In what can only be described as a stunning display of anti-fan sentiment, Marvel Comics editor Nick Lowe recently responded to a Spider-Man fan who respectfully inquired about a possible retcon of the wall-crawler’s infamous One More Day storyline by telling them, essentially, to kick rocks.
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If one were to ask almost any fan of Spider-Man’s comic book adventures what single story line they would retcon, and near unanimously the answer they’d give would be a resounding refrain of “One More Day”.
Penned in 2008 by then-Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada out of his belief that a married superhero would be seen as ‘unrelatable’ by younger readers, the entire four-issue tale eventually concluded with Peter Parker trading his marriage with Mary-Jane to Mephisto in exchange for the demon saving the life of a then-critically-wounded Aunt May
Of course, this decision to throw away one of the greatest romances in comic book history in order to presumably help ease Quesada’s own midlife crisis went over like a brick, and in the years since, fans have continued to hold One More Day as ‘ground zero’ for the absolutely abysmal state of the web-slinger’s recent 616-based outings
Sadly, while fans have spent the last decade-and-a-half begging Marvel Comics to either retcon the story outright or at the very least find a way to reunite Peter and MJ (just search the story’s name on any social media platform and you’re guaranteed to unearth an absolute trove of disappointment and outrage) the publisher has continually shut down any and all attempts at discussing the matter.
For an example of just how averse the Spider-editorial staff is to this idea, during his run on Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 5, writer Nick Spencer spent a good chunk of his creative energies rebuilding the pair’s relationship and laying the groundwork for them to finally find themselves back in each other’s arms.
But as soon as he left the book, one of the first moves made by his successor, current series writer Zeb Wells, was to not only rip the two apart yet again, but also spit on the corpse of their relationship by immediately throwing MJ into a relationship with quite possibly the biggest waste of time and space in Marvel history, Paul.
Of course, despite the best attempts by Lowe, Wells, and the rest of the mainline Spider-Man team, fans have not stopped voicing their discontent with One More Day’s continued in-canon status, with the letters pages of nearly every issue of Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 6 featuring at least one message from a fan asking for someone to end their favorite hero’s continual editorial suffering.
And though most of these sentiments are handwaved away by Lowe, often by way of ‘Well, it’s not for everyone, but we’re going to keep on keeping on’, the most recent issue of Amazing Spider-Man saw him respond to such a letter by outright insulting its author.
As featured in the back of the series’ 57th issue, a fan by the name of ‘Nick from New Zealand’ took the time out of his day to voice his opinion to Lowe that “With the release of issue #53, I feel that this arc is the perfect microcosm, a pure distillation, of the problems with the creative direction and ideology behind Spider-Man ever since 2008.”
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“Peter has just turned evil for the third time in less than a year, the second time in only four issues, and all I’m left wondering is ‘haven’t I already seen this before?’,” recapped the fan. “This arc, hell, the whole run by Zeb, feels like we’re just going ’round and ’round in circles, and that feeling extends to the nearly 500 issues prior to this moment as well.”
“Nothing has really changed in Peter Parker’s life in all that time – he’s still just as much of a broke loser who keeps pushing away the people around him as he was immediately following ‘One More Day’,” he added. “All the while, everyone else in Marvel gets to grow and change – hell, even Venom is a responsible father now! Why isn’t Peter allowed to see any developments of his own, like he had done for decades between 1962 and 2007? I speak for many millions of fans of Spider-Man when I say I’m disappointed with this creative direction, and it’s why I’m so supremely happy with the new Ultimate Spider-Man book because it feels like a true continuation of Stan [Lee], Steve [Ditko], and John [Romita Sr.]’s ideals for the character and his growth.”
“I really hope things will change soon,” he concluded, “and so do many, many others.”
In response, rather than even trying to feign amicability or respect for his viewpoint, Lowe instead dismissed the New Zealand-based reader as, essentially, an outlier fan who had no idea what they were talking about regarding audience sentiment towards One More Day.
“Hello, fellow Nick, and thanks for writing!” the Spider-editor began. “Sorry ASM hasn’t been doing it for you. As for the Peter turning evil, it was part of an ongoing story thread we were working on that only SEEMED to end in ASM #35. If it didn’t work for you, that’s a bummer. It worked for us and a lot of fans.”
Turning to the fan’s “bigger question”, Lowe then asserted, “Would Stan and Steve and John want Peter’s life to develop? I’;m not sure and I can’t speak for them. I certainly don’t think they had a definite plan for such development as they had no way of knowing this book would last decades past their time on the book. I’ve come to think that Spider-Man growing, aging, and developing his life along with a reader in Amazing Spider-Man isn’t the way to go. I believe that Spider-Man belongs to all fans and all generations and should (mostly) be as universally relatable as possible.”
“Why just mostly?” he continued. “Well, we should still do stories like Superior Spider-Man, ‘Worldwide’, and ‘Beyond’ that drastically change Spidey, but then come home to the core of Spider-Man. THAT SAID, we at Marvel contain multitudes and have offered many stories of Spider-Man growing and aging beyond his archetypal core if that’s more your thing.”
And it was here that Lowe would fully hand control over his driver seat to his ego.
Turning to the fan’s claim that “millions” of fans wanted the storyline retconned, the editor dismissed, “I do think it’s bold to claim that your view is one representing multiple millions of fans’ viewpoint on how Amazing Spider-Man should work as a comic with no way to prove it, but you do you!”
From there drawing his response to a close, Lowe ultimately declared, “Regardless, I’m glad you’re enjoying Ultimate Spider-Man. I love that book too. Jonathan [Hickman] and Marco [Chechetto] and co. are so good!”
For those looking for any light at the end of this Spider-themed tunnel, the good news is that Wells’ current, awful run on Amazing Spider-Man is officially set to come to a close on October 30th when his final issue, #60, hits store shelves.