Vocal Minority - One More Day
If you spent the last few weeks cataloguing new species of fish in an ocean trench, and for whatever reason came to this website ahead of all others as soon as you got back to shore and a wifi-enabled coffeehouse, you should prepare yourself for a shock.
(Spoilers for Spider-Man’s One More Day)
Spider-Man made a deal with the Devil to save Aunt May’s precious little life at the cost of his wedding to Mary Jane. Not only did Mephisto erase his marriage from the timeline, he also apparently decided to do him a solid and make everyone forget his secret identity (even those who knew about it years before Civil War), get rid of his creepy organic webshooters in exchange for the original manufactured ones, and bring his best friend Harry Osborn back to life. That Devil really is a swell guy, isn’t he? And all he asked for in return was a nagging feeling of unexplained loss in the back of Spidey’s head for him to feed off of like some kind of personal house demon.
As you can imagine, hypothetical marine biologist, the internet spontaneously combusted. We all knew Marvel, and in particular Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada, wished the marriage would go away, but even so the avenue they ended up moseying down to accomplish this disturbed many, even those who thought they’d braced for the worst. But wait, the worst is yet to come.
Adding fuel to fire, in a possible last-ditch effort to save himself permanent pariah status with traditional-minded Spidey fans, J. Michael Straczynski, the writer of One More Day itself, came out against the ending. He said he wanted to take his name off of it. He said the ending was put together by editorial. He even retconned Gwen Stacy sleeping with Norman Osborn into being Quesada’s idea. Maybe he’s annoyed the last several years of his life as Amazing Spider-Man writer were just erased from continuity? The readers are feeling the same way…
When editor’s seize the reins of the story they’re editing, we all lose. Even if the editor has the best intentions, even if they’re a brilliant writer in their own right, there’s a boundary between editor and writer that should not be violated. The best stories ever told were forged by the strength of the teller’s personal vision, and while comic books may be commodities designed to make money, they still, in the end, can be art. When said stories are crafted by committee, however, they can never be more than products.
The term “vocal minority” refers to the common conceit that people who take the time to make their opinions known (especially loudly) do not necessarily speak for a proportionate amount of the entire population. It’s basically the opposite of the way Nielsen ratings work, where the opinions of a few thousand are considered to be the opinions of a few million. The vocal minority represents only itself. Even The Internet’s Pal, Steve Wacker, said “all of us [on the message boards] know deep in our hearts that nothing said here represents a “large portion” of the readership.” Et tu, Steve?
Because that was the point of One More Day, wasn’t it? They knew the internet fans would be in a tizzy, but they did it anyway because the non-internet fans—a subtle implication here: the normal fans—would appreciate a Spider-Man back to his 1970s status quo. And those future fans, those unmarried ten and eleven-year-olds, would be confused and bewildered reading about a hero who’s more like their dad than their older brother. Marvel wrote One More Day, in essence, for the children.
I can almost see the children now, comic books grasped tightly in one fist, while the other hand tugs on Mom’s skirt as she puts the pot roast in the oven…
“Mommy, can I make a deal with the Devil like Spidey-Man did?”
Dante Kleinberg writes Vocal Minority exclusively for Comics Now! magazine.
Contact Dante at dantebk@hotmail.com or at his website dantebk.blogspot.com.