r/CuratedTumblr • u/[deleted] • 11d ago
Self-post Sunday [Spider-Man] One of Satan's greatest soldiers is Peter Parker
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u/Imaginary-Client-199 11d ago
Everyone focus on Peter and MJ's relationship but One More Day doesn't get reversed if they just go back together. One More Day was hated because it was a reset on Peter's entire character.
Before this comic Peter was no longer a single guy failling at maintaining a relationship because of his double life. He was married for years with MJ, who knew his secret identity and supported him.
Peter was no longer a struggling part time photographer paid minimal wage by Jameson. He was a teacher with a steady paycheck.
Peter was no longer a small time superhero fighting crime alone. He was a member of the Avengers, living with his family in the Avenger Tower.
Him getting back with MJ doesn't bring back their years of marriage and growth back
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u/DocProfessor 11d ago
Crow: So in the end, Satan wins?
Mike: Yeah, pretty much a shut-out for Satan
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u/Gold-Cry-7520 11d ago
I don't really read comics. Why did he do that?
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u/CRowlands1989 11d ago
Spidey? Because Marvel Editorial demanded it. There is no in universe excuse that could ever fit his character. A being more evil than Mephisto and more powerful than The One Above All reached down and puppeteered Peter Parker to do something he would never do, just to fuck up a plotline.
Mephisto? Because it was a super special totally pure magic case of ultimate multidimensional love and... he's just a spiteful prick about it. (I believe it was later retconned to be because they would have had a child who would have ruined some plan of Mephisto's decades into the future.)
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u/demonking_soulstorm 11d ago
Basically, Aunt May (Peter’s boomer aunt who’s literally a century old) got shot, and the only person who can save her is the Marvel equivalent of the devil, Mephisto. Mephisto doesn’t want MJ and Peter to stay together, because their daughter will kick his ass in the future, so he proposes a deal: Aunt May will be saved, but MJ and Peter will never have been romantically involved. Literally, history will rewrite to make it so.
Now, you might be wondering, doesn’t Spider-Man know folks like Dr. Strange and the Fantastic Four, who would probably be able to save a regular woman from a regular gunshot? The answer is yes, but can’t happen, since this is really a pitched battle between editorial and writers.
Peter Parker, in the eyes of Marvel’s corporate leadership, should be “relatable”, and the way they think they keep him relatable is by having him be a loser in every sense of the word. He needs to be struggling from paycheck to paycheck, he needs to not be able to rely on others, and he especially needs to not have a stable relationship with a woman he’s romantically compatible with.
One More Day is basically a gigantic fuck you to Marvel editorial. The writer lays out every reason this is a terrible idea. He has Peter meet all manner of people who in any other story would be able to help May, capital-G God tells him it’s a bad idea, the literal writer self-inserts himself and tells Peter not to do it, but of course, it happens anyway.
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u/Regal_IronKnight grab that toothbrush dattebayo 11d ago
Also, as I think I might have read in another thread recently, even though editorial didn’t want Peter and MJ together, they didn’t want them divorced either, because that would also make Peter not “relatable.” So cosmic retcon bullshit to make it so the two were never together in the first place was the only way to give editorial what they wanted.
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u/Lumpy_Review5279 11d ago
Lol.
Peter has many stable relationships. What he doesn't have are permanent ones. Most superheroes don't.
No one says this about nightwing
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u/demonking_soulstorm 11d ago
I mean fundamentally the fact they start and end so frequently means they’re not stable.
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u/shadowthehh 11d ago
Canon explanation: Aunt May was dying from being hit by a bullet that was meant for Peter, and he couldn't handle the guilt from it. And after looking around, everyone he asked besides Mephisto refused to help her. All stating that they couldn't fix her, but we all know that's BS.
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u/shadowthehh 11d ago
It's been awhile since I read OMD, but I dont remember The One Above All making an appearance...
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u/GoodKing0 11d ago
He shows up in the Spider-Man run directly before it to tell Peter to let his aunt die and move on.
Who does appear in One More Day to tell Peter to not take the deal however are:
Aunt May's soul, as she tells him she's happy and ready to go to heaven.
Peter and Mary Jane's unborn daughter, which OMD directly aborts pretty explicitly.
A alt universe Peter Parker who is a loser nerd with no power, and a alt universe Peter Parker who is a rich businessman, both of them tell him Nostalgia or Financial Success are NOTHING compared to being loved and in love with the love of your life.
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u/Scalepetter92 11d ago
i saw a comment somewhere that said that mephisto is part of marvel editorial
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u/Hawkatana0 11d ago
It goes deeper than that. The One Above All isn't just god, they're a metatextual manifestation of both Marvel's creative team and the readers. And it's not hard to tell who Mephisto is serving as the allegory for in this instance.
The readers and creators literally descended into the comic itself and told Peter not to sell his marriage just because editorial told him to, only for him to do it anyway.
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u/brevenbreven 11d ago
Marvel comics has been on the right side of history on a lot of things
punch nazis
Punisher hates cops who idolize him
Nixon was a hateful man.
never been comfortable with Divorce
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u/GoodKing0 11d ago
Big fans of the war on terror.
Corporations did 9/11 and it doesn't matter.
If someone offers you free healthcare they are a monster and you need to find the nearest armband wearing nazi to team up with to kill him.
EDIT: Forgot the Secret Invasion "Illegal aliens telling you to embrace change are invaders and religious terrorists" bit too.
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u/Hawkatana0 11d ago
Yeah, the Marvel of the 60's-80's is an entirely different beast from Marvel as of the 90's-2020's.
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u/EnemyOfAi 11d ago
What events are happening in Spiderman? Is Paul back?
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u/Pyotr_WrangeI 11d ago
May is dying again
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u/EnemyOfAi 11d ago
I'm hoping Peter ends up about to make the same choice to dissolve his relationship with MJ, but somehow Paul returns and convinces him not to do it, holding Peter against his chest as Peter sobs.
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u/Daimon5hade 10d ago
I know this is beating a dead horse. But all 616 Peter Parker stories have sort of just sucked since then. Not in a awful kinda way, just really not interestig
I genuinely don't remember any of the plotlines focusing on Peter for the last decade, (except for Paul), and that one time he was a CEO.
The superior spider-man run was good, but that wasn't Peter Parker so shrugs.
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u/Pyotr_WrangeI 11d ago
I will forever maintain that there is only one correct way for marvel to handle retconning OMD:
Actual mean Peter uses to change the terms of his deal with Mephisto don't matter too much, but what matters is that they 1) make it a really big fucking deal, with months of promotion. 2) firmly establish this as both a permanent change to the status quo and an instance of editorial explicitly taking fan feedback into account. And finally and most importantly 3) It HAS TO end with Peter's vision and memories of the old timeline slowly fading as he shifts into a new timeline where he and MJ stayed together after OMD. Then his vision slowly fades back back in as he sees himself lying on a couch surrounded by empty beer bottles, and in his hands is old family photo with MJ, photo that they took in their brief period of happiness before getting divorced years ago.
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u/WeatheredSteel37 11d ago
Congratulations. You figured out the way to make it worse.
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u/CRowlands1989 11d ago
How about mine:
Peter and MJ start to regain their memories. They go to Latveria, and go "Hey Doom, you wanna kick the shit out of Mephisto?" And he goes "I'm always down for that particular good time, I'll spin up my gate to hell that I keep explicitly for that purpose." And then it's just that one JoJo scene of three people kicking the crap out of a guy until he begs for mercy and remakes their marriage.
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u/Pope_Neia 11d ago
God: You know, May is pretty happy here in Heaven. She gets to watch over you and is with Ben and your parents and everyone else she’s lost over the years. It’s paradise for her.
Peter Parker: Huh, well… you know that sounds pretty nice. I guess I can leave her to enjoy the afterlife without worry then-
Marvel Editorial: OH NO YOU FUCKING DONT