If the first installment of One More Day left you feeling a little disappointed, then I don’t know what to tell you about what Marvel is calling the most important story of the year. Maybe the folks over at the house of ideas live in a vacuum, or we’re all missing something very important so far. In all fairness, this issue didn’t fail to deliver; it’s just that I’m not sure I can identify exactly what was delivered. I’ll take you through the second part of the story and break it down as best I can.
Oh no! I get to feel useless again?!?!?
This issue is still very much about Peter dealing with the death of Aunt May, if not for the variant cover and the backup story Mary Jane would be missing from this issue entirely. The book opens with Peter hitting up Dr. Strange for help with his Aunt. Naturally, the sorcerer supreme of the universe, a man capable of traveling between dimensions and preserving the natural order of things while battling evil creatures that threaten the realm, so of course a gunshot wound to the guts is a bit outside the most powerful mortal in the galaxies expertise. Aside from that, something else interesting (by interesting I mean confusing) took place while Peter talked with Strange.
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I really have to go Marty-- oh! I mean... Peter!
Peter gets all mixed up with Dr. Strange’s magical whoo-do and winds replaying a scene from ‘Back to the Future’, which is nothing new for comics frankly. My best guess is that the sequence was supposed to generate an, “Ah, now I get it.” Moment, but instead it got a, “Huh?!?” instead. Way back when Amazing Spider-Man was using the new volume numbering system, Peter goes to Dr. Strange to request help, apparently future Peter Parker is in the next room recovering from his time travel experiences. The whole sequence seems like a pointless waste of time.
Is that?!?! Alright, this book just got stupid!
The whole issue takes place in basically one sequence between Peter and Steven Strange, and for issues straight leaves you wondering what Straczynski is waiting for. There is a point where Peter is forced to experience the shooting of Aunt May all over again, but it’s barely developed and only adds to the sensation that my time is being wasted. In the end, One More Day is very disappointing considering that it’s a four issue series and has not developed very much by the mid-point. While there is a peculiar cliffhanger at the end of the issue, in the final analysis One More Day is a one shot that Marvel decided to break into four issue’s with the express desire to sell books, which really sucks.
