This week Marvel Comics begins a long-awaited effort to revamp and refresh its No. 1 franchise, Spider-Man. Big changes are in store for the webslinger, courtesy of longtime Spider-Man writer J. Michael Straczynski and Marvel’s editor-in-chief/artist, Joe Quesada.

The four-part story, titled “One More Day” promises to set right some problems Quesada has had with the Spidey character for years. As editor-in-chief of Marvel, Quesada has made no secret of the fact that he believes having Spider-Man get married and grow into middle age was a huge mistake for the character. Instead of a free-wheeling, wise-cracking teenager fighting crime, Peter Parker has become a middle-age teacher with a wife and a mortgage. How exactly he and Straczynski plan to rectify this situation is the crux of the storyline in “One More Day.”

Will Peter and Mary Jane divorce? Will they kill off Mary Jane or even Aunt May? No one knows, and the authors aren’t telling. Usually with a book like this coming out, spoilers are easy to come by online, but in this particular case Marvel has managed to keep the lid on.

Following the “One More Day” story, which also marks the end of Straczynski’s long run on Spider-Man, the entire line of Spidey books will be revamped. Currently there are three monthly Spider-Man books that make up the character’s core story, “Amazing Spider-Man,” “Sensational Spider-Man” and “Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.” After the completion of “One More Day,” all the Spider-Man books will fall under the “Amazing Spider-Man” title. In addition the book will be published three times a month with four new creative teams.

The list of talent on hand to reboot Spider-Man is pretty impressive. On the writing side Marvel tapped comics veterans Dan Slott, Zeb Wells and Marc Guggenheim, along with “Back to the Future” screenwriter Bob Gale.

Providing the art will be four A-list pencilers in Salvador Larocca, Phil Jimenez, Chris Bachalo and Steve McNiven.

“Amazing Spider-Man” No. 544, the first issue of the “One More Day” story arc, is an oversized 48 pages for $3.99. It features two covers, one by Joe Quesada and a variant by painter Marko Djurdevic. The book is approved for all ages and is in stores Wednesday.

LF END SHENEMAN

(Drew Sheneman is the editorial cartoonist for The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. He can be contacted at dsheneman(at)starledger.com.)

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AP-NY-09-03-07 1549EDT