One More Day/Fridge
Fridge Brilliance
- One More Day: Yes, even though it was clearly contrived by the writers to get rid of the marriage (and therefore probably unintentional that it's there), Mephisto's "no soul" deal made sense-what happens every time he takes a hero's soul? A) Other heroes get it back, or B), Like with "pure" characters such as The Mighty Thor or the Silver Surfer (and maybe Spider-Man had that deal been made instead) he can't take the soul anyway because it's so pure it burns. He would have lost.
- More Brilliance: He's semi-corrupted Spider-Man now. Spider-Man's soul is no longer pure, and Mephisto can get him next time...
- There was a moment of Brilliance for me regarding One More Day, of all things. Taking out the Deal with the Devil and 'magic retcon' thing, the Sadistic Choice presented is MJ (Spidey's future) or Aunt May (his past). The clincher is that it's his past, namely the death of Uncle Ben, that made him who he is. The whole 'power-responsibility' schtick pretty much mandates that Peter always be beholden to his origin...he'll always carry the guilt around of inadvertently letting Uncle Ben die. Aunt May pretty much exists to remind him of that. Is choosing to cling to the failures of his past healthy, or mentally sound? No. Is it consistent with the psychology of someone who was deeply traumatized by the previous untimely death of a family member? That's a dicier question. Please note that I'm in no way defending the horrid plot, I just had an epiphany regarding Peter's mindset behind making the choice he did. ~Ingonyama
- Although a bit of a meta example, while reading the 25th anniversary issue of Self-Parody series Spider-Ham, you'll notice the animal version of MJ is Mary Crane Watson, but one page later, among the heads showing characters in the Spider-Ham universe ("Larval Earth" or "Earth-8311", for those curious), you get to see former MJ counterpart Mary Jane Waterbuffalo. Then you remember One More Day and you remember the reason for such a change.
- It gets better. MJ's looks since OMD have changed to be more overweight, in an attempt by Quesada to keep people from liking her.
- ...someone needs to have a conversation about what constitutes "overweight". Whether it's the artists or the people drawing the above conclusion is unclear.
- It gets better. MJ's looks since OMD have changed to be more overweight, in an attempt by Quesada to keep people from liking her.
Fridge Horror
- Mephisto's Motive Rant contains a bit about how Peter's marriage was "blessed in the eyes of Him" or some other pseudo-religious wording, and it would be a sweet victory for Mephisto to successfully steal something from the One-Above-All. Which, y'know, makes sense: he's basically Satan. The problem? The One-Above-All is, according to supposed canon, not just an Expy or Captain Ersatz of the Abrahamic God but actually the same literal person in a different universe. And Mephisto's plan to steal Spidey's marriage from him succeeds. He didn't just one-up the God of his universe; he one-upped the God of ours. Joe Quesada has created a comic that gives Christian/Jewish/vaguely-non-denominational-borderline-monotheistic children everywhere in Real Life the message "your God is fallible and can be beaten by a comic-book villain from another universe". And, despite living in a world where political correctness and cultural sensitivity are more common than ever so far he's more-or-less got away with that.
- Likely because everyone's focus was on the bad choice of Peter and Mary Jane as well as the moral and logical failings of OMD and its fallout without even mentioning the insultingly anti-God undertone of the outcome. This might put us back into Fridge Brilliance territory, or simply be a little less horrible, because as most understandings have it, God allows humans to choose whether to accept Him and His blessings or the alternative consequences. It's less "your God is fallible", and more "anyone you look up to may choose Satan over God".
- Of course, it could be considered a subversion since Mephisto's terrifying victory over God is....breaking up the marriage of two comic book characters. Temporarily. As diabolical schemes go that is....lame. Really lame. Especially since, according to [OMIT], it didn't even work. One would think the millions of souls he has ensnared into Hell or the countless lives he has ended or ruined would be more offensive to the Almighty...but nope. It's an annulment.
- But maybe that's the key. Note that this is the only time Mephisto has shown Reality Warper level powers of this extent. Never before, never since thus far. Also, the main overall effect of all these changes is that years' worth of both power and character development have been taken away from Peter. Furthermore, Peter and MJ's unborn/future child was killed off by the deal as well; there go the lives she would've saved over the years in the future. Think about it. What if Mephisto's entire point was to weaken Spider-Man as a hero in order to set him up for a path more likely to lead to personal ruin if not to Gehenna itself, and what if letting the red devil have this marriage of theirs which was apparently blessed by God is what gave him that power?