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Amazing Spider-Man #544
One More Day Part 1
Credits
 Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Penciler: Joe Quesada
Inker: Danny Miki
Colourist: Richard Isanove
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Asst. Editor: Daniel Ketchum
Editor: Axel Alonso
Editor in Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Synopsis
In the new hospital, Peter and MJ stand over Aunt May… A doctor approaches and tells them that they will do everything they can but her lack of insurance and ID means that they will have to move her to a charity ward if there is no indication that they can pay.
Peter swings over to Stark Towers, intent on getting Tony to take his share of responsibility for May. As soon as Peter enters the building, Tony, in his Iron Man gear, crashes into him and launches them out of the building!
In a flash Peter webs up his boots so they both crash land in an alley! After Peter lands a crunching punch to his head, Iron Man fires his uni-beam at him! Blinded, Peter can only unload his entire webbing system at him. He opens his eyes to find Iron Man webbed up and incapacitated!
Peter rips his helmet off and tells him about May and that he wants him to buy her some more time. Tony tells him that he can’t possibly aid her as it would go against his political position and he would be supporting a criminal. He uses his repulsors to escape the webbing and takes off. As he does so he apologises to Peter and lets him go so that he can be with May at the end. He also tells him that if he sees him again he will arrest him…
Tony returns to Stark Tower and looks at a picture of the old New Avengers with MJ and May. He asks Jarvis to do something for him…
Peter goes back to MJ and is about to suggest doing something criminal to get the money when Jarvis comes in and pretends to be May’s cousin. He tells the doctor that his account has just received two million dollars and May is moved…
The doctor tells Peter that the money will help her be as comfortable as she can before the end. Peter refuses to believe that she will die and heads to the roof with MJ. He changes into the red-and-blue Spider-Man costume and swings off… nothing will stop him from finding a way to save her…!
Highlight
Peter Parker vs. Tony Stark – about time!
Comments
If I were to take a literary perspective when reviewing this title I could say that this is a good opening chapter. It has an exciting event (Peter vs. Tony), it promises later action (Spider-Man swinging off at the end), it contains some real emotion and gets the audience interested (the doctor has some depth, Jarvis comes back and Peter’s frustrations are cleverly obvious) and it sets the scene for the reader (by having a poetic introduction and using speech to emphasise and reiterate the characters and their predicament).
One More Day Part 1 does all of these things. My problem is that it doesn’t need to do the last one as well as it does.
I can understand that if you read One More Day by itself, and some people may have picked up this issue to see what is going on, then you need a scene-setting issue and here you have it. But for everyone else, for every single fan that has waited for and read The War At Home and now Back In Black there is little (if anything) here to satisfy the thirst we have for the Aunt May plot thread to be continued! All that happens is that she has better care and the plot still maintains that she is still going to die... An unnecessary turn of events in my opinion.
There is no mention as to why Peter returns to the original costume at the end which is something I was crying out for – Back In Black now seems forgotten and unreasoned.
The greatest scene in this issue is one that has been a long time coming: Peter vs. Tony, where one has the personal in mind and the other has political. The impact of Quesada’s pencils and JMS’s ability to turn action into emotion with ease is excellent and is such a pay-off that it boosts this issue greatly. The flow of the fight is as quick as Spidey vs. Captain America several issues back but there is a structure and logic to the sequence that impresses. And a superb use of organic web-shooters if ever there was one (and this may be the only one!).
The rest of Quesada’s pencils are good with a lot of tight facial detail and some excellent expression sketched onto the characters. He likes to over-emphasise expression and produces some quite malleable faces through his take on facial structure which works well in this issue as Peter descends into anger, desperation and darkness as he confronts Tony. He also likes to take visual leaps, going from his normal style to the phenomenal page with Iron Man trussed up and the closing pages which has MJ fading into the backdrop of New York and the eye drawn to the twisted body of Spider-Man as he swings into the next chapter with grit and determination.
On the whole there is a lot of time wasted this issue and the plot could have moved as fast as Back In Black did but there is this memorable confrontation between Peter and Tony and there is a sense of occasion about this opening which, I hope, will stand the test against the following three parts. And now we wait…
Rating
Cover – 3˝ / 5
Overall – 3˝ / 5
Reviewed by Adam Rivett
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Ultimate Spider-Man