Once again, Paolo Rivera’s art comes across very well here, especially the scenes in which Dr. Strange begins to cast the spell to remove the knowledge of Peter’s secret identity as Spider-Man from the world. And again, Joe Quesada’s art in Peter and MJ’s conversation, while well colored, are the definition of inconsistent when it comes to Peter and MJ’s body types. Also, Quesada once again decided to cut and past panels from another issue, this time Amazing Spider-Man #545, the last part of One More Day. However, unlike what he did with the Wedding Annual from part 1, he rewrote the dialogue in those panels. Interestingly enough, sometimes it actually fits and other times it doesn’t match what’s on panel at all. And it still comes across as being lazy.
As for the plot of this issue? It moves at a absolute crawl. That’s because the first part of this issue is basically nothing but Dr. Strange trying to get permission from Reed Richards and Tony Stark to create the psychic blindspot that will make everyone forget Peter is Spider-Man, intersected with Peter trying to reassure the unconscious MJ that he‘ll make everything better because she‘ll forget he‘s Spider-Man.
This goes on for an agonizing 11 pages. It’s even worse once we get to the reprinted pages from One More Day with new dialogue between Peter and MJ, which goes on for 15 pages! Seriously, the only “action” that happens in this story is when Peter gets into the protective bubble Strange casts to shield Peter from the memory wipe and him temporarily leaving it at the last moment to carry MJ into the bubble as well. Virtually this entire issue is nothing but debating ad nauseum over whether or not Strange, Reed, and Tony should allow for the world to forget Peter is Spider-Man, Reed and Strange trying to convince Tony to use his Extremis virus as part of Strange‘s spell, Peter and MJ debating whether or not he should have let her forget along with the rest of the world, and MJ explaining why she and Peter can’t be together anymore.
Yes, if read that last paragraph right, the reason why MJ breaks up with Peter is because, ironically, she wanted to forget Peter was Spider-Man along with everyone else. Even though she says more than once that she loves him and acknowledges that she knew full well the risks of getting involved in a relationship with him, she states that it wasn’t until Eddie the Thug threatened her family (as seen in the last issue) that she realized she was also putting them in danger just by being with Peter, and that she can‘t risk the possibility of that happening again if Peter winds up getting unmasked by one of his enemies. Now granted, MJ has been put through a real emotional turmoil what with Peter having revealed his secret identity to the entire world, so it makes perfect sense for her to want to spend time away from Peter as a result. Of course, if Peter’s secret identity is compromised again, it wouldn’t make any difference whether MJ was with Peter or not--anyone even remotely associated with Peter, including MJ’s family, will still be put in danger. And let’s not forget that Peter or MJ wouldn’t even be having this conversation if Marvel hadn’t decided to make Spider-Man do such a forced, out-of-character move of revealing his secret identity to the world during Civil War in the first place. What’s more, considering the position MJ takes, we logically have to ask why would Peter want to be in another relationship since the same dangers would apply to that person. I guess the only woman Peter should hook up with is someone who doesn’t care about their family or doesn’t have a family to worry about, and is someone who Peter can not feel guilty about making them live in ignorance about his double-life as a superhero.
Then comes the “coup de grade” back in the “present day” in which, despite telling Peter that she still loves him, MJ says they can’t be anything more than friends because she’s not “strong enough” and that Peter needs “to find that someone who is and move on.” Never mind the fact that she once again admitted her true feelings for Peter, or that she doesn’t regret the relationship they had, or that she still wants to be a part of his life, or that she even gives him a passionate and romantic kiss--Peter and MJ can’t be a couple because she not “strong enough” to handle it, despite the fact that years and years worth of stories show what complete ******** this really is. Even One More Day made a big point about how Peter and MJ’s love for one another was so great and so powerful that it was enough for Mephisto to have to erase their marriage from existence because of it. Which means that, essentially, MJ actually IS the right person for him and that ANY relationship Peter gets involved in will not only pale in comparison but be doomed to fail.
If that wasn’t enough, we also get Peter, as Spidey, telling himself that because MJ, who he admits is his best friend and “the best person I have ever known,” has let him go, he now “feels free.” Really? Seems like he was pretty free when he contemplated acting on his feelings towards Harry’s fiancée, Lily. Or when he’s been trying to ask Carlie Cooper out on dates. Or when he decided to become the Black Cat’s f*** buddy. To make this even more ham-fisted, once again Quesada has Spidey state that it now feels like a “Brand New Day.” Quesada may be trying to make this come across as bittersweet, but instead it feels smugly triumphant, hoping that his agenda for Spider-Man lasts for the foreseeable future, since One More Day didn’t do a good enough job the first time around like he hoped.
And that’s the real problem with this issue and One Moment in Time overall. This isn’t so much of a story as it is Quesada trying to force his belief about how Spider-Man needs to single and to put him into a position where he can pursue other relationships besides Mary Jane, regardless of how contrived or contradictory it might be since he pretty much failed to do so the first time around. Granted, the retconned explanation as for why Peter and MJ are no longer together would have certainly worked better that Mephisto’s getting involved and probably would have even worked if Peter and MJ were still married and had wound up getting divorced instead. But even so, it’s another example of forced editorial fiat that, at the end of the day, it really is as MJ herself stated, comes off like a “clichéd chick flick.”
