This thread's for the Spider-Man comics and spin-offs, whether they're decades old or brand new.
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Edited by MacronNotes on Jul 10th 2023 at 10:58:13 AM
May getting a moment of awesome where she tells Mephisto it's all over and peacefully passes on to be with Ben would be... quite a thing.
And takes the emotional weight of the decision off Peter.
At this point I don't think any undoing would be a retcon, though. We can't rewrite the history yet again. But MJ and Peter recovering memories of the other branch of history and using that, together with everything that's happened in the current branch, to rebuild their life together?
That could work.
A deal with the devil to save a loved one, and never quite escaping from the consequences. It's a great background for a tormented hero... if that hero is, say, Johnny Blaze's Ghost Rider.
Peter's already got the guilt over Uncle Ben. He doesn't need a Mephisto deal as well. Especially not a Mephisto deal that's never mentioned because editorial hope we'll forget it ever happened.
Oh I hate the Mephisto deal more than anything but I'd rather Marvel editorial do something different for once admit they fucked up and own up to it.
No more Deadpool cheeky whoops let's get that comic of you and MJ married out of the way.
Or forcing Nick Spencer to only retcon Sins Past as a consolation prize.
Like if Deadpool just straight up goes to Peter serious face and says you made a deal with the devil and shows Peter the comic I'd take it.
One thing that's always struck me about Peter's deal with Mephisto is that, of all the many, many, MANY bad writing-induced terrible things superheroes have done, fans seem to consider this particular one kind of... uniquely unforgivable, you might say.
And I find that kind of odd when viewed objectively? I mean, at least Peter was trying to save a life here, if in a stupid way; around the same time Iron Man was locking up his friends in an interdimensional internment camp because LAW and ORDER and 9/11 and stuff, but that's not brought up nearly as often these days, despite, again, hurting a lot more people and being a lot less sympathetic motivation-wise. And that's just one example.
I dunno, just see a cognitive dissonance of sorts there.
Edited by HamburgerTime on Jul 28th 2023 at 11:19:33 AM
Tony’s behavior was recognized as bad in story, he got a conga line of people kicking his ass for it, it had consequences, and Tony did stuff to try to make up for it
Also, fans have higher expectations for Peter than Tony anyway
Forever liveblogging the AvengersTony sure destroys his own brain a lot
Edit: Huh. Considering Aunt May told Peter to just let her die that means Peter made a deal with a devil to disrespect a DNR. Very uncool, Peter Parker
Edited by Bocaj on Jul 28th 2023 at 12:46:18 PM
Forever liveblogging the AvengersHence why OMD is nothing more than a selfish story of a manchild sacrificing his wife and daughter to the devil against the wishes of the mother figure he's trying to save.
Because no way in hell would Aunt May be okay knowing what Peter did.
Heck originally reading that comic I was waiting for Angel Aunt May to smack Peter across the face and tell him let her die and be with Ben.
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I mean, Joe Q did try to go with the reasoning that since Mephisto's deal changed reality, it never happened and Spider-Man won.
Which is dumb.
That's why Renew Your Vows and MC 2 Peter are GOATS.
Edited by RedHunter543 on Jul 29th 2023 at 12:53:56 AM
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"There's really no way to put OMD in a positive light. It's a story that has the hero whose catch phrase is "with great power must come great responsibility", making a deal with the Devil,knowingly violating his Aunt's wishes,and erasing his marriage and unborn child,because he doesn't want to feel guilty. And all of this was done because some editors wanted Spider-Man to be an eternally young and single failure.
The obvious solution for One More Day is that they retcon the deal being undone, they get back their memories, and they don't get back together or act like they're married.
And I'm fine with that.
I'm also fine with it being brainwashing because it removes Peter's moral cowardice over his actions.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Jul 28th 2023 at 12:45:23 PM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Honestly after all this time, I could imagine this being handled properly in a whole-ass event dedicated to both Peter & MJ (let's not forget how she stopped him from shutting Mephisto down at the first appearance) needing to recall how much they screwed up and *grow* from this. No retcons for brainwashing, or sweeping under the rug to ignore, the only result that would be satisfactory from this long, LONG mistake would be a genuine admission of fault, then them trying to make up for it - ergo why I was one of the people convinced that Spencer had a chance to actually fix this by building up to it from the very start of the run.
Although actually going back, I'd like to see a story written to show what MJ was doing while Peter had gone off on his own to get hassled by Mayday and his alternate selves. I've actually got a story in my head that Mephisto also visited her and sunk in his trickery before bringing them together, to maybe help explain her sudden "let's hear him out" shift.
I would be fine with them acting their marriage is technically nonexistent even if they did marry.
Nightwing and Firestar got married but didn't consider it counting because the priest was killed seconds before he finished the blessing.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

No, that's too easy. Any story that tackles One More Day and wants to undo it, in my eyes, has to grapple with the fact that Peter chose to do it of his own volition. Not because Mephisto brainwashed him, but because he was desperate to save Aunt May.
And not even for Aunt May's sake, no, but to assuage his own feelings of guilt and inadequacy.
In the same way that Uncle Ben's death hangs over him as Spider-Man doing nothing, so too would her death hang over him for doing something. Blame Tony Stark for convincing him to unmask, the US Government for passing the Superhero Registration Act, Kingpin for putting out the hit, the guy who actually shot her, his various allies for not being able to heal a bullet wound(...in the Marvel universe), hell even blame Mephisto for manipulating events to lead up to this point if you want; but her death was a direct result of him being Spider-Man and trying to do the right thing.
Captain Stacy's death was one thing, Gwen Stacy's death was one thing, but losing all the people in his life and then Aunt May because he chose to be Spider-Man, I think it's reasonable to say Peter would have snapped, would have broken his own rules, his values to save her.
Aunt May dying peacefully in her bed during the Clone Saga was one thing. It hurt, but he understood that death comes for all of us. But her dying as a direct result of his actions, in a very trying and stressful period in his life, I can see him doing something very stupid and very rash.
And I imagine the intervening period between him remembering the deal and doing whatever he needs to do to undo Mephisto's deal will include a Heroic BSoD, several of his allies trying to talk to him and pulling him out of his deep melancholia (be it Miles, Eddie, Flash, Robbie, hell even Jonah or Logan if need be), and a very frank discussion with both MJ and May about how badly he screwed up.
I also think that undoing the deal will have to, by design, let May pass on.