Marvel Comic Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada has returned to kick off his 4 issue run to explain why and how Mary Jane and Peter Parker were unable to get married, i.e. how Mephisto changed Marvel’s time-line. Amazing Spider-Man 638 (READ) is the first part of “One Moment in Time” (OMIT). Joe Quesada has been hyping this up as the tell-all explanation that all of we fanboys have been demanding on the message boards.

Joe Quesada personally plotting and scripting a comic book to explain and defend his decision to make Peter Parker single, give him back a secret identity, and have his new creative team do yet another back to basics approach (also called keeping the status quo and stagnation- which first appeared in the 1970′s) is controversial.

Amazing Spider-Man 638 also had other controversial segments:

1. Many pages from Spider-Man’s original Wedding Issue (ASM Annual 21) were reproduced. I usually really dig original artwork and writing, but in this case it seemed like an overindulgent of  filler to justify the $3.99 pricetag…or maybe Joey Q’s page rates are so high he went ahead and reprinted Jim Shooter, Dave  Michelinie, and Paul Ryan’s work for free.
2. The mutant parrots online over at CBR, Marvel, Bendis Boards, and IGN are surprised that it was “revealed” what Mary Jane had whispered to Mephisto- basically she made the deal with the devil to save Aunt May’s life, and told Mephisto to leave Peter alone and restore his identity in exchange for their marriage never happening. This was 100% apparent when it happened during One More Day, and in fact, anyone who read it knew that MJ made the deal, not Peter. Yes, Peter wanted Aunt May to live, but he would never trade his memory of MJ’s marriage for it to happen.
3. The story itself was rather mundane. Mephisto simply managed to have a fat guy clobber Spider-Man with a brick, and he missed his own wedding. Yes, I summed it up in one sarcastic sentence, but…that’s what happened.
4. Awkward moment: although Brooklyn born artist Paola Rivera did a great job linking his pages with Paul Ryan’s art from 1987, the original pages are way past Marvel 10-year floating timeline, and there are many anachronisms.
5. The added (new) flashback scenes reinforced that Peter Parker and Mary Jane had doubts about getting married anyway, and Peter loved Gwen Stacy so much.
6. With THREE more issues to go…I wonder what else there is to reveal?

All Amazing Spider-Man 638 did was reopen old wounds for the fanboys and those who have been dissatisfied with Amazing Spider-Man since the 1990′s. In fact there are thousands of comments all of the net about how Joe Quesada is really Mephisto. Now that’s it’s clear to everyone that it’s ALL Mary Jane’s fault for Brand New Day, her character continues to lose stock. Marvel is run by guys who don’t believe in marriage or real change. All of this being said, it’s inevitable that Peter and Mary will be reunited one day in the future.

Anyway, good collector’s item issue.