Well, not quite. But the way some people are talking, you'd THINK that's what happened.
SOURCE:Greatest Nerd Theories: And the Winners Are...
... But frankly, there was one theory shared that was so brilliant, so fantastically argued, and so sensible that we should all adopt it as reality.
"Starman" Matt Morrison said:
My theory is about Spider-Man: One More Day and how we can retcon it away for good while also explaining away another horrible Marvel Comics storyline.
FACT: In One More Day, Peter Parker makes a bargain with the demon Mephisto to save his Aunt May's life at the cost of his marriage. Reality is rewritten so that Peter and Mary Jane never married and are currently broken up.
FACT: For some unexplained reason, in the rewritten reality, most of Peter's friends have vanished. Flash Thompson has returned to being the bully who makes Peter's life miserable. And for some strange reason, Harry Osborn is alive and well.
FACT: Events in general seem to be geared toward making Peter's life as comically, unbelievably horrible as possible. He can't get a job. His roommates hate him and/or Spider-Man. Aunt May marries J. Jonah Jameson's father. Jolly Jonah becomes Mayor of NYC and immediately sets about making capturing Spider-Man priority one for everyone. And Norman Osborn - despite being publicly known as The Green Goblin - has become head of the national agency in charge of monitoring/commanding all the legally-operating superheroes in the United States.
A lot of fans don't think ANY of this makes any sense. And it doesn't. Peter Parker - written properly - would never make a bargain with The Devil because it was easier than dealing with tragedy. It doesn't make any sense for Harry to be back from the dead because of Peter's bargain. And known-murderer and lunatic Norman Osborn being appointed to a national agency, much less being beloved by the public REALLY doesn't make any sense...
... unless this is all part of Norman's wish.
Would Norman make a literal deal with the devil to get power and a chance to cause as much chaos as possible by jacking around with the superheroes? Yes.
Would Norman make a literal deal with the devil to bring his own dead son back to life? Probably. Crazy as he was, he was always depicted as being a loving, if distant, father.
Would Norman make a literal deal with the devil to make Peter Parker as miserable as possible? Hell yes!
That's the idea: Mephisto went to Norman and offered him a chance to have all the wealth, power and prestige he always wanted. He even sweetened the deal by offering to bring Harry back from the dead AND by fixing it so that Peter Parker would be made as miserable as possible by the new world that was created.
Making Peter believe he'd be responsible for his own problems was just the icing on the evil cake.
Marvel, if you're reading this, cut Starman Matt Morrison a check and insert this into regular universe Spider-Man as soon as humanly possible. It corrects your biggest fuck-up of the last decade in a way that make perfect sense and works with all your existing storylines and would get all the fans (back) on your side. Do it. Don't be stuck up because some comics fan figured out how make it work and you couldn't. Do it. Seriously. Do it.
My friends, I don't care much about getting a check for some huge amount. I don't care about the relative fame that being known as The Man Who Saved Spider-Man might bring me. I wouldn't even insist on being the one to write this story. But I've been getting messages from a lot of people out there in the last few hours and not a one of them has said that they don't think that my idea is a good one.
So let's try this: if you like my idea, share it. Post it on your own blog or website or on a message board or discussion group if you frequent one. Let's just get the idea out there and let it roam free.
If Marvel Comics pilfers it, fine. I'll have gotten what I wanted.
Because even though I'm an alleged adult, I still look up to Spider-Man. Because he taught me that doing the right thing is more important than money and fame. And right now... trying to get this idea out where it can't be ignored... it feels like the right thing.
Way to go!
ReplyDelete:)
I kind of doubt you're going to allow this to be posted since it points out that you don't know what you're talking about, but let's see.
ReplyDeleteYou have an interesting definition of "fact."
"FACT: For some unexplained reason, in the rewritten reality, most of Peter's friends have vanished."
No. We have seen more of his friends since One More Day ended than we saw during JMS' run. Including Harry being brought back to life, Glory, a lot more Betty, and we even saw Liz and Normie.
"Flash Thompson has returned to being the bully who makes Peter's life miserable."
Uh, you blatantly lied here. That's COMPLETELY false. There has not been a single time since Flash was reintroduced after One More Day where he has been a bully, let alone make his life "miserable."
"And for some strange reason, Harry Osborn is alive and well."
"It doesn't make any sense for Harry to be back from the dead because of Peter's bargain."
Yeah, you're right. So it's a good thing that's not what happened. They explained how he came back almost a YEAR ago. And it wasn't because of Mephisto.
"And Norman Osborn - despite being publicly known as The Green Goblin - has become head of the national agency in charge of monitoring/commanding all the legally-operating superheroes in the United States."
Except this has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with One More Day. It happened in Secret Invasion. He didn't get his power until months after the Mephisto deal happened.
"And known-murderer and lunatic Norman Osborn being appointed to a national agency, much less being beloved by the public REALLY doesn't make any sense..."
So I guess Mephisto made Lex Luthor president in the DC Universe?
It's a comic book. It's not supposed to make sense. Norman killed the leader of an alien invasion live on television. They kind of forgave him for the Green Goblin thing. Sure, it wouldn't happen in real life. Neither would a Skrull invasion.
Did you even read this before you decided to talk about how it needed to be fixed? You can't talk about how something needs to be fixed that you obviously haven't even read.
I think this is a very cool idea. In fact it is really brilliant man.
ReplyDeleteNot in the Post-OMD stories I read. Brand New Day? The one which introduced the new female Kraven? All we saw of Pete's old supporting cast in that was Harry, Harry's new girlfriends and some scientist girl Peter wanted to ask out.
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly, I have not read every single little thing that Marvel has put out with Peter in it in the last two years, being limited to previews what few Spider-Man trades my local library has picked up.
So you're writing a blog based on probably the first few months of books after One More Day and previews you read? Nice job. Liz and Normie were in the first year of stories.
I remember seeing a scan where he was insulting Peter in front of a group of people. That may not be as severe as him picking a fight but that is still bullying.
You're making a fool of yourself. You're basing a point you made in this on a SCAN you saw? And considering that scene you're talking about never happened, either you saw a scan from some old story or you're just lying.
Harry was DEAD in the comics before One More Day. D-E-A-D. I missed the explanation but the only reason they'd even NEED to provide an explanation is because of One More Day.
That's lovely, but you were still wrong. It's okay, you can admit to it. You said he came back because of the bargain. Wrong. It was retconned so that he never died originally, shown in flashback that took place right after the end of the issue where he "died."
Harry being back has nothing to do with Mephisto or the deal. Fact.
And yet again, you try to comment on something when you're not even reading the books. If you stopped reading before the first year was even over, who are you to comment on the book as if it's bad NOW?
Ah. Thank you. I forgot to mention that Norman's rise to power IS a blatant rip-off of that storyline. :) And yes, Lex's good health following Kryptonite poisoning actually was a result of him making a deal with Neron: the DC equivalent of Mephisto.
A bad guy having lots of power and looked at as a good guy is not an idea that DC created. Not to mention how much better the Norman storyline is. Calling the Dark Reign storyline a ripoff of that Lex storyline is just blatant fanboyism.
As I said, I have not read every issue. I have read enough, however, to see that One More Day has caused more problems than it has solved and that it has only been through the efforts of writers like Dan Slott that ANY effort to make things fit with what came before has been made.
FACT: No you have NOT read enough to make such a judgment. You haven't been reading it since summer of 2008 based on your lack of knowledge of Flash or Liz or Harry.
I am deeply amused that it apparently took you the better part of two months to think of a comeback AND that you're still completely ignoring what I'm saying because of your own blind fanboyism.
ReplyDeleteEven if, as you say, Peter's deal with the devil wasn't directly responsible for Harry coming back from the dead on a textual level, the One More Day storyline was certainly responsible for the retcon.
Commenting upon scans of materials is valid as I am reading parts of the actual books. You didn't contest my claim that Flash Thompson has regressed into his old personality but instead took issue with the means by which I saw this scene, parroting the Joe Quesada party line about how unless I am paying money to read the comics, I have no right to say anything bad about it.
And as you say - the idea of a villain tricking the heroes or the populace at large into thinking he's reformed is not a new one. However, the specific idea of a villain conning his way into high office following a major disaster, putting himself in direct control of numerous superheroes IS exactly what happened in Public Enemies.
I advise you to track down a copy of the TP or watch the very good animated movie that came out recently. You clearly need to see what a good superhero story looks like.
Additionally, your complaints - and the details - are ultimately meaningless in the face of the broad idea: Norman makes deal with devil to acquire power and make Peter miserable. It doesn't matter if Harry figures into it or not.
ReplyDeleteYou may not like it, but the vast majority of people who commented upon the idea to me in e-mail and at Topless Robot thought that simple idea was a good way to explain way everything. So I still stand by the idea.
It's a moot point as Marvel is unlikely to give a writing job to an untested writer like myself at this point, much less allow me to suggest that Emperor Quesada has no clothes.
I saw the email notification when cleaning out my inbox last night. Just to clear up that stupidity.
ReplyDeleteReally? I demand video proof of this. Because it seems much more likely to me given how you're willing to argue this point that you spent the better part of 1/6th of a year plotting out just how best make your point.
You said you saw a page. In that case, it is not valid.
A page that is a part of the actual book. And in the case of the first TP released after One More Day, I did read through one of the books.
Maybe you should read what you reply to.
Well, now you're just parroting me.
But you need to READ them. Not just a 3 page preview.
Ummm... I DID read one whole book and quite a few page scans at scans daily. You're only showing how you aren't really paying attention some more.
I know what a good superhero story looks like. I only read good books.
Really? You've never read one bad book ever? How very fortunate and blessed you are. I suggest you call Guinness and get yourself into the 2011 edition for that is quite an accomplishment.
Right. Thank you for the amusement little troll. I'm done with you. You may go now.