Well, I don't want to rehash old arguements from years ago. I was on these boards all the time from the beginning of the JMS run to right before One More Day. I had to leave these boards for a while because, after Sins Past, The Other, and the Unmasking arguements...I just knew the One More Day reactions would be very brutal and heated.
Yes, of course, OMD was going to spawn some nasty stuff. I will say that is the lesser of two evils to the original idea.
However, I read One More Day. Did I like it? Yes and no. What I liked was that they finally moved on from the past few years of bad storytelling and wanted to start a new. What I didn't like is how they executed this plan. I was not a fan of Mary Jane. I never really ever was and I had been reading the book since 1991. I grew up reading a married Peter and I hated it. There were a few storylines in which I went, "Well, wow they are trying to really make Mary Jane into an interesting character.". It's not the characters fault it is just writers fault and many writers didn't really enjoy writing a married Peter Parker. Now don't get me wrong I am not sitting here defending the decision for it. But while I was never a fan of MJ and the marriage to begin with I did not like the execution of basically taking the marriage out of existence. There could have been a much better story built around it.
Fair enough.
Now as to the comparison with Green Lantern...you are bringing that up to the wrong guy. I have only read Green Lantern from Rebirth to the current status. I know of the Parallax thing from Rebirth, that's about it. I don't know about a special task force of fans being against it. I didn't know it caused such an uproar because during that period of time I was just a Marvel guy and the only DC book I read was the Batman books.
It was pretty nutty. Obvious the internet wasn't around, or at wasn't widespread at the time, but I think the fan angry was equal to, if not a little over OMD hate.
But my point being that all that I want out of the Spider-Man book is a fun story and a good storylines that do not have to take apart Spider-Man's past continuity. And since the beginning of Brand New Day I have gotten that. The brought back Harry Osborn. I was upset about that because I remember buying Spectacular Spider-Man # 200 when it first came out and it was a very touching story when he died. Though since him being back they have really made a lot of progress with the character and I am actually GLAD that he's back in the book. Now go figure.
You're entitled to your opinon, and for the record I'm not anti-BND or anything, but more on that in the Teardrop review later.
And I have to agree with Dan Slott on this one. Call it kissing ass if you want but I do have the same view on it. It's obvious that if One More Day has affected your life that much and caused that much anger to the point where anything that is currently done in the book will just be picked apart and view as "mischaracterization"...then he, or the other members of the Spider-Man writing team are not going to win any of the detractors over.
Okay, here is where I'll have to cut in. I think, like I said, that what happened in OMD was radical mischaracterization. I simply don't believe these character would willing give this up to the most evil being in the MU. If they were unfamiliar with the character,
maybe, if the character were another more ambiguous character, once again
maybe. But, like the Hal Jordan example, it's something that is just off the wall. Sure, the excuse of greif is there, but it's still pretty far out of character for both characters.
The Hal example, I think still stands, but to make one up it's like this. Say you have a single storyline were Batman is hunting down a criminal. This criminal kills someone along the way that enrages Robin (Let's say Tim Drake as opposed to the newest Robin). So Robin urges Batman to kill him. After thinking about Batman pulls out a magnum and blows the guy's headoff and whispers, 'It was for the best' and walks away even though he had already captured and contained said criminal. Now, regardless of how good the stories are after that, I think the majority of people would agree that would be way out of character for both and it would probably be something fans would be discussing well after it's over. Now, I know that's a radical example, but I think it hits the point well enough since you're unfamiliar with Hal and his boink-boink years
Now, my further opinion on the matter is I have disliked MANY things in a comic book. I have not liked what they have done in the storylines with many characters. Now you bring up Hal Jordan...ok...I will bring up another DC character. Tim Drake, Robin III. I have loved that character for a long time and always saw him as a logical replacement to Batman as he is a very wonderful character. Now since all the recent events in the characters life the writers of his book over the years turned him from a fun loving, lovable character into this sad sack of a character that when I read his book I just don't feel like I am reading the same character. So, what did I do? I dropped the book and I don't read him anymore. It sucks. I really want to but I just can't because the character isn't what it was once to me. I can understand where people are coming from in the regards of One More Day not being Peter, etc.
Well, Tim Drake is a different situation. I'm really not sure how you're relating him
HOWEVER, it begins to differ that since Brand New Day the character HAS been Peter Parker. Nothing has changed and it's been the same character, to ME, that I've known for all these years.
Okay, no disagreement from me one that. Except I do believe they've made him a little too much like his younger self, but I never meant to imply that Peter in BND is radical mischaracterization, just that the character's reaction in OMD was. After and before OMD there was just bits of 'Huh?' moments or the character was true at the core. I was talking specifically about OMD only
It stinks that people will never seem to be able to put it behind them. I just don't see how being constantly angry and hateful on the character almost two years AFTER the storyline occurred is going to help. Even the fans who were protesting what happened to Hal Jordan. I can understand that right after the storyline the anger would be there. But years afterward? To me, that's just unhealthy and that's not how I would want to spend my life wanting to just be angry at something. Because obviously being angry didn't changed anything because from what I recall of Green Lantern it took well over ten years before they even brought Hal back as the Green Lantern and fixed everything up.
Okay, let me stop you here. Yeah, there's hating going on. There really is for sure, but it's not all hating you see. Some people simply dislike the direction and think that it was done for all the wrong reasons. You can dislike something and disagree with the direction without hating. As I said, these boards are regulated by people who are going out of their way to discuss entertainment and some of them are pretty damn passionate about it, for better or for worse. The idea that you should just get over a direction you disagree with and submit to and shut up, in my opinion, is a little unfair. You shouldn't go looking for fights or any such thing, but when it comes up, and it will come up again, I don't think that it's such a bad thing as long as it is civil and to the point.
Peter Parker is not going to be married to Mary Jane again. And the sooner some people realize that maybe they can move on. Maybe they won't ever read the book and they will "PROUDLY" never buy another issue...but at least move on from the anger and the distain. It's not healthy. And as much as people can say its "love" for the character there is a thin line between love, hate, and obsession. You can only beat a dead horse for so long until there is nothing left to beat.
See, once again, I'm going to have to disagree. When you really feel passionately about something I really don't think you should just submit and get over. I mean a lot of Hal fans never did try Kyle's series because they hated what DC had done to Hal. Sure, it's silly to feel that way about comics and fiction, but it's no more sillier, to me anyway, then being passionate about art or sports. As long as they keep it civil and don't just go out of their way looking for fights I don't think they should just conform to the norm if they don't want to.
I hope you don't take it the wrong way. I'm not saying you are wrong for your feelings and opinions. Just saying...personally if something bothered me that much I would just wash my hands of it and remove myself from it.
As I noted before, I am not anti-BND. I read and enjoy the stories. Of course, I'm also not a puppet of the OMD/BND flagwavers and agree that everything that comes from it is gold. Mostly it's been good, though. I will say that I like MJ as a character. Always have and I like her as a love interest for Peter. I think they work well together. I wasn't attached to the marriage by any means, but I do disagree that it somehow crippled Spidey stories. If JMS hadn't of had insane story ideas and cut the supporting cast out, he probably could have proven that since he had a decent enough grasp on the marriage. I do think the way, and why, they undid was, well, dumb for the lack of a better word. Personally I think if they were dead set on it they could have found a much better way of doing it. How? I don't know off the top of my head, give me 6 months and get back to me. I'm not a professional writer, but I think I could come up with a better storyline idea then that to recton the marriage.
I wasn't waving the flag of the resistance to OMD/BND or anything, I was mostly just defending the right of opinion and discussion. It actually kind of gets on my nerves when people are told to get over it and shut up. I know no one said that directly, but basically that's what is being said with that rebuttal. havoc did take it a little too far, but as long as you're civil and, whether we think it's silly or not, passionate about a subject I don't really think the 'get over it and shut up thing' is an accurate reply.
I know I tend to look like I'm in that camp, but the truth is the OMD/BND flagwavers are just as silly and make just as much ridiculous claims as the anti-OMD/BND resistance wavers. They just don't get as stigmatized because their preferred status quo is being pushed and the opposing side just looks sillier or stuck in the past or what have you. If the sides were flipped I would have said the same for them even though I tend to disagree with them on a lot of their reasoning.
Also, no, I don't take anything like this personally, so no worries
