Truly Stan-tastic!

Okay. Now there is absolutely no sarcasm attached to that title. Why? Because in today's strip, Stan revealed that Peter and MJ's marriage is intact. He's just gone back in time to tell previously untold stories that took place before the marriage.

And that I can approve of.

:)

Stan-tastic!

It's hard to be sarcastic and cynical towards Stan Lee. I mean the man practically created the entire Marvel universe. And while I do wish he had a little more backbone and stood up for his characters, I do have to respect the guy.

His newspaper strip is taking the Brand New Day approach, it seems. Though he seems to be just starting over, by-passing the whole deal-with-the-devil thing.

Which, honestly, I like better. It doesn't sully the character in any way. It just lets the writer tell the stories he wants. The more this unfolds, the more I wish Marvel had just done that.

I wish they had told one last big epic story that tied off the entire Spider-Man run. Then, took a few months off to get their crap together. Then come back, with Peter Parker the lowly college or high school student. They could keep their flagship character and we wouldn't have to deal with all this Satanic alternate reality crap.

Here's hoping there's a happy ending in this for Peter somewhere.

Say It Ain't So, Stan!

Stan Lee, the creator of Spider-Man and the one solely responsible for the Peter and Mary Jane marriage, seems to have gotten on board with this Brand New Day Marvel is forcing down our throats.

I'm not sure what newspapers carry it (mine doesn't), but Stan Lee and his brother have been publishing a daily Spider-Man comic strip for what I can only guess to be decades. Well, starting today, January 1st, 2009, Peter Parker is no longer the man he grew up to be. Nor the husband. Instead he's a college boy, living with Aunt May. Again.

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.

My Proposed Solution (or, "Why They'll Never Let Me Write Spider-Man")

It's a belief of mine that unless you have a better idea, you shouldn't complain. So, here's me proving my right to complain.

Maybe it's because I'm a Christian or maybe it's because I hate lazy story-telling, but I cannot endorse and/or respect the Mephisto-created reality Peter Parker now finds himself living in.

The fact that the powers-that-be thought it would be okay for our hero (you know, the one the kids are supposed to look up to) to turn to the devil for salvation boggles the mind. Granted, they gave him three issues to wander the Marvel universe, asking every character every fan would ask, "why didn't he go see him" to help him save his dying aunt. Each of these characters, in so many words, said, "sorry, Spidey, you're out of luck."

The only character he didn't ask for help was Wolverine. And as a fan of Logan, one has to wonder what a blood transfusion from Wolverine would do for a gunshot victim. Instant healing? Immortality?

Sorry. I won't get distracted with the list of powerful demigods that populate the Marvel Universe who have survived and/or treated wounds far worse than a gunshot to the stomach.

Especially since the point of the story was not to show what extent Peter will go to save his aunt; the entire story (and much of the year leading up to it) was about divorcing Peter and MJ without using the word "divorce."

It's at this time I should go on the record saying I'm generally against retcons. I'm okay with looking back on a moment and saying, "but did you know why that happened," and then adding a little back story. But I believe writers should embrace the history of the characters, not seek out ways to change it because they have a story they want to tell that doesn't fit into the current continuity. Change the present and the future, not the past.

So it doesn't do us much good to cry over spilled milk. Now that Peter and MJ's deal with the devil is part of the Spider-mythos, I think it needs to stay there. But it cannot be treated as the solution to the problem. It needs to be viewed as the catalyst to a bigger, larger story/problem. And in the unlikely event that Marvel hires me on to write that story, this is what I would do:

1.) Begin the story with some minor fight. During that fight (maybe with Shocker or Electro), something happens. A little glitch (like the deja vu in "The Matrix"). Something that makes Peter go, "what the?!"

2.) Expose the fabric of this new reality. I would reveal that Mephisto, as much as he wishes it were not so, is no God. His creation, this world Peter is living in, begins to deteriorate. He is not a creator, he is a destroyer. And so this creation was doomed to fail.

3.) As Peter begins slips into madness, the *REAL* creator shows up. While I think it can be done, I don't think a Spider-Man book is the best place for a theological discussion. So while this creator is God of the Marvel universe, I would make him vague enough that he could be any religion's creator. He's not specifically the Hebrew or the Christian or the Muslim God -- or a Hindu god. He's simply the creator of the Marvel Universe. If you had to assign him to a religion or a mythology, the first I'd go to is the Norse mythology, since it already has such a prominence in Marvel comics. For laughs and giggles, he could look and talk like Stan Lee.

Though, it's probably worth noting that Jesus himself has made an appearance in comics before (back in '74). He once showed up in a Ghost Rider comic (Ghost Rider #9) to protect Johnny Blaze from Satan.

4.) The Creator explains to Peter what has happened. He tells Peter how they (Peter and MJ) were forced to make this decision. Peter is sick and distressed. The creator tells him that something must be done, or this new reality is going to implode on itself and could very well take the entire Marvel universe with it. If Peter is willing to let him, the creator "can fix all this."

5.) "What does that mean?" Peter asks. The creator explains he can wipe this new reality away and restore it to its former glory. But for the creator to do that, Peter has to except that things are going to have to change. Some things will change for the better, some things will change for the worse -- though, ultimately, everything will be for the better as existence will no longer be threatened.

6.) Peter will be married to MJ again. Peter will regain friends in Matt Murdock, the Fantastic Four, and Logan. Peter will lose his friend Harry Osborn (again). But . . . this is the hard part for Peter . . . he's going to lose Aunt May. She was supposed to die. It was her time. Mephisto has granted her a life that was not his to grant. She's lived a long, full life. It's time for Peter to finally say "good-bye" to her. Death is only a part of life.

7.) Mephisto appears and tries to argue with the creator. He tries to persuade Peter. There's a battle between the creator and Mephisto, but it all comes down to a "shoulder angel moment" in which Peter has to decide. It's no decision at all, really.

8.) Peter agrees to the creator's proposal and "Brand New Day" becomes a strange moment in Peter's past in which he got to live a "what if" moment. The creator thanks Peter and encourages him to take more responsibility for his actions. He reminds him that "not all stories have happy endings. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Taking responsibility for your actions doesn't mean you should blame yourself. You need to learn to forgive yourself."

I don't personally think it's a solution a lot of people would be happy with, but I do think it's the solution that needs to happen. Because this "solution" that Marvel has presented us with is a cheap cop-out for both the writers and the characters.

It's a slap in the face to us long-time readers. We love and respect these characters. But the powers-that-be don't love and respect the readers enough if they can completely rewrite Spider-Man's history in four single issues. We deserve better than that.

So that's my proposed solution. Restore the Marvel continuity, make Mephisto pay for what he's done, and then let the characters grow and evolve naturally.