Freak Comics

One More Day, at it’s roots is a simple story: Aunt May is on the verge of death, Peter Parker is trying to find a way to save her, but keeps running in to dead ends. The background behind One More Day is a bit more complicated.

A War and a Bullet

Months ago, there was a super-hero civil war. The government wanted all super-powered humans to register their identities and become government workers, or retire. If the individuals complied, they would go on saving the day under government direction. They would receive training, and a salary. If they refused to register, they would be banished to a holding facility.

Some registered, some rebelled. Spider-Man was convinced by Tony Stark not only to register, but to reveal his identity to the world on television. Immediately following this, the King Pin put out a hit on Peter Parker, and / or Mary Jane and Aunt May.
Meanwhile Spider-Man switched sides and went in to hiding with Aunt May and Mary Jane.
At the end of the Civil War, Aunt May wound up taking a sniper bullet in the chest. Being that she’s incredibly old and frail, this now has her at death’s door. Meanwhile Peter felt responsible and donned his black costume (just in time for Spider-Man 3) and set out to prove a point. What that point was, I’m still not really sure.

All of this brings us to the One More Day 4 part series in which Peter Parker has recently come to the realization that there is no saving Aunt May… that is unless he makes a deal with the Marvel Universe’s Devil, Mephisto.

The Devil’s Deal

Mephisto has offered Peter and Mary Jane the life of Aunt May (a life he claims only he can save) in exchange for the abolishment of their marriage.

Peter Parker instantly rejects the deal, but Mary Jane wants to think it over.
At this point, if I’m Peter Parker, I’ve got to be feeling a little less-loved than before. Here his wife is actually willing to say “I Don’t” in exchange for the prolonged life of his living-mummy of an Aunt.
As Mephisto goes on to explain, taking this deal means the two will have no memory of their marriage what-so-ever. And what, prey-tell does the vile Mephisto get out of the deal?

… there will be a very small part of your soul that will remember, that will know what you lost. And my joy will be in listening to that part of your soul screaming throughout eternity.”

So Mephisto gets to listen to the screaming souls of Spider-Man and Mary Jane throughout eternity… I’d say everyone but Aunt May is a loser in this deal.

Final Thoughts

Most of this comic involved Peter parker in his Spider-Man costume with the mask up, (he’s been doing that a lot lately) conversing with alternate versions of himself in visions brought on by Mephisto. All in all One More Day has been pretty boring, although the idea of splitting the two love birds up is a slightly more inventive idea than killing off a character only to bring them to life later on.
And yet, I’d be willing to put money on Spider-Man and Mary Jane being reunited at some point.

No, I’d much rather see Aunt May dead. I really hate her.

Everyone is talking about Marvel’s online subscription based comic book service, Digital Comics Unlimited which launched on the 13 of November.

Offering an online subscription to older comics seems like a cool idea, but it is not something I am particularly interested in. I would much rather own the comic, whether in digital format or physical. For that matter I much prefer a physical copy. Call me outdated but reading a comic book online just doesn’t have the same feel.

I find it rather amusing that one of Marvel’s Digital Comics selling points states:

No need to download—read them directly through your web browser

That’s really more of a limitation than a feature. I’d venture to say that every subscriber would rather download the comic.

Marvel did work-in some pretty cool features to it’s Flash based comic book reader. For instance, you can click the magnifying glass icon in order to zoom in on word balloons. You can also zoom in on the page like a PDF, from there you can click and drag the screen in order to move around the page. Nothing particularly revolutionary in that feature, but it is worth mentioning that the images are large and the colors are vibrant. In other words, the comic is high quality.

You can preview pages of several comic books before deciding to pay for a subscription. Unfortunately their library is not complete at this time, however it will continue to grow.

The main area I can see this service coming in handy is research. There are times I would like to take a look at some older comics, but I really don’t want to shell out the cash to purchase an original copy, and don’t need an entire collected volume, or the collected volume is unavailable.
Even so, much like books, I would rather have a physical copy. You just can’t beat holding a comic in your hands. Reading feels less rushed with a physical copy… you also don’t have a reoccurring monthly fee when you go that route.

Marvel offers two types of subscriptions:

• $4.99/Month Annual Subscription ( billed as one payment of $59.88 )
• $9.99/Month Monthly Subscription ( billed monthly )

$9.99 a month seems a little steep to me, but time will tell how others feel.