Comic Book Review
The writers handling Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, and other long-time comic book heroes that have become part of popular culture face a pretty daunting challenge: to keep the books fresh and moving forward, while also keeping those characters relatively unchanged so that new readers can identify them with what they have heard of or seen in movies. This has to be tough because, how do you allow a character to grow and change in order to remain relevant and interesting, while also making sure that they are still the person people remember from the cartoons they saw when they were a kid? Well, one of the tried and true tricks of the trade (There’s some carefully constructed, comic book-like alliteration for you!) is the reboot. This is where you allow a character to go through any number of changes over the course of months or years, and then use some device to set everything back to the way it was. Usually it comes off as hackneyed as it sounds and leaves the readers feeling cheated now that all the books they’ve bought, read, and collected for however long no longer matter or even really happened. But when it's done properly it can be a greatly entertaining story on its own while also leaving the audience with a sense of homecoming as their beloved hero is returned to their glory days.
Over the last couple of years, Spider-Man has gone through far more changes than most people are likely to be aware of. Did you know that it turns out there is some kind of spider god, and Peter is simply the latest in a long line of champions chosen by it? And that there’s also a wasp god with champions who are the spider’s sworn enemies? And that Peter was beaten to a pulp and had his eye ripped out, before actually dying? And then he chose to be reborn at the cost of part of his humanity, ripped out of his skin, made a cocoon, and finally reemerged with a more powerful Spider-Sense, organic webshooters (a la the films), and a couple of bone stinger things that pop out of his wrists in times of great peril like some sort of second-rate Wolverine? Did you know that a villain burned down Aunt May’s house so that she, Peter, and Mary Jane are all forced to live in Avengers tower, since Peter is a member of that august body? And that during the recent Civil War event he revealed his true identity to the whole world?
Yeah. I didn’t think so. And while all of that (primarily the work of writer J. Michael Straczynski) made for some great stories and fun reading, there was always a voice in the back of my head saying, “Uhh, this is enjoyable, but he’s going to put it all back right?” I like my characters to grow as much as the next guy, but spider gods and bone stingers? It’s good for a while, as long as you can get everything back in the box when you’re done.
And this is where One More Day comes in. After a super-villain uses the knowledge of Peter's identity to have a hit put on him, it's Aunt May that actually takes the bullet and whose life hangs in the balance. He desperately tries to find a way to save her life, but in the end there's only one way it can be done and that’s going to require a great sacrifice, one that will completely change his world and (conveniently) change the Spider-Man comics in a big way (i.e. rebooting them). I don’t want to give too much away here, so I’ll just say that all the pieces fit together pretty well. The offer will make sense to those who have followed the books for years, as well as newcomers, and everything is handled with care. At no point will you be under any illusions that this is anything other than what it is: a means to an end. But that being said, the end is something familiar and comforting, yet still exciting because it’s been such a long time since things stood where they do after all the dust settles. Straczynski had a great, long run and it’s really kind of a shame that he basically had to undo everything he’s done over the past few years and essentially turn it all into a dream sequence. But, if you’re going to do something like that, you have to go all the way, and One More Day does just that.
Suitable for kids?: Yeah, if they're old enough to understand it they’re old enough to read it. The emotional impact that long-time readers might have will be lost on them, but when’s the last time something wasn’t wasted on kids?
Rating: 4/5
No comments:
Post a Comment