Fixing Spiderman "OMD/BND"

[shanejayell]

NOT my idea, but it's one of the more interesting ideas I've seen on the internet:

http://looking2dastars.livejournal.c...630473#t630473

"Starman" Matt Morrison said:

My theory is about Spider-Man: One More Day and how we can retcon it away for good while also explaining away another horrible Marvel Comics storyline.

FACT: In One More Day, Peter Parker makes a bargain with the demon Mephisto to save his Aunt May's life at the cost of his marriage. Reality is rewritten so that Peter and Mary Jane never married and are currently broken up.

FACT: For some unexplained reason, in the rewritten reality, most of Peter's friends have vanished. Flash Thompson has returned to being the bully who makes Peter's life miserable. And for some strange reason, Harry Osborn is alive and well.

FACT: Events in general seem to be geared toward making Peter's life as comically, unbelievably horrible as possible. He can't get a job. His roommates hate him and/or Spider-Man. Aunt May marries J. Jonah Jameson's father. Jolly Jonah becomes Mayor of NYC and immediately sets about making capturing Spider-Man priority one for everyone. And Norman Osborn - despite being publicly known as The Green Goblin - has become head of the national agency in charge of monitoring/commanding all the legally-operating superheroes in the United States.

A lot of fans don't think ANY of this makes any sense. And it doesn't. Peter Parker - written properly - would never make a bargain with The Devil because it was easier than dealing with tragedy. It doesn't make any sense for Harry to be back from the dead because of Peter's bargain. And known-murderer and lunatic Norman Osborn being appointed to a national agency, much less being beloved by the public REALLY doesn't make any sense...

... unless this is all part of Norman's wish.

Would Norman make a literal deal with the devil to get power and a chance to cause as much chaos as possible by jacking around with the superheroes? Yes.

Would Norman make a literal deal with the devil to bring his own dead son back to life? Probably. Crazy as he was, he was always depicted as being a loving, if distant, father.

Would Norman make a literal deal with the devil to make Peter Parker as miserable as possible? Hell yes!

That's the idea: Mephisto went to Norman and offered him a chance to have all the wealth, power and prestige he always wanted. He even sweetened the deal by offering to bring Harry back from the dead AND by fixing it so that Peter Parker would be made as miserable as possible by the new world that was created.

Making Peter believe he'd be responsible for his own problems was just the icing on the evil cake.




Thoughts? Opinions?

[RDMacQ]

Y'know, I had a similar theory a while back. I don't think that it holds any weight, but it's kind of good to know that I wasn't the only one who had that idea.

[Vakanai]

FACT: It doesn't need fixing. I love the fact the marriage isn't around no more. Otherwise, it was a terrible story. Big deal, there's been bad stories before. Just so long as they keep May alive, Pete unmarried, and do better storytelling in the future, all's good.

[oldschool]

Originally Posted by Vakanai

FACT: It doesn't need fixing. I love the fact the marriage isn't around no more. Otherwise, it was a terrible story. Big deal, there's been bad stories before. Just so long as they keep May alive, Pete unmarried, and do better storytelling in the future, all's good.

What he said. It's not a "fact" that the stories following OMD have been bad; most have been very good and some flat-out terrific. Stop acting like something here is "broken" when it's not; just about everyone agrees that OMD sucked but that doesn't mean what followed was bad.

[The Shadow]

Originally Posted by shanejayell

FACT: For some unexplained reason, in the rewritten reality, most of Peter's friends have vanished. Flash Thompson has returned to being the bully who makes Peter's life miserable. And for some strange reason, Harry Osborn is alive and well.

But Harry's return has been explained as has Flash's. On a side note Flash also isn't a bully at ALL.

Originally Posted by shanejayell

FACT: /snip/ He can't get a job

He has had several (Bugle, DB, Front Line) and is now working with JJJ at the Mayors office. This isn't a fact.

Originally Posted by shanejayell

A lot of fans don't think ANY of this makes any sense. And it doesn't. Peter Parker - written properly - would never make a bargain with The Devil because it was easier than dealing with tragedy.

OY. :rolleyes:

Originally Posted by shanejayell

It doesn't make any sense for Harry to be back from the dead because of Peter's bargain.

Because nothing in the bargain had anything to do with Harry's return. At all.

Originally Posted by shanejayell

And known-murderer and lunatic Norman Osborn being appointed to a national agency, much less being beloved by the public REALLY doesn't make any sense...

Which isn't a Spider-Man revelation and has very little to do with Spidey.

Blame Bendis.

This is just complaining for complaining sake.

Originally Posted by shanejayell

Would Norman make a literal deal with the devil to get power and a chance to cause as much chaos as possible by jacking around with the superheroes? Yes.

Would Norman make a literal deal with the devil to bring his own dead son back to life?

And yet he didn't nor did he have to. Unless Mysterio is the devil.....

Originally Posted by shanejayell

Thoughts? Opinions?

As I said... complaining for complaining sake.

ESPECIALLY when you consider all the factual errors in there.

[StoneGold]

Originally Posted by shanejayell

FACT: For some unexplained reason, in the rewritten reality, most of Peter's friends have vanished. Flash Thompson has returned to being the bully who makes Peter's life miserable. And for some strange reason, Harry Osborn is alive and well.

Pure fiction. If anything, more of Pete's old friends have shown up again. Betty, Glory, Randy, all have made appearances. And Flash returned as the bully before BND, in Peter David's book. In BND, he's been the crippled war veteran.

[steveg887]

Originally Posted by shanejayell

FACT: Flash Thompson has returned to being the bully who makes Peter's life miserable.

I must've missed that issue.

Has Flash been taunting Peter with his new set of wheels?

[Alan2099]

NOT my idea, but it's one of the more interesting ideas I've seen on the internet:

It is interesting. Then again, Plan 9 from Outer Space was interesting. That didn't make it any good.

A lot of fans don't think ANY of this makes any sense.

A lot of fans are stupid.

Would Norman make a literal deal with the devil to get power and a chance to cause as much chaos as possible by jacking around with the superheroes? Yes.

Would Mephisto make a deal with somebody like Norman? Probably not. Even if you take him at face value (which I honestly don't. I think Mephisto had something bigger in mind.) Spider-man had someting good to offer up to Mephisto in exchange for the deal.

What does Norman have? I think it's already pretty obvious that he's going to hell, the guy hasn't realy shown a lick of decency since coming back from the dead, and if Mephisto wanted to spread chaos, there are plenty of better choice than Green Goblin to help out.

[Andrew T]

Originally Posted by Alan2099

What does Norman have? I think it's already pretty obvious that he's going to hell, the guy hasn't realy shown a lick of decency since coming back from the dead, and if Mephisto wanted to spread chaos, there are plenty of better choice than Green Goblin to help out.

Right, Norms has nothing Mephisto would want. The guy was pretty damn certain he'd wind up with Peter's soul in the end anyway, so Osborn's is a pretty much a given.

[StoneGold]

Originally Posted by Alan2099

What does Norman have? I think it's already pretty obvious that he's going to hell, the guy hasn't realy shown a lick of decency since coming back from the dead, and if Mephisto wanted to spread chaos, there are plenty of better choice than Green Goblin to help out.

Course, that doesn't mean that Mephisto would get him. But that's more due to inconsistencies with the Marvel cosmology in general.

[RDMacQ]

Originally Posted by Alan2099

Would Mephisto make a deal with somebody like Norman? Probably not. Even if you take him at face value (which I honestly don't. I think Mephisto had something bigger in mind.) Spider-man had someting good to offer up to Mephisto in exchange for the deal.

He could offer up the soul of the kid he is having with Lily. Y'know, promise 'Phisto that he would help bring a child of Mephisto's into the world for getting what he wants- kind of like the premise of that show Reaper.

[shanejayell]

Or offer Clone Gwen's soul. Or the Goblin Twins.

[Regulus B.]

Or maybe just promise not to take over Mephisto's realm when he gets there.

[The Shadow]

Originally Posted by Regulus B.

Or maybe just promise not to take over Mephisto's realm when he gets there.

A good point!

[flashdisk]

....I don't think anything can be fixed. People can just move on, but I doubt we'll ever look at Marvel and the comic the same way. I just like to discuss about things like this.

But any way, my only wish is that they give Mary Jane Watson powers and a chance to grow as her own character, so she doesn't need to be someone else's love interest to be important in the comic.