The Avengers have a slew of "honorary" or "reserve" or "one-time" members. The old lady actress who Hawkeye & Mockingbird bought their WCA base from was made an honorary Avenger after she helped them beat Crossfire. I don't think D-Man was an Avenger for anything notable or important besides beating the Thing in a pie eating contest. Despite being the pen pal adopted daughter of Jarvis, Silverclaw has done so much of nothing in the last 10 years she may as well not have existed (she was a bit of a rip of Vixen anyway). I am sure Nova will be considered an Avenger in some Handbook list despite only being on Steve's secret team for one mission and accomplishing nothing besides getting brainwashed. And on it goes.
The Vision should've come back. I mean, really, Yellowjacket and Swordsman? Who even gave a f*** that they were dead?
I like the idea of Rita DeMara coming back. She never really made a mark as a character originally, so she's a blank slate for Pak & Van Lente, or Gage, or whoever wants to use her. Also, nobody is using the Yellowjacket name right now. The last one was a Skrull and he's been dead 2-3 years. Much like "Wasp" is apparently a gender neutral name (even if everyone rightly mocked Pym for cross-dressing by using it to honor Jan), Yellowjacket is, too. Plus, as Janet Van Dyne is currently dead, DeMara could take her place as "shrinking lass with bug wings and bio-blasts". She has most of the benefits of being a new character without being one and having some history to poke at.
I'm with you on Swordsman, though. The one from "the Gathering" was still around if anyone wanted to use him, which they haven't since the 90's. While he was written well in DEAD AVENGERS, I wasn't rooting for him to come back. I wanted Deathcry back because there are so few Shi'ar characters who aren't owned lock, stock, and barrel by the X-office (or by now the space office) and she was one. Plus, she and Hercules used to hang out, so she could have become some sort of supporting character for him like Namora was for a bit. Granted, Rita told Thor she had "two dead Avengers who weren't dead" with her; either she meant Swordsman AND herself, or one of them survived off panel.
We've been over why Victor Shade can't come back. He can't come back so long as Jonas is the robot Vision guy now. It would supplant Jonas' importance and he's one of few Young Avengers who is actually filling a void anyone cares about; the rest of them are sidekicks no hero wants. They would look exactly the same in terms of design aside for height, and much like with Steve Rogers and James Barnes, artists would mess up their height differences anyway (I have never seen any artist draw Rogers as substantially larger if BOTH are dressed as Capt. America). The Young Avengers as they are remain a neglected, going nowhere, doing nothing franchise due to editorial mismanagement and Shade coming back would further that by making Jonas obsolete. At least these days anyone who wants the Vision has to use Jonas, and they usually figure they may as well have Stature tag along, and that's fine.
Are there ways that Victor could return and things be handled well? Probably. He could be made distinct in terms of design by donning his 90's era white look, even if that look symbolized a lack of personality (perhaps keep that design, but make it green or gold instead, his other colors). Ideally he would remain distinct, while having similar programming to Jonas and act as some sort of mentor figure who understands what Jonas is going through, having been programmed by someone else's brain waves and having a villain involved in that past, yet trying to be one's own man. However, the chance of editorial handling this even 10% as well as I described is literally less than zero. There are higher odds of Marvel selling an issue of NEW AVENGERS for one penny than this being handled well. I would rather see Victor stay dead than to have him return and then see either him or Jonas thrown to the wayside and handled poorly. Captain America and Iron Fist are the only legacy heroes Marvel has handled in any way, shape, or form well. And the era of Captain America being one may be due to come to an end for a film, and Iron Fist's only doing it well because he sells so poorly, editorial doesn't give a damn how well it's being handled. If Victor came back, only Heinberg would be allowed to handle him, and I have no faith in Heinberg to write anything in an above average way for long. Let the robot rest in piece. He had a good appearance in DEAD AVENGERS, and it provided him a much better "death" sequence than DISASSEMBLED did. That alone satisfies me.
Puck just became Lord of Hell in the recent issue of Wolverine. He got his hands on the Devil's soul-sword and was last seen saying to a bunch of demons, "That's right you sacks of crap, bow to the new big cheese! Now let's talk about how I get outta here!"
I knew Puck was involved in the "WOLVERINE GOES TO HELL" story (I'd say it's about time), but...he's Lord of Hell now!? Like Dan Ketch used to be? Sounds awkward.
