Amazing Spider-Man #545
One More Day: Part 4
This story continues from Sensational Spider-Man (vol. 2) #41…
At the hospital, Aunt May's life support fails and she begins to flat-line, as doctors rush to see what’s going on. As this is happening, Mephisto’s words echo in Peter Parker’s mind. The demon can save Aunt May, but it will cost Peter and Mary Jane their marriage, telling them that they have until midnight to make up their minds.
Peter Parker wakes up alone in bed. He calls out to Mary Jane who has been throwing up in the bathroom. She tells Peter she’ll be all right she just has to wait until the nausea to pass. She also tells Peter not to touch her as she tries to process everything Mephisto is offering. Peter isn’t sure if Mephisto can save May, but they don’t have any other options. Mary Jane asks Peter to be honest with her and admits that she’s being selfish with what she is going to ask. She says that May has lived a good life and wonders if it’s time to let her go.[1] Peter has already thought of that, but looking at the blood on floor where she was shot, Peter can’t help but blame himself for what happened to her.[2] The idea of just letting her die would break him in two. Mary Jane takes offense to this, thinking that Peter would accuse her of making such a decision. However, he clarifies that he couldn’t let Aunt May alone if the decision was only his to make, but it’s a decision they have to make together. When Mary Jane asks how much time they have left, Peter tells her they have a little under twenty-four hours to make up their minds. Instead of spending it going over what is at stake, Peter and Mary Jane spend the entire day in each other’s arms not saying a single word. No matter how many times Peter tries to get her to talk about old times. Mary Jane eventually tells Peter that she’ll remember everything no matter what Mephisto does and nothing can take that away from her. When Peter asks Mary Jane to explain what she means, the bell begins to toll nad Mephisto appears before them.
When Peter asks Mephisto how this deal works, the demon tells Peter that he will alter reality so that Peter and Mary Jane have never been married. Clarifying what he means, he says that everything that has happened in the past will remain the same except that Peter and Mary Jane will have never gotten married. That’s when Mary Jane asks how this will prevent someone from going after May in the future. Mephisto admits that his motivation is that a romance like Peter and Mary Jane’s come by once a millennium and to break such a holy union would give him great pleasure. So great, he’s even willing to sweeten the deal and use his power to not only save May’s life but also erase all knowledge of Peter Parker’s secret identity from the world.
As the bell begins to chime, Mary Jane decides to accept Mephisto’s terms but also wants to add a few other conditions: That Peter’s life is put back the way it was and give him a chance of happiness.[5] When Mephisto asks what she has to offer, she whispers it into Mephisto’s ear so Peter can’t hear. With time running out, Peter is told to make the final decision. Mary Jane encourages Peter to be a hero and in frustration, he tells Mephisto to save May. That’s when Mephisto reveals that as a result, not only is Mephisto erasing their marriage from existence, but also preventing the daughter they were destined to have was never born. When Peter prepares to fight Mephisto, Mary Jane tells Peter not to bother, telling him that if they’re love for each other is as important as Mephisto makes it to be that no power in the universe will keep them apart together. As time runs out, Peter and Mary Jane profess their love for each other and kiss one last time. Everything then goes dark.
Peter Parker is woken up in bed alone by his alarm clock and discovers that he is late. Coming down from his bedroom in Aunt May’s house he stops in the kitchen long enough for Peter to give him breakfast and rides his bike into the city. He then arrives a penthouse apartment where Flash Thompson has organized a party. Peter is upset when he sees that Mary Jane was also invited. Flash apologizes, remembering that the pair recently broke up. That’s when the guest of honor, Harry Osborn, arrives and is welcome back home after an extended stay in Europe. As Mary Jane quietly leaves the party, Peter is introduced to Harry’s new girlfriend Lily Hollister and her friend Carlie Cooper. With all his friends gathered around, Harry thanks them all for the warm welcome and proposes a toast to a Brand New Day…
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson, Aunt May, Mephisto, Flash Thompson, Harry Osborn, Lily Hollister, Carlie Cooper
Continuity Notes
According to Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #2, Aunt May was about seventy at the time of that story. Per the Sliding Timescale there has been about a year that has passed between that story and this one, making her about 71 years old here.
There’s a lot going on here. Let’s get down to it:
Peter Parker publicly revealed that he was Spider-Man in Civil War #2.
Peter renounced the Super-Human Registration Act in Amazing Spider-Man #535, making him an outlaw.
This resulted in the Kingpin ordering a hit on him and his family in Amazing Spider-Man #533.
Jake Martino, the sniper, shot Aunt May in Amazing Spider-Man #538. She has been on life support ever since.
Changes Made by Mephisto
Mephisto’s spell does a lot to alter history and the whys and hows aren’t immediately given. In fact, a lot of the aspects the things that were done here weren’t answered until many years later. You have to give the Marvel writers who took over the reins during Brand New Day who were able to sort out all of the issues brought up by the editorial mandate to end Peter and Mary Jane’s wedding as this could have ended up being a Crisis on Infinite Earth’s level cock-up had they just decided to ignore everything.
Peter and Mary Jane’s Marriage
Peter and Mary Jane originally got married in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21.
Although not clearly explained here, how Mephisto changes reality is explained in Amazing Spider-Man #638-639. In the altered reality, Peter is knocked out when trying to capture a crook and misses his wedding day. As a result, Peter and Mary Jane decide not to get married but remain engaged. Instead of going on a honeymoon, as depicted in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #7, the pair go on the same trip to work on their relationship.
The rest of their activities are more-or-less the same except they aren’t married, if you’ve been paying attention to my continuity notes, I’ve made a point to comment on every time their marriage is mentioned and how it might be different post-Amazing Spider-Man #545.
How does Aunt May Live?
In the new reality, Peter Parker still unmasks during the Civil War and Aunt May still gets shot by the Kingpin’s assassin. The majority of One More Day still happens up to the point where Mephisto comes to offer his help. Instead, Peter prays for May to live and, ironically, that works. That’s about all they provide for an explanation. It’s kind of a cop-out, but since they actually did a pretty good job explaining everything else, I figure we can let that go.
How does Peter’s Identity Become a Secret Again?
Peter still revealed his true identity to the world in Civil War, so how does Peter put the genie back in the bottle? In the new reality, there is an attempt on Mary Jane’s life, so Peter goes to Doctor Strange who casts a spell that erases everyone’s knowledge of Peter Parker’s double identity except for Mary Jane as we’ll learn in Amazing Spider-Man #640-641. This spell makes it so virtually everyone but Mary Jane forgets his identity, those who may learn his identity will eventually forget over time. This spell ends up getting broken during the Infestation event when Peter rallies people infected with the Jackal’s spider-virus
What Happened to Peter’s new Powers?
As we’ll see in the following issue, Peter is back to using his mechanical web-shooters again and the additional powers he received in Spectacular Spider-Man (vol. 2) #20 and Amazing Spider-Man #527 are now gone. Where did these powers go and what does that mean about all the mystical mumbo jumbo that was introduced during the JMS run on Spider-Man? Well, Peter Parker is no longer a host for the Other. and lost those powers. This has some reaching repercussions during Spider-Verse. These abilities were then passed on to Kaine, Peter’s clone, as we’ll learn in Scarlet Spider (vol. 2) #14. It’s said that the reason why Peter doesn’t have any of those abilities anymore is that he rejected them. Which kind of makes sense since Peter always questioned the mystical aspects of his spider powers when they were first revealed.
What did Mary Jane whisper to Mephisto?
One of the most anti-climactic moments to this story is what Mary Jane whispers to Mephisto. It’s eventually revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #638. in that story all Mary Jane says is that Peter won’t agree to this unless she does and only agrees to Mephisto’s terms if the devil promises not to come after Peter ever again. Mephisto promises, but he’s the lord of lies so I think we can take that with a grain of salt. This is especially so when you consider Mephisto starts meddling with Peter Parker’s life again in Spider-Man/Deadpool #5. One could assume that since Mephisto alters history so this meeting never happened, Mephisto no longer has to agree to the terms since he never made them to begin with, yadda yadda yadda.
The Parker Baby
A lot of fans make a mistake when it comes to interpreting what Mephisto means, particularly some of the people over at SpiderFan.org. They take Mephisto making it so Peter and Mary Jane never ever had a child, meaning that they also didn’t have the stillborn May Parker that we saw in Amazing Spider-Man #418. Some people over at Spiderfan also seem to think that this also undoes other plot elements from that storyline (for example, one of the Spiderfan writers thinks One More Day undoes the death of Alison Mongrane) This is categorically wrong and it’s the product of people overthinking things and making suppositions in lieu of any facts.
As Mephisto said, the past lives of Peter and Mary Jane were unchanged except for the fact they weren’t married. The issue with the child is that Mephisto was preventing them from having a child in the future. Also, did nobody notice that Mary Jane was suffering from morning sickness in this story? That’s why she is in the bathroom when Peter first wakes up. What makes this whole thing all the more horrible is that Mary Jane was pregnant at the time they made their deal with Mephisto and it’s THAT baby no longer exists.
Wasn’t Aunt May’s House Destroyed? Why is Harry Osborn Alive?
Aunt May’s house was destroyed by Charlie Weiderman back in Amazing Spider-Man #517. While on the other hand, Harry Osborn was believed to have died due to a side effect of the Goblin Formula. As revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #581-582 and Amazing Spider-Man Family #4, Harry actually survived and sent to Europe to undergo rehab (one that took 4 years in Marvel time apparently) His father, Norman Osborn covered this up and kept up the illusion that Harry was dead until Harry was cured of his insanity and returned to New York. One of the first things Harry did was use his family fortune to repair May Parker’s house.
How Does This Affect Earth-616?
Usually, when you go into the past and change history, it creates a divergent reality where one reality maintains the original timeline and the divergent reality taking on its own designation. The same exists here. According to the Unofficial Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe Earth-71124 is a reality where Peter and Mary Jane refused Mephisto’s offer they remain married and later give birth to a child while Earth-616 they never got married.
I’d go a step further and suggest that until the Mephisto deal was made Earth-71124 and Earth-616 were overlayed on top of each other, which is what happened with House of M. One reality overlayed itself over the other until the two realities were separated through alternate means. That’s how House of M reality points are considered part of Earth-616 characters histories because the Earth-616 characters existed simultaneously in shared bodies with their House of M counterparts (at least for the original House of M limited series) until the two realities were separated.