“Brand New Day” Review
“Brand New Day” - Amazing Spider-Man #546
Do you remember the comics with serialized stories with subplots that were allowed to simmer on the back burner? Remember when a cast of characters surrounded the main character lending verisimilitude to the flashy world of hair-raising slugfests with brightly colored villains?
Maybe your comics were always of the four to six-issue story arc, but you probably enjoy TV series like Lost or Heroes or How I Met Your Mother or Entourage. These shows work because of the large cast of interesting characters and their continuing story-lines that bring you back week after week.
Are you a Spider-Man fan? Chances are you identify with Peter Parker. Stan Lee, Bill Mantlo, Roger Stern, Tom DeFalco, David Michelinie and others told exciting “Spidey vs. Bad Guy†stories, but more importantly, they told great Peter Parker stories. Peter is a real guy with real interpersonal relationships and with real problems. When you read about the “real guy”, it is easier to identify with him and cheer him on when he pulls on the mask.
Some folks are up in arms about how “One More Day†in Amazing Spider-Man (ASM) #543-545 was a lousy story that ripped away years of Spidey stories. Yes, it was a lousy story whose sole purpose was to weakly justify hitting the “reset†button on Spidey’s life. If the result is that we are going to get a nearly weekly serial with a tone and quality found in ASM #546: so be it.
ASM’s new editor is Steve Wacker who was the editor of DC’s 52 experiment. Wacker’s experience with 52 series really shows in ASM. He and Marvel have put together a team of rotating class ‘A’ creators to tell compelling continuing stories about a well-rounded characters.
Marvel and Wacker ‘get’ Spider-Man just as Sam Raimi and company ‘get’ him. Spidey is a loner, an outsider. He is the hard luck Peter Parker. Pete is smart, funny, and happy in spite of his troubles. He may brood a little, but he doesn’t wallow in angst for long. Peter has friends that he interacts with more than just popping by between Spider-action. The friends are more than props—they actually have their own stories.
ASM #546 revives the character and the series without dumping everything. I have been reading this series for close to 25 years since right after Mary Jane returned after a 4-year absence. In the last quarter century I have read most of what came before in reprints and back issues. “Brand New Day†refreshes ASM without going totally back to basics as in Ultimate Spider-Man. Peter is not suddenly a teenager, he seems to be between 25 and 28 (just like he was before, but now he acts it). Most of the stuff since the marriage to Mary Jane is intact and some mistakes have been put right. He’s still had the same adventures, been an Avenger, held a teaching position, etc.
What’s gone? Well, his marriage to Mary Jane Watson of course. Did readers enjoy that element so much? Seems to me MJ got lost a few years after becoming a Parker. She became a prop. It would have been better if she had been a kidnap victim every other issue, at least she would have had something to do. Face it, Tiger, Mary Jane’s character stagnated.
What else is gone? “The Other†and the secret identity reveal. J. Michael Straczinski had an interesting run and I admire his willingness to take chances with a flagship character, but “The Other†did a disservice to Spider-Man. [Spoiler Warning] Spider-Man dies and comes back in a new body? His new powers include spikes that pop out of arms? He kills a villain with the spikes? [End Spoiler] This clearly had to go away. During Marvel’s Civil War, Peter was duped into publicly revealing his identity. That could have worked, especially in the context of the post-Civil War Marvel Universe. But it does not fit the package Marvel’s put together.
What remains and what have they brought back? Well, what remains is that new package: classic Spider-Man plus. This means the Spider-Man that everyone knows. Red and blue costume with web-shooters; JJJ and the Daily Bugle; Aunt May; a single, young, photo-snapping, Peter who lives in a realistic New York City. The “plus†is the experiences that really have not been taken away as some critics claim.
What else is back? Well, besides putting the “Peter†back in, and the importance of supporting characters returning, there is the change in storytelling—all of which I mentioned before. But did I stress that the comic was meatier and took longer to read? The older comics had more content and that has returned. Thought balloons are back (and not in the way that Bendis did it in Mighty Avengers, more like the old style). More story, closer attention to character, character insights, more to read—all add up to a more satisfied reader.
Not that ASM #546 was perfect, but I’ll let other critics pick the nits. I have been waiting for someone to write a Peter Parker story again. This issue had style and substance with a feel that should appeal to long-time fans as well as new readers (even those new to comics, even women!). Pete’s back, let’s hope subsequent issues continue this way.
Check out Spidey’s new status quo from Marvel.com.
January 15th, 2008 at 2:26 am
So in order for superheroes to be interesting, Joe Quesada believes that they have to be single. And he dumps this ludicrous storyline on us to keep Peter and Mary Jane apart.
January 15th, 2008 at 9:46 am
The way that the marriage was deleted and the fact that it was deleted may be ludicrous–I don’t necessarily disagree. This review is for “Brand New Day” and not “One More Day” (the Quesada-penned story where the marriage was erased). ASM #546, the first issue of the new status quo, is actually quite good.
Spider-Man writers had 20 years to make a married Peter Parker interesting. IMO, Peter and MJ being married was not intrinsic to telling a good Spidey story. The marriage is gone, it was done in a dumb way, but Joe was going to get his way, and now there is no messy divorce and MJ is alive and can be a viable character.
It happened. Everything is different. If you like Spider-Man, there is no reason why you shouldn’t read “Brand New Day”. It’s good Spider-Man–trust me.
January 16th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Find out the truth about the split-up by reading, MJ’s Top 5 Complaints About Spider-Man Revealed!
January 18th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
I wasn’t a huge spider-man fan until peter parker became a married man and until he started having the same problems I was having. The Other was a masterpiece that has now been scrapped to reset the marvel franchise, and I am incredibly sad.
Brand New Day is a new day, it the new day that ends my Spider-Man fandom!
January 18th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
OK, “Chris”–or should I call you “JMS”? How cool is it that Mr. Straczinski himself would visit our humble site to defend “The Other”? Seriously, I’m pretty sure that story was going to quietly be forgotten with or without this reset.
Again, this review is a recommendation for “Brand New Day” and not a defense of the truly bad “One More Day”. It seems there is some confusion. Read the new stuff before you decide to throw Spidey out with the bath water.
Now, if you say “Sins Past” was a tour de force, I’ll know you’re JMS…
January 20th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
I did read the new comic. I ripped it in half. All the interweaving with the Avengers and X-Men for Spidey has been lost and this traumatic treatment of my once favorite hero is unacceptable.
January 21st, 2008 at 11:04 am
OK, you didn’t like “Brand New Day”. I did. You ripped yours in half, I bought another to give away. Some others, it seems like even many initial naysayers, like ASM #546 and now ASM #547. And I’m not going to continue to defend the book to over and over, but…
“trau·mat·ic adj
1. extremely distressing, frightening, or shocking, and sometimes having long-term psychological effects
Encarta® World English Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.”
Besides what happens to JJJ, nothing in ASM #546 approaches “traumatic”. But what about Spidey before “Brand New Day”? (And keep in mind that I have been reading ASM continually for close to 25 years, so I’m a fan.) [Spoiler Warning] In “Back In Black” Aunt May get shot by a sniper, Spider-Man goes around threatening everyone in his path before breaking in to prison to beat the snot out of the Kingpin. Then he tells the Kingpin that if May dies, he will come back to kill the Kingpin. In “The Other” Peter gets murdered, comes back from the dead in a different body after spiders eat his old body, and kills a bad guy with a spike that protrudes from his wrist. [End Spoiler Warning] Now that comes close to being traumatic, and not real Spidey.
Everyone’s entitled to his opinion. Chris has opinions about other stuff at http://www.angelfire.com/md/stgenerations.
Thanks for taking the time to read my review.
January 21st, 2008 at 6:55 pm
What I am trying to say is all the built up stories, years and years of stories gone. That’s traumatic.
January 21st, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Not as traumatic as you might think. Break out the Scotch tape on that comic and you’ll find mention of those stories not being erased totally.
Anybody else enjoying this back and forth or should Chris and I be IMing each other?
April 10th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Hi. I am a huge spidey fan since the age of 7. That means some 20 years. Well I am really disappointed about the Brand new Day/One more Day change. It’s like a second Clone Saga to me. Sorry but after 6 years of Straczinsky’s work this is insane. Just to reset all the interesting stuff that helped spidey to evolve? This what made spidey much interesting when compared to superman, batman and other dumb characters which stay the same all the time. I don’t want to read about the same stuff for next 40 years about 25 years old single Peter Parker with issues and no money. Sorry, this is a absolutely horrible concet. Evolve or Die, that’s it. Hero who stays the smae for 80 years (hi SUperman) is stupid and boring. I hope that Marvel changes it’s mind.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Craig Schutt, Mr. Silver Age/Comic Buyer’s Guide columnist said in his forum on CBGXtra.com:
“Watching a character for many years and seeing the same situations arise becomes the real problem with these characters who have been around for so long. We like MJ and Peter and we want to see them overcome their struggles and be together happily. But once that happens, so much drama has left their story that it’s far less compelling–and that part of the story also has been told for succeeding generations, too.
Charles Schulz got tired of watching Charlie Brown go up to the plate in the bottom of the ninth and strike out, so he finally let him hit a home run in 1993 and win the game. But the next time that Charlie Brown strode to the plate in the bottom of the ninth with the game on the line, it was no longer a boy persevering in the face of inevitable failure and never giving up, it was a boy working on his batting average. Blah.”
Comments on a related subject on Mike Manley’s http://drawman.blogspot.com/ said:
“I’m 40-something and aging all the time. But I don’t want my heroes to get decrepit (and embittered) along with me. I remember being 10 and having a whole spinner rack of super-hero (and other types) of comic books available to me–all pretty much geared toward my age group.”
And:
“It needs fresh young readers who will pick up a comic and not just go see a Batman movie or play with a toy. We have to entice and grab them at a young age (around 3-5 years old) with the wonderment of all these characters so that they’ll be inspired to go pick up comics and hopefully read them and appreciate the art of sequential storytelling. This is why Spider-man is having a “Brand New Day”. They have to place Spidey in a way so that he lasts as a brand. The majority of the ones upset over “One More Day” were all in their 30s who’ve been reading Spider-man for decades. I’ve got news for you. You’ve outgrown Spider-man, he hasn’t outgrown you.”