Havn't We Been Here Before?


I don't know what was was going through J. Michael Straczynski's mind when Joe Quesada pitched his idea for JMS' final Spider-Man storyline "One More Day", but I can guess:

Deja vu.

We've read over the past week how JMS had some strong objections to the final storyline in particular and to Quesada's ideas about Spidey in general. But what we haven't read much about is the likely reason why he was so against the idea of tampering with the Spider-Marriage:

He remembers the last time editorial separated Pete and MJ, and the problems that followed.

Because he was there.

Way back when Axel Alonso took over Spidey's editorial reigns and Straczynski came on board, one of the last lingering byproducts of the previous Howard Mackie run was the separation of Pete and Mary Jane.

JMS was one of the key architects in fixing this error at the start of his run. And whatever you can say about his run, he worked hard at developing the Pete-MJ marriage.

So imagine his dismay at ending his run on the character by having to flush all that down the toilet.

Remember the "Disassembled" storyline in AVENGERS, in which much of Kurt Busiek's previous strong character development during "Heroes Return" and forward, particularly in regard to the Scarlet Witch, was laid to waste?

Now, imagine if Busiek had been forced to write "Disassembled", exactly the same way Bendis actually did write it, as part of his final story arc.

That's essentially Straczynski's situation now.