I rant about Joe Quesada's response to questions about One More Day.

Just when you thought you were done with One More Day, it pulls you back in!

Over at Comic Book Resources, they took questions from the fans aimed at Joe Quesada. and pertaining to One More Day. I was going to let it slide, because, well, aren't we all sick of complaining about OMD? But I got to the second question and I couldn't take it. I had to rant about it.

I'll try to go through it point by point.

1. In response to a question about if fans should really believe that this change will be permanent, Joe Q comes out with this bon mot:

"So, the simple answer is that we don’t do things like this willy-nilly, so I as a fan, I wouldn’t expect things like this to be a reoccurrence or even commonplace. "

Yeah, not doing things willy-nilly. To that, I counter this interview with J. Michael Stracynski at Newsarama:

"To explain, here's the conversation I had with Marvel, in sum:

"So what does Mephisto do?" I ask.

"He makes everybody forget Peter's Spider-Man."

"Uh, huh. So Aunt May's still in the hospital --"

"No, he saves Aunt May."

"But if all he does is save her life and make everybody forget he's Spidey, she still has a scar on her midsection."

"No, he makes that go away too."

"Okay...:

"Then he wakes up in her house."

"The house that was burned down?"

"Right."

"But how --"

"Mephisto undoes that as well."

"Okay. And the guys who shot at Peter and May and were killed, they're alive too? Mephisto can bring guys back from the dead?"

"It's all part of the spell."

"And Doc Strange can't tell?"

"No,"

"And the newspaper articles? News footage?"

"Joe, it's been forgotten."

"I'm just asking is that stuff there or not there?"

"Not there. And Peter's web shooters are back."

"Is this the same spell or a different spell?"

"Same spell."

"How does making people forget he's Spidey bring back his web shooters?"

"It's magic, okay?"

"I see. And Harry's back."

"Right."

"And Mephisto does this too."

"Yep."

"So is Harry back from the dead, or has he been alive? If they ask him, hey Harry, what did you do last summer, will he remember? And the year before? And the year before? If he says they all went on a picnic two years ago, will they remember it?"

"It's --"

"Because if he now has a life he remembers, if he's not back from the dead, then you've changed the continuity you said you didn't want to change. Those are your only options: he was brought back from the dead, and there's a grave, and people remember him dying --"

"Mephisto changes THEIR memories too."

"-- or he's effectively been alive as far as our characters know, so he's been alive all along, so either way as far as our characters are concerned, continuity's been violated going back to 1971.

How do you explain that?"

"It's magic, we don't have to explain it."

And that's the part I had a real problem with, maybe the single biggest problem. There's this notion that magic fixes everything. It doesn't. "It's magic, we don't have to explain it." Well, actually, yes, you do. Magic has to have rules. And this is clearly not just a case of one spell making everybody forget he's Spidey...suddenly you're bringing back the dead, undoing wounds, erasing records, reinstating web shooters, on and on and on.

What I wanted to do was to make one small change to history, a tiny thing, whose ripples we could control to only touch what editorial wanted to touch, making changes we could explain logically. I worked for weeks to come up with a timeline that would leave every other bit of continuity in place. It was rigorous, and as logical as I could make it. In the end of OMD as published, Harry is alive and he's always been alive as far as the characters know...so how is that different than he was alive the whole time?

It made no sense to me."

Sounds like someone came into this thing willy nilly.

2. A group of fans asked how making a deal with the devil was better than Peter and Mary Jane getting divorced and how to explain it to their kids about the deal with the devil. Joe Q brought out his usual explanation:

"Now, there are those that say, “but he made a deal with the Mephisto, how is that better?” I would at least see something in that statement if it was Peter who conjured up Mephisto. If Peter had no options and then proceeded to perform some ritual in order to invoke Mephisto, or in essence reached out to him as a last ditch effort, then yes, I would agree because now you’re validating and saying it’s okay to seek out the Mephisto guy to fix a problem. But, that’s not what happened. It was Mephisto in this case, as he is prone to do, who comes to Peter at his weakest moment and uses this to his advantage. Why? Because he’s a villain. This is a very important distinction, Peter is used by the bad guy, taken advantage of, and let me add it’s not the first time a villain has taken advantage of him. "

I think Merriam-Webster is trying to get in touch with Joe. They want to use this explanation as an example of "splitting hairs". So, since Mephisto, Marvel's version of the Devil, came to Peter and Peter didn't go to him, that makes the deal-making okay? So, if Peter robs a bank, that would be bad, if he just picks up a bag the Brinks guy absent-mindedly leaves behind, that's okay.

Making a deal with the devil is making a deal with the devil. Joe, you had you most marketable character make a Faustian deal with Satan. I only regret that you have as of yet not been called on it by the mainstream press.

3. In response to someone asking if what Mephisto said about Peter and MJ still having a bond, yet not knowing why, Joe Q said this:

"Hey, Tom and Aaron, keep in mind, Mephisto also says that they will remember nothing of the event. So much in the way that he does things, Mephisto is full of contradictions, mysteries and mischief. Keep reading and see how it al plays out.

Also, I wonder what MJ whispered in his ear?"

Gotta hand it to Joe, he the ultimate huckster. Here he is, answering the questions of irate fans in a way that certainly will irritate them further, and puts that last sentence in. It's like he saying, "Hey, suckers! Remember! You're supposed to be excited about this! That whisper will pay off big time (and if you don't think it is big, that will be your fault.)"

4. In respone to a heart-felt explanation from a fan that the married Spider-man was all he knew, and that worked for him, Joe Q kinda insults him:

"That said, did you enjoy the Spider-man movies? I only ask because that was your dad’s Spider-Man on the screen, soap opera and all."

A) He can't answer you, Joe, and B) What if he didn't? Yes, The Spider-Man movies were a global sensation, but not every comic fan loved them. I really wish that this phantom dialogue Joe had with this guy would have had the chance to continue.

Add to that numerous invocations of variations on "Be Patient, all will be revealed" (Which I think he means, "Give us time to think up a reason for all these changes that really don't make sense"), it turns out to be a headache of an interview.

And, hopefully, this will be the last I am going to speak about One More Day.