Spider-Man: How you'd reboot OMD

[paulpogue]

Time to channel your inner Jesse Baker! Jim Shooter from 1983 has travelled forward in time and taken over Marvel, hiring Tom DeFalco 1986 as his assistant editor. And the guy who demanded the ending of the Phoenix Saga be rewritten has looked at the lay of the land and said, "Wait, what, Spider-Man, deal with the devil, WHAT?" And he has decreed that it is to no longer be.

For some godawful reason, they have chosen YOU to fix things. The directive is simple: Repair Spider-Man. Undo One More Day.

You've got free reign to work out the details. Want to have Peter and MJ split up in the end and actually more or less get to the Brand New Day status quo? You got it. Want to make it all Judas Traveller's fault? John Romita Jr. has his pencil at the ready.

About the only directive is that OMD has to be RESOLVED in some manner -- in other words, everything that we saw on-panel in One More Day actually happened. You can't just have Peter wake up next to MJ and say "Wow, that was a pretty awful nightmare." The whole deal-with-Mephisto business has to be directly addressed. Whether you make it the greatest scam of all time or that Mephisto was Loki in disguise is, again, up to you. Fanfic away!

I have some thoughts I'll post later on, once they're a bit more coherent. I almost just responded to Kirk's other thread with them, but I didn't want to derail the purity of his whole "how to fix Spidey WITHOUT undoing OMD" approach .

[jarddavis]

Bearing in mind that I have not read an issue of Spider-Man since World War Hulk came out.

May Parker starts having nightmares. And over the course of, say, four issues, she occasionally mentions them to Peter. "I didn't sleep well last night." She's also unusually short tempered with him. He finally starts trying to figure out why. She's not sure. The only thing she can tell him is that she has this deep nagging feeling that "she shouldn't be here."

All the while, Peter has a few issues where he lives his life, stops a super-villain or two, cracks a few one liners, and each time, manages to see a naggingly familiar form, at a distance, wearing a heavy coat, baseball cap. It's an elderly male, but there's something not quite right about the whole thing. Like the figure doesn't belong. But it's not setting off the old Spidy sense.

Meanwhile, Reed Richards is noticing an odd temporal anomoloy moving through New York. It comes and goes. Sometimes moving ffast, sometimes moving slow.

All of these are sub plots. Along comes Doctor Voodoo to pay a visit to Peter. He lets him know that there are mystic signs and omens all over. And they all center on Peter. "You did something you shouldn't have done. You upset the natural order. But I don't know what. We must consult Doctor Strange. "

Both Voodoo and Spidey travel to the Himalayas where they consult Strange in regards to the issues surrounding Peter, only to find Richards there as well. Consulting. And, surprisingly, Doom. Because something has evolved around Peter. An anomoly. And it's causing breaks in time and space. Something that both Doom and Richards will put aside their difference for as it could become catastrophic to the world. Said break occurs, Dormamu appears, Doom, Richards, Voodoo Strange and Spidey team up to stop him. Richards wants to do more research, Voodoo wants to get him away from the Himalayas where Dimensional Breaches are easier due to the proximity of Strange.

Back in New York, Peter decides that while the others research, he's going to head home for awhile, and whil check back with them the next day. Despite their reluctance, he forces the issue, and heads home. He goes to May Parker's house first to do a quick job for her and when he enters and yells hello, it's not May Parker who greets him, but Ben Parker.

Ben is the one that explains to him that Peter made a decision. And it was the wrong one. He should have kept his marriage and let May go, as it was her time. It's causing problems, and that it's time to fix things. But the choice, is once again, up to Peter.

Ben gives all of Peter's memories back of the marriage. And of May getting shot.

Peter is faced with the dilemma. Let May die, and live his life out with his wife, or let her live, lose MJ forever. Peter's completely torn. How can he make that decision?

And in the end, it's May and Ben both who explain to him that May has come to the end of her life. Wether it happend with a bullet, or heart failure, it's going to happen. And that what she wants, is for Peter to bewith the woman he loves, so that he too can experience the type of life together that she and Ben have had. That's part of the natural order.

Mephisto shows up, and Peter spends time trying to stop him from destroying his Aunt and Uncle. Voodoo, Strange, Richards and Doom show up and manage to hold back Mephsto together all the while telling Peter that there is no more time. He either makes the choice now, or Mephisto kills them all, including Ben and May.

May tells him that it's okay. The whole to every season speech, and that she loves him.

Peter makes his choice.

Cut to a Graveyard.

Peter is standing next to his the grave site of his Parents, and Ben and May.

A hand lands on his shoulder. It's MJ. They're both weeping as they hold on to each other. And they tell each other that they love each other dearly.

The following stories would discover that for some reason, no one remembers Peter is Spider-Man, and he doesn't have the extra powers either.

[Mario Di Giacomo]

My approach would be based on the question "How did Mephisto benefit?"

He's not the sort to mess around with one soul, unless it's a particularly potent one. And let's be fair here, Peter's a great guy, but he's not that pure. So he must have an agenda.

So let's give him one. Mephisto didn't want to break up the marriage. He wanted to stop them from having a daughter.

Because, in a little known prophecy carved in the walls of a temple in Siberia, it is written that the Red King will strive against the child of the Spider. And the King will be dethroned forever.

In order to prevent this outcome, he convinced Peter to give up his happiness, and hence his future. In a particularly malicious twist, Mephisto even included a vision of his foe-to-come.

But messing around with time is tricky, and potential futures have a tendency to have real impacts.

And on the Day Of Truth, Peter will meet Spider-Girl. And together, they will make history.

(The details aren't critical, but I figure that we can discover that May would have survived after all, albeit somewhat weaker. She ends up joining Jarvis as the caretakers of the Infinite Mansion)

How's that?

[paulpogue]

Mario: Hah. Yours isn't that far afield from mine .

[Mario Di Giacomo]

I must confess the youngest Pogue was part of my inspiration (with just a soupçon of Terminator, and a few other things) ;D

[paulpogue]

So I've finally gotten around to getting some quiet time, which is amazingly scarce given Armand's situation, but I've had some fun writing up my outline, which has evolved from "fun outline" to "full-on fanfic about how I'd do it." But what the hell; I'm gonna have fun with it and post it as it goes. So, Stan Lee proudly presents:

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: NO MORE DAYS

(THE BLIND SEER leans over the pool, tracing a finger in the water as circles overlapped, creating wave after infinite wave of interaction. Nearby, LOKI stands, deep in thought, hands clasped behing his back.)

THE BLIND SEER: Why does he fascinate you so, Loki Laufeyson? Why does this … Man-Spider … warrant so much of your attention?

LOKI: You wish truth, Seer? From me?

SEER: If not for you, then for yourself. After all that has happened, you deserve at least that. Your intervention made so much difference, after all.

LOKI: Ha. Your words hold wisdom, Seer. Let me tell you how it began …

(Our story begins around Spider-Man #650, after a short-term plotline where Spidey and Jackpot fight side-by-side and Jackpot keeps dropping mysterious hints that maybe she’s not who she seems to be. Finally they end up on a rooftop arguing.)

SPIDER-MAN: You’re not that actress, Sarah whatsername – you’re far too experienced to be the newcomer you claim to be. Who are you, really?

JACKPOT: That means a lot to me, you know. That was the hardest part – appearing like a failure. To have you look at me that way, as if I had no idea what I was doing, as if you were disappointed in my heroism. That hurt. That was the hardest part. But it was necessary. I had to get close to you and have you never, ever suspect. The red hair kept you off guard at first. Then that little game with Sarah Ehret and that girl from the Initiative – that totally threw you off. That felt kind of weird, actually, but it wasn’t my idea. One of my partners, who’s a bit too clever for his own good. Runs in his blood, I guess.

SPIDER-MAN: Okay, now that you’ve had all this time to play melodrama, are you gonna clue the “me” part of “we” into what’s going on?

JACKPOT: (Takes up a stance we’ve seen a lot from Mary-Jane in the past, that whole I-am-NOT-taking-any-crap-this-time look) I suppose it’s time, now that it’s all going down. You’re not gonna like it, but you’re going to save the world. Actually, you already have, but it’s time to finish the job. And as for me … There is no Jackpot. (To her left, a red wig falls to the ground.) There is no Sarah Ehret. (A mask falls to the ground.) There never WAS.)

[FULL PAGE SPLASH! She stands there holding the discarded Jackpot outfit, never mind how she changed so fast, it’s comics, proud and a little defiant and a little scared, lithe and agile and wearing a costume once worn by Ben Reilly …]

SPIDER-GIRL: My name is May “Mayday” Parker, and I’m the daughter of the one true Spider-Man. [Closeup at page bottom for the sting and cutaway, right in on her narrowed eyes.] And you’re NOT him.

TO BE CONTINUED, TRUE BELIEVERS!

[jbhelfrich]

Mar 10, 2010 17:35:24 GMT -8 paulpogue said:

So I've finally gotten around to getting some quiet time, which is amazingly scarce given Armand's situation

Not to derail the thread, but what is his situation? The Caring Bridge page hasn't been updated since January.

[paulpogue]

Sorry about that; we tend to put most of our updates on Facebook, and there's been little actual chance since January. I'll make some effort to keep Caringbridge updated as well.

He's doing very well; we started antibody therapy in January and we'll continue through June. It's a potent experimental treatment that acts as a "vaccine" against future cancers. I put vaccine in quotes because most vaccines don't take seven weeks of ICU treatment and tons of morphine to address the pain problem. The antibodies basically supercharge the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells in the future. The downside they haven't worked out how to avoid yet is that the antibodies also attack nerve cells at first, so the first few months are very uncomfortable, hence the morphine.

The cancer itself is nearly gone, except for those free-floating molecules, which the antibodies should take care of. We're actually completely done with standard cancer treatment; chemo is over with, as well as the 20 days of radiation. The antibodies are a new experimental approach; he's one of the first 200 children to receive it.

Once we're through with the antibodies, and we manage to get his immune system back online (it's still quite weak), this is essentially over . That's months away, but given that cancer can sometimes take years and years to cure, I can handle that .

[Anders]

Regarding seers in Norse mythology, you have three obvious choices:

1) Odin. The reason he has only one eye is that he dropped on into the well of wisdom which grants knowledge of all that happens and will happen.

2) Mimir, the guardian of said well who drinks from it every day. Later Odin carries around his decapitated head which whispers secret advice to him.

3) The Norns, the guardians of fate.

[jbhelfrich]

Mar 11, 2010 10:13:20 GMT -8 paulpogue said:

Sorry about that; we tend to put most of our updates on Facebook,

Eww, Facebook.

Glad to hear all's going well.

[Mario Di Giacomo]

If you prefer someone a bit more villainous, there's also Volla, the spaewife.

There's also Angerboda, who has the advantage of being Loki's mistress (of sorts)

[K-Box]

I'll send some positive vibes his way, Paul.

[paulpogue]

Thanks a lot, Anders and Mario. Your advice has been ... highly useful. Actually, the solution you led me to makes so much damned sense it's impossible to believe this story could have worked without it .

[paulpogue]

(This is probably going to be very long and meandering and it's pretty much complete fanfic at this point, but screw it -- it amuses me to write it, and this is as good a place as anything to do something with it.)

FLASHBACK: Mephisto taunts Peter and Mary Jane just before his grand rewinding of time, with the face of an impossible child: “I’m the child you will never have … and now I will never be …”

NEW YORK CITY. ROOFTOP. RIGHT FRAKKING NOW.

SPIDER-MAN: What … how … what do you mean, I’m NOT HIM?

SPIDER-GIRL: Exactly what it sounds like. You’re a hiccup. A glitch in time. You’re an immature man-child who refuses to grow up and face what responsibility really IS. You’re everything I was raised not to be. You’re everything my father struggled against in himself.

SPIDER-MAN: Now wait just a minute here …

SPIDER-GIRL: Shut up. Just shut. Up. All you’ve ever done since Mephisto is feel sorry for yourself and sit and take all the abuse everyone from Jonah Jameson to your aunt’s evil self dishes out because it makes you feel so damned special to be the forever down-on-his-luck Peter Parker. Well, now you’re gonna take it from me for a few minutes. Because you’re a failure on every level. You’re a failure as a husband, a father and a hero.

SPIDER-MAN: A father? I don’t even have a – oww … [Clutches at his head as the spider-sense symbols go berserk.] … Mephisto? The HELL?

SPIDER-GIRL: Starting to feel it now, are you? Spider-sense out of whack as if the entire world is the threat against you? Now maybe you’re getting a sense of what we’re getting into here. Because the entire world IS the threat. Everything’s a danger because it’s all a bullet aimed right at you. And it’ll always stay that way. Never actually killing you, but always grinding down and making you less and less of a man and a hero until there’s nothing left resembling what you used to be. Because you’re weak and useless and an easy target … [Her expression softens a bit.] … Exactly like you wanted them to think all along.

CUT TO: THE ISLE OF SILENCE, Asgardian place of exile where time does not exist. LOKI and the SEER pace endlessly. `
LOKI: He always turned his weaknesses into strengths. This is why I found Spider-Man so interesting. He attacks his enemies with words and cleverness; sometimes the fight is won before he throws his first punch. He is unpredictable and chaotic. But that is not his greatest talent. Here is truth, Seer: I would sooner fight my irksome brother, unarmed, to the death, than engage the Spider-Man directly. I would have a better chance. Why do you think that every time I fought him, I used surrogates? He is the living spirit of victory, the indomitability of humanity. He falls back, oh yes, he falls back, he fails, he may not win out right, but he falls down and he gets back up and he never, ever loses. He battled Firelord and won. Consider that, Seer. A Galactian herald. Planets tremble at his approach. Worlds break at his touch. And Spider-Man pounded him into the ground.

In retrospect, Mephisto was much less clever than he thought, if he honestly believed that a plan that centered on Spider-Man giving up was going to turn out in his favor.

The Avengers have their trinity: Thor, Captain America, Iron Man. And this trinity has its own Other, and its Other is Spider-Man. They represent strength through unity, victory through teamwork. His is the strength of one who fights alone. In this way, Seer, Spider-Man and I are very alike. He may have allies, he may join others, but in the end, Spider-Man is always alone. He has no one he can count on. Just like Loki.

THE SEER: But of course. Just like Loki.

LOKI (If he notices the Seer’s mild sarcasm, he gives no hint of it): He was different, this Man of Spiders. The heroes were gods walking the earth, some of them literally. They lived in mansions and skyscrapers and were treated as royal celebrities. They weren’t they to show people what they could aspire to be; they were there to remind the rabble what they COULDN’T HAVE. Even their greatest and most human icon, Captain America, was a measure that none could live up to. And then Spider-Man came along.

Captain America is how the heroes would like to believe they could become. Spider-Man is what they all know they ARE. Perhaps that is why I found so much kinship with him; we both know what it is like to live a difficult path, even if we have perhaps chosen different responses.

And so, Seer, if you want to destroy heroes, you must first destroy heroism. And if you wish to destroy heroism, you must destroy the Amazing Spider-Man …

THE ROOFTOP:

SPIDER-MAN: Okay, young lady, let’s assume for a moment I trust you, which I’m not sure I do, and let’s even assume I believe you, which I’m sure I don’t. How do you even know any of this?

SPIDER-GIRL: Oh, that part’s easy. YOU told me.

[Anders]

Very, very nice, Paul! Well done.

However, if you didn't mean to compare Spidey to Satan maybe you should clarify the bit about the Trinity and the Other, because that's the only thing I get out of that part and it seems a bit off.