Mephisto has a perfectly logical reason to want a marriage/pure love/whatever
He wants their "love" so he can use it as a key to the marvel universe's equivalent to heaven and steal the souls which reside therein.
Peter and MJ's Daughter was going to kill Mephisto
The Woman in Red that Mephisto said was, "a possibility yet to come," was really her as an adult. Eventually she would have hung up the mantle of Spider-Girl, using her enhanced abilities to hunt down the forces of Evil (Demons, hellspawn, etcetera). She eventually would make Mephisto her target, and despite underestimating her at first, he would see that she had the potential to kill him. Knowing she wouldn't be swayed by anything he'd offer her, he went to her father's most vulnerable point in time, so he could prevent her from even existing.
- Recently, this has been confirmed. Their daughter could have overthrown Mephisto.
Mephisto didn't really care about dissolving
Spider-Man's marriage
This was never about denying true love, or tormenting souls. This was Mephisto's preemptive strike on Peter Parker and Mary Jane's child. Somehow, the child of Spider-Man would bring bad news to Mephisto, and all Mephisto's bullshit was simply a smokescreen so that Peter would never consider his kid being the target. Mephisto only revealed it after Peter made the deal, and was safe.
- Confirmed! And One More Day is overturned.
- Reasoning for said theory?
As a
Take That! to the awfulness of this comic. What's better to negate an
Ass Pull than
another Ass Pull?
- I REALLY hope you're right. I honestly prefer the aftermath of Civil War to that of One More Day.
- Well, they did it in the newspaper comic.
- Nope, they had Peter remember the deal and reconcile with MJ.
Deadpool and Squirrel Girl both know that they're in a comic (Though the latter is contractually obliged to not acknowledge it outside of recaps) and they are both
Ensemble Dark Horse fan favorites. It stands to reason that they'd have a grasp of continuity and know when retcons and such happen. Deadpool has been known to have fits of heroism, and might see fit to want to do this one for the fans. Squirrel Girl, being the upbeat, silver-age heroin she is would definitely want to bring Spidey back to his moral roots and undo the
Broken Aesop. Unfortunately, she can't acknowledge in-continuity that she knows about it. This is where Deadpool comes in. The way I see it, he's wandering through Central Park ranting about how stupid One More Day was, wondering how he can possibly best Mephisto. TippyToe happens upon him, and drags him towards Squirrel Girl. After an awesome but pointless fight, Deadpool convinces her with TippyToe's help that together they can get Mephisto to undo his massive misdeed.
Deadpool and Squirrel Girl then go to whatever hell dimension Mephisto lurks in, kick the crap out of him and force him to undo the events of One More Day.- How many times has this been mailed to Marvel? Answer: Not enough, it hasn't happened yet.
- BUT, Deadpool's fourth wall ability is...unreliable (he thinks he knows Spider-Man's secret identity, it's that dreamy Tobey Mc Guire...). It could lead to bringing back the Clone Saga in an oopsie!
- Not to mention, Deadpool's fourth wall breaking ability seems to Roger Rabbit-ishly rely on the the Rule of Funny. Him being able to parse the veil and A) know that Mephisto did it due to Executive Meddling B) Know it happened AT ALL and C) WANT TO HELP SPIDER-MAN IN THE FIRST PLACE would probably require it to be HILARIOUS. But all said, I think it's the best way to undo the story.
- It could also be brought to his attention For Reasons by The Watcher, Deadpool's #1 fan!
The deal will be broken by Peter fathering M.J.'s child out of wedlock.
This will let Quesada keep his precious image of unwed Peter
and shatter the whole Aesop about personal responsibility even further. Plus, he'll be able to point at the kid and claim that he gave the fans what they wanted
without giving them what they really want.
And it'll open up the avenue of letting him make nasty misogynistic claims about poor M.J. being a whore! And won't those issues make such
lovely dents in the wall?
OMIT is actually Mephisto editing Peter's memories to ensure he sticks with the deal.
By leading Peter to believe that M.J. was the one driving the deal forward, he gets him to play the victim - "Oh, it was
Never My Fault; I'm just a victim of circumstance, just like poor Aunt May!" This is all part of a plan to not only ensure that they stay broken up (and don't try to save their child), but to undo Spider-Man's image as the
poster boy for personal responsibility. Eventually, he wants to wear down Peter to a useless, whiny nub who refuses to take responsibility for
anything he does, even to the point of giving up being Spider-Man.
Harry Osborn is kept alive so Peter can't end the deal
If somehow the main characters find out what's going on and manage to find a way to end the deal, they can't. Ending the deal would kill Harry Osborn and Spider-Man doesn't kill, especially kill an innocent person. That's the whole reason why Mephisto threw a gratuitous resurrection in there—it's not gratuitous, it's insurance.
Marvel just wanted to retcon Spider-Man and used the marriage deal to distract the fans
By the time O.M.D. came out, huge changes had been done to Spider-Man's setup- his origin was now supernatural, his identity was public, even his powers had been changed. Obviously everything needed to be reset (because
Status Quo Is God) and they decided to do a
Cosmic Retcon and threw the marriage in as well because they knew the fans would be so mad about it they wouldn't mind the other changes. It's likely that Peter and M.J. will be reunited soon while the changes made will stick. They might have underestimated the fan backlash, though.
Due to his popularity, though, Mephisto knew he'd have to do something
drastic to drive away his fans
en masse, so he engineered this massive Dethroning Moment Of Suck and is working tirelessly to make the series worse and worse to make fans give up on the series out of disgust. When this plot is finally revealed, he will
Break the Fourth Wall and openly mock the readers
for buying the series anyway, therefore 'justifying' him pulling even nastier crap in the future — after all, he's just '
giving the fans what they want!'
- And why does he want Spidey out of the picture? Because one by one, any potential allies that his nemesis could have (Ghost Rider if I remember correctly), thus allowing Mephisto to defeat him.
Mesphito is Joe Quesada
Should be self explanatory. See above.
- Or it's the over way around. Joe Quesada is Mephisto all along, messing with people For the Evulz. This is the first experiment he's done to test his power in both the fictional and real worlds.
Retconning
everything after
Civil War, as well as the war itself, is actually pretty simple.
It couldn't be any simpler: first, fire a bullet aimed at a certain time in the past of Earth-616 to take out the Mephigeon (without the bullet alone being able to kill him, duh) and then, another to kill friggin'
Nitro. Lots of trouble, retconned in a page and a half. Hell yeah!
Spider-man's Mystic Origin will bite him in the ass, and undo the BND.
Think about it. Spider-man learned that his enemies are totemic, that he is linked to Spider God. That his power was granted, and not an accident. And he even took it even further by eating Morlun's life-source (kinda like in Evangelion). But Mephisto undone it and pissed Spider-God off. Now Spider-God will assemble group of creatures that will assault Spider-man and force him to regain his new powers. This empowering will solve his problem with Web (obviously) and give him his memory back.
Spider-man's Mutant Origin will bite him in the ass, and undo the BND.
Think about it. He was forced to mutate by Queen, and later took it even further by eating Morlun's face, and consuming that rare DNA-mix. But Mephisto undone it, without taking away the initial source of the mutation. Meaning that he will mutate due again. This empowering will solve his problem with Web (obviously) and jolt his memory.
Daughter of Spider-man will undo BND to make sure that she is born, but she will kick her dad in the groin for being stupid and childish.
She has her own Comic Book for God sake! She is a Time lord or whatever...
One More Day is the lead-in to the
Grand Finale of Spider-Man.
Marvel wanted to end Spider-man, but had to do something drastic to set off the final story arc. So they decided to create One More Day to do that, and pretty much
planned for this whole monstrosity to unfold like it has, more or less. Once Marvel's had their fun, they'll start the final story arc, which will destroy Mephisto forever and leave everybody living
Happily Ever After...
except the fans, of course.He has no real sinister plan, no secret agenda, or nothing that he's trying to take care of ahead of time. Simply put: Mephisto loves torment. However, when Aunt May was shot, Mephisto saw through the veils of the fourth wall and percieved the chance to cause the greatest wave of agony and torture in the history of comics. He led Spidey and M.J. into making this poorly thought out choice not to torment them or steal their marriage, but instead to cause agony in the innumerable number of Spider-Man fans worldwide. Every time you cringe at Quesada's poorly executed retcon? Mephisto is enjoying your pain like a light snack. Every time you become enraged over what has been done to one of the most beloved superheroes of your childhood? Mephisto is feeding off your agony like an engorged tick. Thus, this makes Mephisto one of the most evil comic book villains ever.
- In that case, there's only one thing to do... ONE MORE DAY IS THE BEST SPIDERMAN COMIC EVER! WORSHIP QUESADA AND HIS AWESOME WRITING!
- But what if...what if Mephisto KNEW you were going to try that tactic, and planned for it in advance by really being Joe Quesada in disguise, as outlined a few WMGs above?
- Simple, wait for him to get bored. Hey, I can wait until the end of time... Or I can track down one of those neat God-Killing MacGuffins.
That wasn't Mephisto.
Nope. Not Mephisto. Certainly a
Reality Warper or
Master of Illusion who tried to pretend to be Mephisto, but not Mephisto.
It was Judas Traveller all along! It's funny because he was supposed to have his soul taken by Mephisto in the Clone Saga. What better way to fix an Audience-Alienating Era than by connecting it to another Audience-Alienating Era?
Another possibility is that Dr. Doom somehow gained the Power Cosmic; it sounds absurd, but keep in mind the number of heroes that gained their powers, or enhanced their powers, through equally absurd means that should've been fatal. With his new power, he took over Mephisto's powers and used it to imitate Mephisto. Why? Well, because Spidey once had the Captain Universe powers, there were trace effects on his DNA and Doom plans to use any bastard offspring of his to further his own powers.
No, hear me out before you bring out the torches. Mephisto has immense power to warp reality... in his own dimension. He can't twist the regular world, at least not to that extent. So, my theory is that Peter is actually in Mephisto's dimension, possibly undergoing some form of torture and/ or brainwashing. This could give them a set up for an arc dedicated to busting Spidey out of Mephisto's realm. Such a
plan would require super heroes, previously split by the Civil War, to work together, maybe dealing with the enmity between them. They bust out Spidey in a
Big Damn Heroes moment and the world starts to patch itself up. Or is this giving Joe too much credit?
- I think you are giving him too much credit, but that won't stop his successor from doing that.
This is a different Gambit, but it still fits under this heading. What if Quesaeda somehow got the idea in his head that Spider-Man was losing readers, so he concocted an amazing Gambit that would not make itself clear until the very end. He can't exactly KILL Spider-Man because, as we all know Death Is Cheap. So, he came up with the idea to do the next most unbelievable thing, retcon his marriage out of existence. Now while everyone is either pissed to the point of borderline murderous rage, or ignoring it, he will simply bide his time, throwing in a few [Chekhov's Gun Chekhov's Guns], and then, when we all but accepted that Peter and Mary Jane will never get back together, somehow find a way to, if not reverse O.M.D. entirely, then a dramatic climax to an arc where they start another permanent relationship again. All of those public statements he says about marriage making him seem too old? All part of an elaborate plan that everyone from Linkara to you are falling for.
OMD will be undone through a Spidey/Ghost Rider team-up.
This is how I see it. Since Johnny Blaze wasn't around during the Civil War arc, he had no way of knowing what Peter did (and the events of World War Hulk had briefly kept him occupied...). But somehow he'll learn what happened,
give Peter a savage dressing-down for his lapse in judgment, and then there'll be a quest to restore Peter's memory of everything that happened, followed by
a team-up between the two heroes to get Mephisto to restore the Peter/M.J. marriage before destroying the bastard.
The Spider-Man from OND/BND is actually
GrifSeriously, who gives CPR to a
gunshot wound?! Mephisto didn't make any deal with Peter. He made a deal with Norman Osborn, who wanted to screw Peter over.
When Aunt May was shot, Norman had a brilliant idea to make Peter's life hell. Norman promised Mephisto his soul, in exchange for which he asked that Mephisto mind-control
Doctor Strange (a sorcerer who could easily heal a non-magical wound), Reed Richards (who once
built a portal to heaven and demanded that Jack Kirby give a dead Ben Grimm back), and Elixr (whose whole mutant power is healing wounds), and every other useful person in the Marvel Universe into becoming total morons incapable of healing Aunt May. Norman then asked that Mephisto to mind-control Peter into going nuts and thinking that making a deal with the devil was a good idea. Therefore, Norman screwed Peter over by forcing Peter to screw
himself over. It also explains why Harry Osborn was resurrected.
Peter is dead now and Ben Reilly is Masquerading as Peter/Sider-Man
- Think about it, Ben became Spider-Man so Peter could be there for M.J., without the marriage, Peter would be Spider-Man, thus Norman would just kill him and not Ben to bait Peter. So when Norman did kill Peter, he switched costumes, dyed his hair again and said that Ben was dead and that he was Peter to put less shock on people and even though O.M.I.T. states that Mephisto can't harm Peter, Ben is a clone of peter, so he is Peter, and it did not state which Peter he wouldn't harm. This leads us to...
- Ben will go to Mephisto and do a trade, His soul to have the deal never happen and to still have aunt may live without him harming Them or any friends or loved ones. Mephisto will except, only because Ben could be a great bounty hunter for him. The outcomes could be if the deal never happened Ben would not have gone to Mephisto so he still keeps his soul(Ben wins) or Ben becomes a Ghost Rider and will break free of Mephisto (Ben wins).
Peter and M.J.
will reconcile eventually, regardless of
Joe Quesada, because their love will turn out to be vital to the entire
Marvel Universe.
- As some kind of meta analogy to the fact Peter's marriage to M.J. is an important part of the characternote You're free to say what you want, Mr. Chief Executive Officer of Marvel, it's still true., when some kind of shit will hit the whole Marvel fan (read: Crisis Crossover), at some point the only hope would be the help of a divine entity of some sort (Galactus, Beyonder, whatever), but... the god would save humanity only if he deems it worthy. This is the point where it got worse: in the judgment of mankind, only a strong love like the former relationship between Peter and M.J. would make the difference, except that - surprise, surprise - it's not there anymore! Then... uh, stuff happens, and at some point either the (results of the) deal with Mephisto are undone for the greater good or Peter and M.J., before the end of the world, spend one more day together until they finally realize they love each other, and then they kiss. Said kiss, being just what's needed in order to save the world, restores the Marvel Universe, reverts the "Crisis" in "Crisis Crossover", and, therefore, is quickly made the single greatest Moment of Awesome in the entire Marvel multiverse.
- Just reading this has me smiling. would you be willing to pen a draft for us Peter/M.J. shippers to see?
- More or Less Confirmed in Amazing Spider-Man vol. 5 #1!
Think about it-if he truly hated Mary Jane, wouldn't it make more sense to kill her? The truth is that he would much prefer the pairing between Black Cat and Spider-Man than Mary Jane and Spider-Man. Hence, he breaks them up so Peter can date and/or bang her without guilt or hassle. The whole
Deal with the Devil thing is him being lazy.
Carlie Cooper is a minion of Mephisto
Yeah, you heard me. She's an unbearable
Creator's Pet who has other characters pushing her and Pete together because she's supposed to be. Carlie is, in fact, a demon in disguise who's magically manipulating everyone into thinking she and Peter are perfect together. All so she can keep her masters plan intact.
- Alternatively, Carlie Cooper is Mephisto. He plans to marry Peter as Carlie and trap him in Hell forever.
Proposition of scenario for the inevitable retcon that'll occur once Quesada will FINALLY get kicked out.
Okay, hold on, it's gonna be convoluted. Considering the mess that's this story, it's difficult to make a simple retcon...Shortly before
One More Day, Mephisto got defeated by Black Panther. How? The source of Mephisto's power lies within his own realm, so Black Panther cut him from his dimension and easily beat him up (if you think it's ridiculous, remember, it's written by Reginald Hudlin). This defeat made Mephisto mad with anger. To the point that he now wants to collect every single soul of the Marvel heroes. But this defeat also showed him that if he wants to be at his full power in the real world, he must create a bridge from which he'll be able to infinitely tap in his dimension's power source. And he might have found a way.
First, he needs a celibate hero. He could have gone for someone who's single, but he's so enraged by his defeat that for making up for it, he decides to instead corrupt one of the most stable love relationships of the superheroic community (think of it as the little cherry on top of the cake for him). Reed and Sue Richards' marriage being public (and so much more difficult to dismantle in the eyes of the rest of the universe), he decides to erase Peter Parker's marriage. He just waited for an opportunity, and found it when Aunt May got shot. From that point, you can get back to One More Day.
So now, Peter is single. Step 2: bring Carlie Cooper in the picture. Yes, as the above WMG suggests, she is indeed a creation of Mephisto - but she's totally unaware of it. Her personality, her memories, everything about her has been engineered by Mephisto. And if we ever meet her parents or friends from before she met Peter, they're random guys who's memories have been tampered by Mephisto to make them believe they always knew her. For added security, Mephisto gives her the unconscious ability to generate an aura that will make everybody around her think she's awesome and that she's Peter's perfect match (let's call it Creator's Pet effect). So, Peter and Carlie meet each other, and quickly fall for one another; how could it be otherwise, considering Mephisto "built" her to that end?
It's still not enough for Mephisto ; as Carlie is 100 % "Mephistelian", if I may say, she can't be used as the bridge Mephisto needs for invading Earth. No, he needs her and Peter's child. A hybrid, part human, part Mephistelian, whose essence is evenly split between Earth and Mephisto's realm. This child would be the bridge Mephisto needs for coming to Earth, at his full power.
Of course, some would start to realize somethings fishy is going on. Doctor Strange would finally notice that somebody tampered with reality, the Ghost Rider would immediately identify Carlie as being linked to Mephisto the first time he'd see her, and people would finally start to listen to Deadpool's insane rantabout Quesada ("Who's Quesada ?") erasing Spider-man's marriage. Too late, however, for preventing the conception of Carlie and Peter's child.Cue gigantic crossover event, major shit happens as the heroes try to oppose Mephisto, massive fights, yadda yadda.
It would end with Carlie recovering from the shock of learning what her true origins are, and proving to be vital in Mephisto's defeat, even at the cost of her own existence.Finally, Peter and M.J. resume their relationship where Mephisto forced them to abandon it, but they'd still honor Carlie's memory, and they'd raise the baby (now purged from Mephisto's essence) with all their love, to prove to Mephisto that despite his powers, he can't oppose true love, between a man and his wife and between parents (even foster parent in the case of M.J.) and their child.
How this mess will be fixed.
Deadpool will be outraged at this atrocity of a retcon. Being that he has
No Fourth Wall, he will try and beat up
Joe Quesada. Then along comes Mephisto-the true, original Mephisto. He will be pissed that his image was ruined by the
false Mephisto, and form an
Enemy Mine to get rid of it. This ends up with a
Curb-Stomp Battle, revealing Joe Quesada himself. After this, Deadpool will give a
"Reason Why You Suck" Speech to him, and why what he did makes no freaking sense. Bonus
Take That! points if Joe admits "Bah!
I don't even care what I've done to Spider-Man, I just wanted him to be cool, hip and available!", or even the Anvilicious "I
never cared about the fanbase." Whatever the result, it will involve everything about
One More Day to be
All Just a Dream. And every writer on the block will outright
refuse to let Joe Quesada change this. Giving one of the greatest fan revenge moments of all time. And it will be AWESOME.
REVENGE! If Joe Quesada thinks he can pull a retcon on Spider-Man and Mary Jane, we'll pull a retcon
on him. The moment we invent a time machine through use of
Stable Time Loop.
Destroying one of the most meaningful, iconic marriages between two of the most positive yet real human characters in the history of fiction (at least American fiction) while straight up defiling the moral makeup of said characters in the process? Pure propaganda for, depending on the reader, either of two
Hard Truth Aesops ("making a
Deal with the Devil is kind of okay, in fact with a proper enough excuse it's preferable to being
Happily Married with child" and "there are no real heroes anymore, as any of the role models you look up to may choose to follow Satan's prerogatives") that are actually part of a bigger one ("
human nature is inherently selfish and evil anyway"). Quesada's orders, delivered by
Satan, straight from
Hell, carried out to perfection upon us. (NOTE: By no means should we rule out any other members of the team as being in on this either. Except maybe Straczynski, because he had a conscience enough to at least say "I want out" for five seconds.)
Mephisto ONLY obtained the power to rewrite reality so blatantly specifically around Spider-Man and Mary Jane because they traded him their marriage.
Think about it. When Mephisto tells Peter and M.J. that what he wants isn't their souls, but is actually their marriage, he practically marks out describing how their marriage is so much greater than owning even both their souls. And in the aftermath of the deal, so much of Peter and M.J.'s history has been rewritten; Mephisto has
never demonstrated the power to so grossly alter reality
either before or since this point. Thus his power here is frankly seen as a complete
Ass Pull. UNLESS... one actually pays attention to his description of what makes claiming their marriage so much more glorious than their souls. Pay close attention to these lines:
"Knowing what's to come there's still more than an even chance I'll get your soul straight-up and that's a far more appetizing prospect. No. In cases like this, I traffic in a far more satisfying currency than souls, Mr. Parker. I deal in the currency of misery, loss, despair, hopelessness, pain, regret, and sadness. They are so sweet to me as the most beautiful music ever composed. I will go anywhere, do anything, for the sound of a soul in pain."
"What I want is greater than what one paltry soul can provide me. What I want is the one thing in the universe that is truly greater than the sum of its parts and tastier than any single soul I could devour. I want that which gives you joy, that which sustains you in your moments of greatest despair, the source not of your power, but of your strength, your happiness, your dreams and your passion. I want your love…I want your marriage."
"It's because yours is the rarest love of all. Pure, unconditional and made holy in the eyes of He who I hate most. A love like yours comes about but once in a millennia and to take that away from Him…to deny Him…is a victory like none other imaginable."
"You will not consciously remember this bargain or this moment, or the life you lived to this point. But there will be a very small part of your soul that will remember, that will know what you lost. And my joy will be in listening to that part of your soul screaming throughout eternity."
Spider-Man is one of Marvel's quintessential human heroes, in a similar vein to Captain America. An ordinary human who comes to obtain what amounts to peak-human or base-superhuman power, and strives to use this power to do the right thing. Even more so in Spidey's case because away from the mask Peter Parker's life isn't exactly remarkable. He and this beautiful model/actress girl Mary Jane Watson have grown from neighbors to best friends to on-and-off lovers to husband and wife over the course of the comic canon, and their loyalty to each other most of the way through is remarkable. Their relationship, off-and-on, has been iconic for over forty years, and Mary Jane is one of the first things you think of in association with Spider-Man. Theirs is an example of love the world could strive to look up to, and especially in the Marvel-verse after Peter's public unmasking, religious folk could argue it's an example from God Himself. And yes, the God of Abraham, the Most High, the omnipotent Creator that makes every other storied being that ever calls itself a god look like a piss-ant in comparison, does exist in the Marvel Universe, under the name of "the One-Above-All". He even told Peter to be at May's bedside as she dies, implying that the reason every person who should've been able to heal her in seconds suddenly got their hands tied and became useless is because it was simply time to let her go and move on.
Mephisto is basically saying that Peter and M.J.'s relationship and marriage, a model to the world indeed, is actually blessed by the One-Above-All, and that being able to literally take that away from Him is pretty much his grandest victory. It only stands to reason that being able to literally claim something that good and pure for himself would give him the power to so cavalierly alter the lives of the parties involved to the "effect" of this deals results. Notice so many of the changes: Peter's still living in his auntie's house; his best friend Harry was saved by the Goblin serum yet it did nothing to alleviate Norman's insanity or thirst for power; his powers never grew past the point of being stopped by a fat guy falling on him; and precious old May, who he made this deal to save, still the same perpetual old cancer patient, would marry a frickin' Jameson. Mephisto was either trying to change something fundamental about Peter in order to make him a weaker, less-effective hero in every facet of his life so he can't stand in the way of some apocalyptic plan to own everyone, or worse, break him down into a Face–Heel Turn so that he becomes Mephisto's version of The Antichrist (as explored by the Dark Fix Fic "Mary Jane Goes To Hell"). And he gained the power for this attempt through taking away Peter's marriage from God.
Of course, this only exposes how colossally stupid Peter and M.J. must be to have accepted the deal after hearing his open gloating, and M.J. earns no sympathy from her tears post-changed-world if she honestly remembers everything. Also, any number of above WMG theories can be tied to this one - including the one about Carlie being Mephisto's personal Sakuya, the one about Quesada being a disguised Mephisto or having sold his soul, the various ways Deadpool, Squirrel Girl, Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, etc. can take part in the solution that undoes the damage, even the fate-of-the-universe version of the old proposed Clone Saga solution with Judas Traveller and Mephisto's old wager about the nature of humans. Any future Marvel editors or really good fanfic writers reading this and looking for a way to restore the marriage and the characters' integrity with an epic story, you are welcome to all of this!!
- Also related: the deal could be easily interpreted as giving Mephisto custody of the soul of their unborn daughter (she could already exist in soul form and still be only a possibility as a child). If that's the case, it explains her presence in the story without the need for any potential plot involving her and Mephisto: it's another mention of how many boundaries making this bargain crosses, and more justification towards letting him pull off something this big.
That's why they let him get away with this. He's got dirt on the people that could relieve him of his work.
- That would not surprise me actually. Either that or he paid A LOT of money in bribes to do that.
The only reason nobody could save Aunt May was that Mephisto was using his power to prevent her from being saved.
He's Mephisto. Every "deal" he offers is a scam, no exceptions. Why
wouldn't he cause the scenario that led to the deal being struck in the first place? A mere gunshot wound being beyond Doctor Strange's magic is blatantly absurd, after all. But suddenly less so if Mephisto were using his own magic to counter Strange's.
- This only makes it even more likely that everyone's uselessness and the One Above All coming to Peter and telling him to be with May in her passing hours is directly linked. GOD would know what Mephisto is doing, and that Peter needed to be guided toward the serenity to accept the things he cannot change in order to turn Mephisto's plan on its own head and receive a willing May Reilly Parker into heaven.
- Fully contemplated in the magnificent Fan Fic Breaking the Deal.
Peter loved Aunt May. In that way.
Why else would he choose to save Aunt May over his marriage to Mary Jane? His love for Aunt May twisted to the
wrong kind of love.
Spider-Man teams up with Thor who realizes the truth and goes on to beat up Mephisto. After all,if you can't
punch out a powerful demon,why not make the God who owes you one do it?
The horrible writing was intentional
The writers hated Queseda's ideas as much as, (actually, probably
more than), we do, and intentionally ruined the story to keep the fans from liking the new direction. (They didn't have to work too hard.)
Peter is dead. Mephisto swore his and MJ's souls would one day be his no matter what.
Peter is now in hell, will be tormented by Mephisto and pushed to accept his sins, then will fight the dark lord to reclaim his marriage
And his soul. One More Day will be retconned in a quick, cheap, easy, and lazy way.
Such as being
All Just a Dream, or having some random
Reality Warper pop in and change things back in a single issue, with everything returning to normal in the next one.
Similar to the theories of it
All Just a Dream, Mephisto didn't actually change reality, since as people have mentioned before, he doesn't actually have that kind of power over time and reality. He does however, have the ability to trap and deceive the people who make deals with him. Mary Jane and Peter had their memories erased, and they've been both placed into a pocket dimension that is a perfect replica of the Marvel universe in Mephisto's realm. All the other characters, villains and people are either illusions, demons masquerading as people or damned souls given false appearances and memories. It will all end when Peter or Mary Jane pierce the illusion and break their contract with Mephisto, possibly with the help of Doctor Strange and others.
The Superior Spider-Man will be a direct lead in to a
One More Day solution
Okay so when Otto fights Peter in Peter's mind, Otto not only makes the argument Peter is fundamentally selfish, but Peter is somehow unable to refute it. Superior also has both Ghost Peter (before he's deleted) and Mary Jane admit to themselves that they still love one another/they are each others soulmates. And thus when Otto is inevitably found out (likely because he keeps getting more violent, sloppy, and no longer has Peter's memories and will slip up when confronted with information he should know about, but somehow doesn't), the heroes of New York (plus MJ who will likely play a hand in his grand unmasking) try to figure out to get the real Peter Parker back. Through some
Techno Babble mumbo jumbo, they're able to see the mental fight Peter lost and instantly know something must be wrong because Peter Parker, as
The Avengers,
Fantastic Four etc. know him, is the most selfless, responsible guy on the planet. As some of the above speculate, Ghost Rider, Doctor Strange etc. start sensing the universe was changed, but can't pinpoint how. When they try to view the change all the see us the events of
One Moment in Time, wherein they hid Parker's identity. While said action did cause change, it shouldn't be enough to warrant what they sense, especially sense the physic blind spot that prevents people from uncovering the truth about Peter's ID was effectively undone in
Spider-Island. Eventually it's revealed that Peter and MJ were married, and the events of
One Moment in Time were placed in everyone's memory in place of what actually happened. Mephisto went out of his way to make Peter and MJ's memory of their wedding day as horrible as possible and inject petty fighting in their memory in hopes that he can prevent them forever getting back together as some of the above speculations (take your pick) for what he's truly aftter end up correct. Ock was only able to defeat Peter because the Peter in this timeline has subconscious memories of the deal and thinks of himself as unworthy, even more so than other Peters. Cue epic battle to undo everything, get the real Peter back, and obligatory badass MJ somehow getting her revenge on Mehispto for manipulating her and taking away the love of her life.
Dreadpool has been spending his time trying to kill the source of stories. At the end of the series
he goes to kill the writers. While
Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe was released after
One More Day, that doesn't mean Dreadpool couldn't get a time machine and go back to when it was written. Why'd he do it? To kill Spider-Man. Being AU!Deadpool, he knows that popular characters are
immortal-
no matter how many times they die, they will ALWAYS come back. Solution? Strip them of their popularity in one massive
betrayal. By utterly
derailing Spider-Man, Mary Jane and even
Mephisto, it would lead to nobody caring about Spider-Man.
And that isn't even the worse of it-it would create a schism that would gradually bring the downfall of Marvel Comics itself. Why wasn't
Joe Quesada fired? Dreadpool is keeping him going,
using him to force One More Day to still be in continuity. Dreadpool's being travelling through our universe's history, slowly but surely derailing
Marvel Comics. Dreadpool's ultimate objective?
Completely destroy Marvel and all the universes it created by wrecking its stories. And he may even continue to wreck all other fictional stories, before finally
killing us off. Who knows how many fiction's he's ruined. All the wall bangers and dethroning moments of suck and awful, irredeemable stories-
How many has he masterminded? '''And he's loving every minu—
Mephisto was actually being the good guy
Remember a little while back when Mephisto and the Beyonder made a bet? Our resident web-slinger won the bet for Mephisto who, didn't want to look soft. The whole 'pay me with your marriage' thing was a side effect, one he said was the price so he didn't look like a nice guy or anything. don't believe me?
http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/1340650.html?thread=42027498 A generation from now, One More Day's very conception will be reversed.
The main reason why editors like Joe Quesada are hell-bent on retconning marriages and relationships is due to them reading comics before said relationships were developed: eg Joe Quesada didn't grow up reading about Mary Jane and Spidey's relationship, and is trying to enforce his beliefs. A generation from now, the new editors in charge will have grown up loving the relationships the current editors are steadfast in eliminating, and as such enforce their pairings. Whether this will be a good change or not is debatable-giving how opinions of the industry have changed over time, they could be accused of
strangling characters by the red string, and in a way being not so different from their predecessors. Either way, I expect that within 20 to 30 years at most, editorial views on Mary Jane will be tilted on their head.
Despite claims of
wanting the single Spider-Man of his childhood, Joe Quesada has no problems shipping Spidey with effectively a comic representative of his daughter.
This is bad enough, but remember that he often uses Spidey has his own
Author Avatar:
Joe Quesada wants to ship a character based off his daughter with a stand-in for HIM. In truth, Joe Quesada has really squicky
feelings for his daughter, and comic books are a method of expressing these desires.
OMD BND never actually happened. The entire run, including Superior Spider-man is actually a What If run without the What if in the title.
When Peter sensed that sniper was about to shoot him, instead of dodging the bullet he took it. He realised in horror that if he had dogded the bullet and saved his aunt - MJ would've been hit instead and (as we know thanks to another What if issue) would've died instantly.Had he dodged the bullet and saved MJ his aunt (as we know) would've been hit. So he chose not to move and took the bullet. His family was lucky to avoid being killed, but now Peter is in a coma and the entire Brand New Day continutiy is actually all in his mind.But why would he imagine himself not being married anymore? Guilt. Parker was and is very well known for being swallowed by guilt over many things - Uncle Ben - his fault, Ned Leeds - his fault, Captain Stacy and later his daughter-would-be-wife-to-Spider-man - his fault, losing a clone/brother - his fault, losing a daughter - his fault and so on. It's not a big of a stretch that his subconcious would create a scenario that would incorporate his guilt into it and made it ever worse for him.Supernatural threats, return of a Queen, Spider-Island, return of the clones...But wait - he's got some nice things happened to him as well - that's the meds working.I mean the great minds of the Marvel Universe, including Strange himself who is capable of using freaking magic that could do anything - can't treat a gunshot wound? Suddenly everyone is talking about how you have to let it go and all that. That was Peter trying to break free of this illusion like
Superman in
For the Man Who Has Everything.
One More Day never happened. It's all in Peter's mind.
After May was shot Peter suffered a psychotic break.
One More Day never happened. It's all an allegory.
Peter Parker is actually Joe Quesada. He made a
Deal with the Devil to get to publish comics about unmarried Spider-Man. Everything since OMD is set in an alternate universe.
Specifically, within the
2000 video game. While Venom was
"surfing the web" on the Bugle's database, he had managed to cook up a horrifically, intentionally bad fanfiction (in around
one second) as a sneak jab against Spidey to prove that
even if they're working together to clear his name and defeat the masterminds behind a symbiote invasion, Venom's rivalry toward Spidey is still proof that he can turn right around in terms of the former and screw over Spidey personally anyway! And given that he had just kidnapped Mary Jane to
Pay Evil unto Evil after seeing "Spider-Man" do a major heist at their local science expo (
...except it very clearly wasn't the actual Spider-Man at all), that incident could have easily given Venom inspiration for the story - and thus he tacked on the whole marriage thing. He couldn't have chosen himself to be the
Big Bad as that would've been too obvious, so he threw in the next big thing and used Mephisto as a more reasonable choice. Venom would have even made a bet with himself; if the symbiote invasion did happen, he'd publish the fanfiction as a comic book, and
every symbiote in the city would love it given their lack of real personality - and really, lack of any taste too! It would be the be-all end-all for symbiotic entertainment!
Except the invasion didn't happen, and instead Venom decided to just throw it on the store shelves years later just to make it even much more of a Stealth Insult to his rival. Venom had kept a horrible fanfiction all to himself until now, blindsiding Spider-Man and successfully, truly ruining the wall-crawler! And best of all? No one knew that he did it. Thus in a way, Venom succeeded in convincing the public of his warped vision; that Spider-Man is a sinner, and Venom is not.
Clearly, when Mephisto tried to screw with Peter's marriage, Earth-7642 Superman -who is an alternate Silver/Bronze Age Superman- punched him out. And when Mephisto's agents tried to change history,
Supergirl travelled back in time and blasted them. Married
Capes look after each other.
OMD is not a goal, but a stepping stone for Mephisto. And all inconsistencies we see - are all result of his preperation (or lack thereof).
Yes, sure, Spider-Man loves MJ and his marriage is very slowly make him grow up from being a whiny nervious wreck.Yes, Aunt May is the only direct living relative he has and she means a whole world to him, despite the fact that he saved MJ from the shot.No. Think back to the argument: The whole Marvel Universe can't fix a bullet wound.Yes sure, Aunt May is old, she's a frail woman with guts/will of steel, who lived through deaths of her close relatives, raised a boy with her husband who then died, learned that Spider-Man is her nephew, got kidnapped, buried alive... etc. Sure.But we can see that Doctor Strange CAN bend the rules of reality to undo things, we see that Reed Richards has a working TIME MACHINE... Linkara even brought up that there is no reason why Doctor Doom would refuse to help since he could use him later.The point is - there is no reason why the entire MU wouldn't be able to help.So why didn't they? Because Spider-Man never actually asked them. We saw him storm Doctor Strange's house and ask him for help, to reach out to all his allies and enemies. But in reality - he didn't.He did reach his house, but the moment he stepped through - he fell under a spell. A spell weaved into Strange's house, by some enemy. That explains why Strange, or anyone else connected to mystic arts, felt no presence of Mephisto.Someone, affected by Mephisto, changed protective spells on his house, left a mind-altering spell, that would feed on Spidey's worst fears, and as a reward likely gain an upper hand against Strange.So that means, it's not that the MU was useless, it was that Spider-Man was afraid that they were and never questioned what he was seeing. Because he was MADE to think that.But why? Because even Mephisto needed a weak excuse to invoke his "Deal with a devil", to do something else.Sure removing such source of True Love (if you can call it that) is a nice thing for a devil, but it's more of a bonus.Notice how many dead people came back as a result of OMD, notice how many good and not so good people died, or how much chaos ensued. Take Connors for example, take Doc Ock.But wait - notice how many things look stupid. A fat guy knocked Spider-Man out? Reed Richards, doesn't question Spider-Man on his own involvement in Massive Mind Erasure? Green Goblin, who spent about 40% of his waking life to screw with Peter over and over, going as far as
seducing Gwen Stacy and make her bear two kids from him, a man who has backups of backups, despite his insanity, doesn't remember him? Doc Ock suddenly figuring out a way to highjack someone's mind? MJ, despite her tolerance, love, her development of the years - don't do anything?The reason for it - because Mephisto accomplished his actual goal, and didn't bother cleaning up after himself.He didn't care that Spider-Man will meet MJ and actually recognize something is wrong (which he didn't), he didn't care that MJ remembers the truth. He just needed a trip back in time to shift the world ever so slightly and help HIS goal.Bring Chaos, corrupt "innocent", kill off more people as a sacrifice, evoke horrible monsters lurking under the skin of reality, destroy the whole universe, and more.All part of the plan.
The deal will be broken if Aunt May dies.
- Yeah, good luck with that. So long as Marvel editorial has their way that old bag will never kick it no matter how many times she has one foot in the damn grave already. And Mephisto probably knows this, so yeah, that probably is a stipulation of the deal just to fuck with everybody.
