"One More Day" (part 1)
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Artists: Joe Quesada (p), Danny Miki (i), Richard Isanove (c)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
This first chapter of "One More Day" is the beginning of the end of J. Michael Straczynski's 6 year run on Amazing Spider-Man, and the first installment of a climactic story arc. This has been heavily hyped as being one of the most important in the wall-crawler's recent history and hints have been dropped that this storyline will reset certain elements of Spider-Man continuity. The presence of Dr. Strange in advance solicitations has fuelled speculation that Marvel is planning to 'magically' undo some of the story events of the past few years in order to clean the slate for the next writer(s) of the title.
However, we see none of that here, as the issue proves to be a retread of the last year of Amazing stories which doesn't really bring anything new to the book.
The hospital bed of the dying Aunt May is revisited, establishing that her situation is just as hopeless as it has been for the last five issues (and underlining the fact that you could have skipped "Back in Black" in its entirety and hardly missed anything). The conflict between Spider-Man and Iron Man is reprised, as Spidey breaks into Avengers Tower to be attacked by Tony Stark in a manner which is virtually identical to their fight in Civil War. Peter vows that he will save Aunt May's life no matter what the cost (just as he did last issue). The only silver lining is that the final few pages have a far greater sense of energy and finality about them than the rest of the book, setting up a more exciting plot for the next issue which actually threatens to resolve some of these dragging storylines.
There are a couple of neat story developments: I like the fact that JMS has returned to the subplot of the romance between Aunt May and Jarvis, and he cannily uses their relationship to allow Tony Stark to indirectly help Peter out with his aunt's hospital bills. There's also an acknowledgement towards the issue's end that Spider-Man's social circle of superheroes allows him access to some unconventional cures for May's condition. I'll be interested to see how many of these get explored in the next chapter of the story. However, the suggestion of these solutions to Peter's woes draws attention to the fact that they are logical options which have hitherto been ignored in order for JMS' previous arc to work. As such, it weakens the preceding story and, therefore, the foundations of this one.
Joe Quesada takes over the art chores from previous penciller Ron Garney, and whilst his work is solid enough, it's not as spectacular as many may have been expecting, especially after the great work that we saw from the same art team on Daredevil: Father. However, that's perhaps due more to the subject matter than to the artistic abilities of Marvel's E-I-C, as this issue spends yet more time hanging around in the hospital (didn't we just have a whole arc of that?) before getting stuck in the repetitive fight between Peter and Stark. It's a decent enough, if brief, action sequence, but one which seems a little too contrived to feel truly powerful or dramatic. Conversely, Quesada's character designs are strong, for the most part. There is one misstep that’s an important one, as his Peter Parker seems oddly inconsistent and over-rendered in places: What's with all the lines on his nose? Still, other characters fare better: The artist's take on Iron Man/Tony Stark is a solid one, his Aunt May looks suitably elderly, grizzled and ill, and his Mary Jane evokes the classic lines of John Romita's original design. The final page even gives us a glimpse of his Spider-Man in costume, returning to the old red-and blue threads, and it's a standout image which really distills the essence of Spidey's visual appeal. It's reminiscent of the work of the finest artists to have worked on the character without ever coming off as derivative. Quesada even manages to make the device of showing Peter's facial expressions through his mask work. Even if I get the impression that Joe Q's presence is as much to do with adding a little extra hype to the "One More Day" event as anything else, it's good to know that this story will look pretty, whatever it has in store for the wall-crawler.
This extra-sized (and, at $3.99, extra-expensive) issue features a few bonus items in the form of a fairly extensive character biography for Spider-Man and a gallery of the many different costumes that he's worn over the years. We also get a look at some of Quesada's sketches, and a breakdown of pencils-to-inks-to-colors for one page of the Iron Man / Spidey fight. It's hardly material that anyone was crying out to see, and I don't really know why it's been included in this issue (other than to bump up the page count to justify the higher price), but some people may get a kick out of these extras.
What did you think of this book?
Have your say at the Line of Fire Forum!