One Moment In Time Review: Part 1! FINALLY WHOO!

Okay, so I feel a lot better today, enough that I finally remembered how to draw. I've been spending the day drawing, but in between, i've been proofreading. And since i've had such a crummy start to the new year, i've decided to start off this year by cleaning out some old rubbish -- Spiderman: One Moment in Time.

It’s been several months since I posted my summary of how Spider man is going down the drain thanks to One More Day. And several Months since I said that I would post my review of One Moment in time. I never did post my review of it because well... I really didn’t want to. I HATE this comic. I hate it so much, that EVERY TIME I work on this thing, I get depressed. No, really. It’s like there's some evil aura that’s coming off the comic and infecting me every time I try to work on this review!

But I realize that with the start of the new year, I need to finish this. I have far more important things to do this year then be hounded by this retched demon of a comic. Besides, if I don’t do this, then putting myself through this to begin with would have been for nothing.

That being said, most of this rage and anger and depression is coming from one issue in particular, the last issue. In fact, I did not actually buy and fully read the first three issues...

Yeah, yeah, put the looks of judgement down and listen. When I buy a comic, I flip through it to see if there is at least ONE thing that makes me want to buy it. Art work, a plot point, etc. And when I saw One moment in Time, I desperately wanted to buy it-- to find some hope that this mess would end soon. So I looked. And looked. I flipped through these comics so much, that I almost bought them out of guilt.

And EVERY TIME I thought I had found something interesting, it blew up in my face. I ended up flipping through almost the entire three issues, looking for something interesting, and found nothing. By the time I was done, I knew about 80 present of the important facts in the book. Everything else I found out through reviews and summaries online. And do you know why I was able to learn about 80 percent of the story just by flipping through the comic?

It’s all padding.

I wish I was kidding! These issues are filled with padding by the boat loads. They did NOT need 4 issues for this. They probably could have fit it down to one and a half issues, maybe two and a half at the most. Talk about a waste of money. And don’t get me started on all the artwork they REUSED in the 4th issue.

But since I did not actually read the entire first 3 issues, I'm just gonna summarize the them and critique what's going on. I’m not gonna talk about the pacing, the panelling or too much about the artwork.

Lets see just how much useful information is here, shall we?

Here's the story: First page is of Mary Jane talking to Mephisto. This is where we learn what she promised Mephisto:

Nothing. She basically says, “Go along with this or Peter won’t” And Mephisto basically replies back, “Sure!”

What?

That was the big secret?! My one thread of HOPE that something interesting would happen and -- *takes a deep breath* Lets move on.

Next we see Mary Jane at Peter’s front door with a bottle of champagne. In the present. What? I thought there weren’t allowed to be toge... sigh. She decides that its time for peter to talk about why there weren’t married.  Ah, so now we get a lame excuse for exposition... By the way, the art work in this part is sooo bad. Faces look weird, and Peter looks extremely old and tired.

We flashback to the past. It’s the day of  MJ’s and Spidey’s wedding. I actually like the artwork in here, by the way. Anywho, Spiderman captures Electro and his crooks from the original comic and MJ waits at the altar. Now here's where it gets silly. Mephisto shows up as a red bird and unlocks the door of the police car, allowing one of the crooks to escape. He goes after one of the cops that caught him. Spiderman chases after him. Spiderman gets hit with a cinderblock. They both fall off the side of the building. The crook lands on top of Spiderman and leaves but Spiderman is now unconscious and MJ is left at the altar. The comic ends with MJ leaving the church with everyone else. Harry Osborn makes a crack about Peter not having any guts and MJ gets angry at him. Spiderman is shown moaning MJ’s name as he drifts in and out of consciousness.

And that’s it. That's the end of the FIRST ISSUE.

So what did we learn? Mary Jane promised Mephisto nothing. Peter and MJ are reminiscing. Mephisto unlocks a door. Spiderman is unconscious in an alley. MJ is left at the altar. And Harry is a jerk.

Mary Jane and Peter don’t even officially break up in the first issue. And we know they are going to. We know how the story is going to end. So was it really necessary to drag it out through 4 THICK issues? NO! And here's the kicker: NO ONE CARES HOW IT HAPPENED. Peter and MJ got help from the DEVIL. Can the writers not use the usual “It’s Magic” excuse? Rewriting history like this just causes HUGE continuity issues with, oh, EVERY COMIC PUBLISHED SINCE THEY WERE MARRIED.

And then there’s the accident. What, really? Spiderman has been through worse scraps then that! Were they trying to degrade him as well as mess up his marriage?

Sigh. I’m obviously not gonna get to the end of this if I continue to point out every fault so I'm just gonna quickly summarize everything in the next two issues as fast as I can:

MJ and Parker continue to talk in the present. Flash back to the past: Peter and MJ fight. She says he has to choose between her and Spiderman. Peter choses Spiderman and MJ walks out. Just two weeks later, MJ returns and Peter is a mess due to their break up. They talk about having kids, and that it’s to dangerous when Parker is Spiderman, blah blah blah, and decide to remain together but not get married.

Cut to civil War: Aunt May is shot, just like before. She on his death bed and Peter saves her with CPR. Yes, that’s right, CPR. Again-- What!? Oh, and Mephisto is Aunt May’s Nurse. Oh HAI Mephisto, I forgot you were in this comic *grumble*

Now here's where the comic actually gets interesting: MJ’s Aunt Anna is targeted next. But MJ shows up at her aunts house and becomes the target instead. Spiderman shows up, saves MJ, who is greatly wounded. And guess what? The assassin is the crook that fell on top of Spiderman in the first issue! *dramatic music here* And guess what? I don’t care. It’s just another useless plot point that has no baring on the story. Are they trying to pull an Uncle-Ben-esk reaction here? Are the writers trying to get Spiderman to become depressed just because this is the same guy that destroyed his potential marriage? Again, I don’t care. Because the crook destroyed his marriage in a stupid way.

Spiderman take MJ to Doctor strange to heal her. But, seeing the danger of everyone knowing who he is, Spiderman also asks for Doctor strange to erase his identity from everyone’s memories. Strange says he will think about it and leaves. And the last page shows Doctor Strange talking to Reed Richard's and Tony stark about what they should do about Peter (at this moment, Peter is Reed and Tony’s enemy so this actually is interesting)

So there yo have it. A bunch of padding and information that no one cared about, that finally ends on a cliff hanger that is actually-sorta interesting. And for the love of everything Marvel, I hate it. But not as much as the final issue...

Which will be in the next post. Give it a few minutes...

Okay, here we go sluglady28.deviantart.com/jour…