The Book of Job, as told by Spider-Man

[cyberghostface]

Hmm, here's an interesting story. It appears that One More Day wasn't the first time Mephisto reared his ugly head in Spider-Man's book. That would be Amazing Spider-Man #274.

This was brought up in a previous thread as an attempt to defend OMD by listing this as an example of when Spider-Man "helped" Mephisto (In OMD, Mephisto unravels Pete and MJ's marriage because their love was pure and destroying it was an affront to and victory over God himself). I decided to give the issue a look to see if Peter's actions were similar to the one he took in OMD.

This took place during Secret Wars II, in which the Beyonder wanted to destroy the entire multiverse

Disclaimer: This was a thirty-page issue with no ads. Thus, I am posting ten pages.



The Beyonder has arrived in Mephisto's lair, with the intention of erasing it from existence. Mephisto attempts to buy himself some time and tries to convince Beyonder to divert his attentions elsewhere.



Beyonder then chooses his champion--Zarathos, the Spirit of Vengeance, who had been imprisoned by Mephisto for centuries.

The Beyonder explains the rules of their bet: "Since Spider-Man is an individual motivated by a deep sense of responsibility, all Zarathos has to do is get him renounce his responsibility in some concrete fashion." If Spider-Man persists, the multiverse's destruction will be postponed for the twenty-four hours. If not, the Beyonder will proceed with his plans.

Spider-Man, unaware that the fate of the entire multiverse is resting on his shoulders, is taking photos for the Daily Bugle of a hot car ring that's being held in a warehouse. He overhears, however, of the gang's plans to have Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime, assassinated at 6:00 when he attends a dinner reservation.



Zarathos torments Spider-Man with visions of what he considers to be his greatest failures. First up is Norman Osborn as the Green Goblin, who blames Spidey for his death (at this time, Norman was still considered dead) and for failing to save him. Spider-Man knows this can't be Norman, but begins to question his sanity.

Peter runs into his parents, who call him a disappointment for dropping out of college and failing to reach his true potential. Peter wakes up from this nightmare, only to find that his face is covered in boils. Peter gets into a cab to go to a hospital, only to find out that the cab driver is Captain George Stacy, who blames Spider-Man for letting him die. The cab turns into some sort of flying demonic hearse, and Peter finds himself falling.





Peter manages to avoid a blast from a demonic figure whose face is covered by a shroud. He introduces himself as the Ravager of Souls and the Living Spirit of Vengeance.





Zarathos tells Spider-Man that its his sense of responsibility that is torturing him, and all he has to do is to simply give up.







With this, Mephisto has won the bet. The Beyonder agrees to let the multiverse live for one more day. He admits that he has seen much that he must ponder, but that doesn't mean he has changed his mind yet.

So after reading this, would you consider Spider-Man helping Mephisto here to be the same as him making the deal in One More Day? 

Comments

[foxhack]

He didn't help him willingly. And if these scans are any indication, he wasn't even AWARE of Mephisto being involved! Who the hell compares OMD to this?

[cyberghostface]

http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/1334400.html?thread=41832064#cmt41832064

[lynxara]

They're both storylines involving Spider-Man and Mephisto! Clearly that means they're completely comparable despite being written over 25 years apart by different creative teams under wildly differing editorial regimes!

[lamashtar]

I have the benefit of being a Zarathos fan, so I knew about this story. I have a theory that Zarathos' fanatic hunger for vengeance even against Spider-man--cuz he beat Zarathos here--is one of the reasons he chose to possess Reilly Tyne, Peter's clone's son.

Because its ultimately a Spider-man story, and everything, somehow, is Peter's fault..

I really need an MC2 icon on this journal.

[felinephoenix]

That's been one of my pet MC2 theories for a while, too. Which could make for a really great fanfic if combined with one of my BND theories (that Mephisto undid the Spider-Marriage because someday Baby May would be a threat to him).

Now i just have to write the dang thing.

[perletwo]

Why is the Beyonder dressed like Elvis? Is he a celebrity impersonator in his spare time?

[intertobamf]

It was the '80s. It was not a good time.

[arilou_skiff]

That's some SERIOUS crack right there.

Zarathos-Gwen-Harpy?

[hatman]

That is a pretty cool story. (Some of the elements have since been done to death, but I'm guessing this is old enough that they weren't so cliche.)

And yet, since it's posted here, the panel that jumps out at me the most is Spidey's triumphant "There! Managed to lose my pants..."

Little confused, though, about why Spidey starts out in the red & blue but ends up in the black & white. (And why his webshooters are on his palms when the black & white costume's webs shoot out the back of the hand.)

Don't worry that's a common misconception..

[steverodgers5]

Little confused, though, about why Spidey starts out in the red & blue but ends up in the black & white. (And why his webshooters are on his palms when the black & white costume's webs shoot out the back of the hand.)

I believe this was around the time that he was switching back and forth between the two. (In one issue you saw Jonah being irrationally irritated by this fact, in the way that only JJJ could be.)

The thing about the webs coming out of the back of his hands though, is an easy mistake to make, as that was indeed the way they fired when he had the symbiote suit. But the version above was the one that the Black Cat made for him, which was just a regular cloth outfit. So it made kinda sense that he'd go back to firing them the old way, as I imagine it would have been a bit of an unecessary inconvenience for him to redesign his old web shooters to be on the other side of his hands, just to match that white patch on the top of his gloves. Kinda a nice realistic touch, I would say..

Hope this clears it up for you! (Don't worry it's a really common thing that a lot of people who weren't reading all the titles of the time, get quite often confused by!)

[jcbaggee]

So saying he doesn't like taking on all the responsibility he's given but taking it on anyways because it's what he thinks is right = the current schlock in the Spider-Man titles?

And unknowingly helping Mephisto save a planet because someone else chose him (Seriously, Mephisto didn't even want Spider-Man, he wanted the Silver Surfer) = Allowing Mephisto to undo 20 years of continuity to save his aunt?

I think people are just grasping at straws at this point.

LOL!

[steverodgers5]

It wasn't just a planet.. It was the whole universe!

And you're kind of grasping at straws trying to potray it in the way that you described.

No one's arguing it that way. (And if they are, then I agree their argument's full of holes..)

But what this story does prove is that Mephisto's appearance in a Spiderman title, and his consequent noticing of Peter's importance did not originate in OMD. It could actually be argued that it was a valid interpretation of continuity. (No doubt by chance, as I doubt JMS had ever read this story, and it probably wasn't high on Joe Q's list of plot points to address either..)

Like I've said in my more detailed argument earlier in the thread, there are plenty of vaild criticisms of OMD, and the messed up storytelling/effects on continuity that resulted. But suggesting that Mephisto should never cross paths with Spiderman, (And that was a common argument at the time,) seems a little silly to me. As there are very few villains Spiderman hasn't tangled with over the years, and this story in particular shows a valid instance of how he could have ended up on Mephisto's radar in the first place. (Albeit, probably somewhere down the line on Mephisto's 'to do' list..)

[iskander]

It pains me to hear rumors of the Beyonders return...

[lynxara]

Hasn't he already returned a few times and been retconned all to shit?

[ar_feiniel]

Yeah, no way comparable to OMD.

But even then, IMO the problem with OMD isn't that Peter chose Aunt May's life over his marriage with MJ, it was the retcon the story facilitated.

[qob]

Frenz drew this? Looks like a lot of tracing from Buscema's Mephisto.

[felinephoenix]

I could be wrong but I think Buscema did the inks here.

[tsunamiwombat]

If anything I think this is the OPPOSITE of BND. This showed Spiderman as willing to stick to his responsibilities, no matter what, no matter the personal loss.

And then he made a deal with the devil to save his 90 year old Aunt and sacrificed a major part of his life. DOES NOT COMPUTE!?

Responsibility fail, Peter.

[felinephoenix]

Gotta agree with the choir here. If anything, this is the anti-OMD, although at least this does give Mephisto a motivation for messing with Pete. Great story, though.

[jlroberson]

Say that sentence about how he forgot his web shooters aloud, see how long it takes you to say it, and then wonder why everyone doesn't go splat by the end.

Don't you love the days when they said aloud everything that now goes into captions?

[lonewolf23k]

Y'know, Peter sounds downright Objectivist in this story, what with his insistence to do the right thing, no matter how easier it would be to do otherwise.

[autumn_lily]

MEPHISTO'S beloved Death? Methinks Thanos would like to have a few words about that...

Also - I didn't even get three pages before I went into horrified seizures from the oh so so so bad costumes!

[lamashtar]

Somewhere Thanos has bitched that Death has lovers, therefore she doesn't value him enough blah blah...

[joysweeper]

The vengeance guy's costume just makes me laugh.

Mephisto's irritation at xenocide amuses me. Pragmatic villainy at its finest.

This is a good story. I like Spidey, and how no matter what gets thrown at him he never stops trying. Pity his only comic right now is Marvel Adventures.

[skalja]

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man's quite good too.