JMS chimes in on One More Day

Apparently not even JMS is a fan of One More Day (click here for the posting)....

For whatever it's worth, the situation is not as clear cut as one might hope. The reality of any writer workingfor any company, DC or Marvel or Image, is that when you're handed a franchise character, you're basically entrusted with
something that the company owns, and the company has final say in what happens to that character, because as a writer, you're only there for a certain amount of time and then the next guy has to come in. Spider-Man belongs to Marvel, not to me, and at the end of the day, however much I may disagree with things, and however much I may make it very CLEAR to all parties that I disagree, I have to honor their position.

In the Gwen storyline, yes, I wanted it to be Peter's kids, Joe over-rode that, which is his right as EIC. I got the flack for that decision, but them's the breaks.

In the current storyline, there's a lot that I don't agree with, and I made this very clear to everybody within shouting distance at Marvel, especially Joe. I'll be honest: there was a point where I made the decision, and told Joe, that I was going to take my name off the last two issues of the OMD arc. Eventually Joe talked me out of that decision because at the end of the day, I don't want to sabotage Joe or Marvel, and I have a lot of respect for both of those. As an executive producer as well as a writer, I've sometimes had to insist that my writers make changes that they did not want to make, often loudly so. They were sure I was wrong. Mostly I was right. Sometimes I was wrong. But whoever sits in the editor's chair, or thexecutive producer's chair, wears the pointy hat of authority, and as Dave Sim once noted, you can't argue with a pointy hat.

So at the end of the day, all one can do is try to do the best one can with the notes one is given, and try to execute them in a professional way...because who knows, the other guy may be right. The only thing I *can* tell you, with absolute certainty, is that what Joe does with Spidey and all the rest of the Marvel characters, he does out of a genuine love of the character. He's not looking to sabotage anything, he's not looking to piss off the fans, he genuinely believes in the rightness of his views not out of a sense of "I'm the boss" but because he loves these characters and the Marvel universe.

And right or wrong, you have to respect that.

jms

I don't know whether to be surprised at that or not.

I'm certainly not surprised that life changing events for MU characters are pretty much editorial-driven; that makes sense as the writer is only a custodian of the character for the company.

I am surprised that JMS is subject to quite as much tweaking as he is, especially at the end of his run. I can understand to some extent why Joe Q wants Spider-Man returned to being a single guy. I can understand, but I don't agree.

But why not allow JMS to end his run the way he wanted, then just reset the status quo with a new writer? Heaven knows that I haven't been a fan of a lot of JMS's work on the book, from the whole Spider-totem thing to the evolution of Aunt May into a slightly taller and more wizened version of Yoda (and don't get me started on Sins Past, no matter whose children they were) - but I would think that he would be better served to end how he wanted.

After all, he spent so much time in getting MJ and Peter back together.

Ah, well - thats just the way it goes.