It even tries to break the promise of what "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility" means to Spider-Man and lets it go all the way.
 * 17) The pacing is inconsistently slow.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The artwork is actually pretty good and fits with the tone One More Day sets, if it's executed better.
 * 2) It's very reasonable why Spider-Man needed his aunt to be healed from the bullet wound, and you should feel very sorry for him.
 * 3) Mary Jane is the only character who doesn't act out of character.
 * 4) The 2020 storyline Last Remains FINALLY addresses One More Day, as the Pre-OMD Harry Osborn returns as the demonic centipede-type villain Kindred (who were later revealed to be two people disguising Harry's face), who is out to destroy Spider-Man's entire life and blaming him for said deal. After Last Remains, however, the deal has yet to be undone after Sinister War.

Trivia

 * The Champions storyline "Beat the Devil" had a similar situation where Miles Morales, another Spider-Man, made a deal with Mephisto to save the current Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan) and Viv (Vision's daughter) from death instead of saving a teenage girl from Dubai. This proves that Miles and Peter aren't the same characters, whereas Miles doesn't trust Mephisto and his deals, while Peter really did the deal to alleviate his own guilt in keeping Aunt May alive and it's his fault.
 * Also, in the MC2 Universe where Spider-Man's daughter is alive and became Spider-Girl, has Kaine (Spider-Man's first clone) make deals with other demons besides Mephisto, but it backfired.
 * In What If? Spider-Man: Back in Black, Mary Jane is shot instead of Aunt May, and so Peter kills the Kingpin's assassin targeting them along with trying to kill Kingpin, which leads to him being arrested. Thus, the deal with Mephisto never happened.
 * According to Joe Quesada, J. Michael Straczynski's original script for the storyline's fourth issue involved changes to continuity going as far back as 1971. Peter would have helped Harry Osborn get into rehab for his drug addiction immediately, which would have allowed a number of rewrites. Mary Jane would have remained in a relationship with Harry, Gwen would not have been killed and ultimately Peter's marriage to Mary Jane would not have taken place. Quesada realized that these changes would have far-reaching consequences for both historical and forthcoming storylines, so he made the decision to change Straczynski's story. While Peter and Mary Jane were to have remained a couple for the purposes of back-story, they were simply not a married couple.
 * Elements of One More Day were worked into the 2021 movie Spider-Man: No Way Home in which, at the end, Spider-Man asks Doctor Strange to cast a spell that would wipe people's memories of his existence. While not exactly the same thing, both end up costing Peter his relationships.

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