It took me an extra 4 days but I finally got my hands on a copy of Amazing Spider-Man #545. I’ve read the reviews and heard all the flack it’s gotten for Marvel EIC Joe Quesada and even for writer J. Michael Straczynski but until I read it myself, I wasn’t really going to do a full blown review. Now that the issue has been read, bagged, boarded and archived, it’s time to take a little bit of time and talk about it.

For starters, you’ll have to have read the issues before this one to really understand what’s going on here. Here’s a quick summary for those of you that need to be brought up to speed. One More Day began with Peter Parker’s aunt May in the hospital from a bullet wound. She’s literally hanging onto life by a thread as Spider-Man searches desperately for someone that can save her. He visits all of his super powered friends and comes up completely empty. Then, out of nowhere, he’s lead to a mysterious woman in red who says that she can save May. The woman reveals herself as Mephisto and says that he’ll save May if Peter and MJ’s marriage is erased from memory. He gives them both 24 hours (One More Day) to think about the offer and they they must decide what they want to do.

Amazing Spider-Man #545 picks up with Mary Jane and Peter together in their motel discussing weather or not they should take the offer. After going over the pros and cons, Mary Jane and Peter spend the rest of the day in each others arms. When nighttime rolls around, Mephisto appears and tells them to choose. Mary Jane tells Mephisto that, since everyone knows that Peter is Spider-Man, May could just as easily be shot again which would make the whole deal useless. Mephisto then explains that, as an added bonus, he’s erase the memory of Peter’s unmasking as well. Convenient, eh? Mary Jane then agrees to the terms and after a little bit of hesitation, Peter does as well. Before retconing the past 20 years of their lives, Mephisto explains that the young girl who appeared in the last issue was in fact the daughter that they will never have because of the choice they’ve just made. Ouch. Peter and MJ grasp onto each other as everything turns black and disappears.

When Peter wakes up, he’s at his house in Queens with May in the kitchen cooking. Peter rushes out of the house and off to a party. Once he gets there, it’s revealed that Harry Osborn has been resurrected and the party is to welcome him home from his long trip in Europe. While at the party, Peter locks eyes with Mary Jane several times before she appears to be uncomfortable and leaves. As a final slap in the face, we see Peter and his friends toast to their Brand New Day and Peter’s web shooter is revealed to be non-organic as it was before The Other which you can see at the beginning of this entry.

After reading this issue, I feel so sorry for JMS as basically everything he’s been working on over the past 6 years was essentially thrown out the window in a single issue. It’s hard to gauge the writing on this issue since most of it was forced onto Straczynski from Quesada and while the story reads fairly well in the actual issue, the foundation of the comic just feels painful to read. Overall, the writing is reasonably well done presuming you manage to forget about how bad this story is.

I disliked Quesada’s artwork in the beginning and it actually grew on me as time went on. It’s definitely not the best I’ve seen but, comparing it to some of the other work I’ve seen by some of the artists on Marvel’s payroll, it’s pretty good. There’s a couple scenes in this comic, namely some of Peter’s facial expressions that look a little bit bizarre but overall the art does exactly what it’s supposed to.

Almost every Spider-Man fan was upset by this entire story, namely this issue. Some more than others. If you decide to read this comic, you’ll undoubtedly understand why. Would I recommend this issue to someone? Maybe. If you’re a new reader, no I wouldn’t recommend this as a starting point. If you’ve been following Spider-Man for a while and have read the other issues of OMD, I would recommend this one for the simple fact that it brings closure to the mess that Spider-Man’s life has been since Civil War. While I can see why so many people would be upset about this, I hardly agree with boycotting the title and sending Marvel angry letters.

See you around, Mary Jane. It was nice knowing you.