it's hard to have hope . . .

As I read One More Day and its final panels I say to myself, "surely not. Surely they can't let the bad guy win on such a colossal level. And it's not even a good bad guy! It's not Doc Ock or Green Goblin. It's Mephisto, who usually hangs out in the Ghost Rider books! What's he doing in Spider-Man and why has he been given the single greatest victory any villain has had over Spidey?"

His being able to take Mary Jane away from Peter ranks right up there with Green Goblin killing Gwen Stacey. He doesn't deserve that honor. Nothing else compares, really. Not the death of Harry, not the death of Uncle Ben.

So why is he allowed to get away with it? And if he is, it's all the worse because Peter will never mourn losing MJ! Because let's face it: Pete's a melnacholy guy. He's haunted by the deaths of everyone he's ever come into contact with. But not MJ. True, she's not actually dead. But she was the love of his life, his wife for better or for worse. And he's lost her.

And so I try to have hope. I try to think, "surely this won't be allowed to continue. Surely Peter will triumph over the forces of evil."

But then I read Tom Brevoort's blog (he's one of the powers-that-be at Marvel) and he does his best to take away what hope I have:

I think we care about and respect our fans a great deal, but that doesn’t extend to doing everything any of them wants. We’ve been over the argument for why an unmarried Spider-Man is a much more vital character than a married Spider-Man, and how the marriage itself started as a circulation-boosting stunt for the newspaper strip that got out of hand.

We didn’t go to all of the effort and brace to deal with all of the agita simply to cave in and reverse ourselves because some fans are upset. This is a long-term game we’re playing here, and everybody agrees that an unmarried Spider-Man will be much more vital over a much greater period than a married one. We knew there’d be people upset in the short term—but we’re also taking the long term into account.

Now, you never know what might happen in the future. But given that Joe Quesada has no intentions of ever reversing this, Dan Buckley has no intentions of ever reversing this, I have no intentions of ever reversing this, the Marvel West guys are completely supportive of this decision, and upper management is very happy with it, if you’re waiting for a turn-around, you’d better settle in for a long wait.

Guys, like it or hate it, this is the world now. Sorry.