Great points again. Funny you compare Spidey to Rick Jones. When you said that, I was thinking of Bucky. The point being Bucky was a teenage sidekick. Stan specifically wrote Spider-Man as a teenager who was not a sidekick. So, that definitely shows he is not written correctly.
And I've had several arguments about the way Pete acts in BND, so I know what you are talking about with "everyman" is often confused with "immature/incompetent".
When Osborn became the big bad guy of the Marvel Universe, I was excited, because I saw this as an opportunity for Spider-Man to increase in status of the MU (not real life publishing, where he is the flagship character). But, alas, missed opportunities...
To be honest, there have been many missed opportunities in the last four or so years. While there have been many successful and good Marvel stories and titles, there has been plenty of ground for improvement in execution and planning.
The irony is that it is hardly that Spider-Man isn't popular. He still has a cartoon on TV (albeit it's third season is in limbo at best). There have been big movements and corporate thought on his film franchise. ASM still sells in the Top 25 at least half the time. Throw in Web and some other side projects and Spidey will still have 5 books some months. I just think there is a major disconnect in what the editors want to deliver based on their own memories and perceptions from decades ago, and what the audience wants now. You can't cater to old fans while diminishing the character development that kept them around.
I'm just saying. Would piss a lot of people off, Steve's back, and of course, Bendis is a *****e.
You have a point there. I'm honestly uncertain if Bendis would be allowed to mess with Brubaker's book too much. He's been on fire with CAPTAIN AMERICA and Marvel allowed his title to effectively sit out SECRET INVASION. Even SIEGE won't get a crossover tie in there, to the best of my knowledge. Barnes is still an important character to Brubaker and I am unsure that if he wanted him dead, he would want it to happen in another book by another writer. Note that when Steve Rogers died, he didn't die at the end of CIVIL WAR; he died in his own title, under Brubaker's pen. Of course, does Bendis have more leeway around Marvel than Mark Millar?
The Marvel editors, to their credit, didn't let Bendis put Magneto into his Cabal when he wanted to, which at least means that SOME things are "grandfather clauses" that pre-date or supercede Bendis' complete mental domination of the editorial board. One is the "make the X-Men feel like outcasts yet never let anyone besides Wolverine cross over into other worlds or have anyone show up in the X-Men books who isn't also a mutant, so they never actually are outcasts besides us saying they are" rule that Marvel has in some way or another enforced since the 90's.
There's a part of me that thinks that unless Marvel is damn confident in Brubaker's ability to keep CA afloat without allowing him to "re-kill" Bucky, they won't let it happen in SIEGE. But, on the other hand, it would "piss off" a lot of people, and Joe Q's philosophy to running a comic book company is the same as being a class clown; spark attention at all costs. Nothing else, like consequences or ambitions down the line, matters more than that immediate, fleeting, done-in-one reaction. And Bendis has been a master of that philosophy. "To hell if it doesn't make sense; no one has the stones to do it, so I will." If they were younger and had access to video cameras, this philosophy would cause them to become viral sensations when they try and fail some stunt; instead they are comic writers, who display such zeal in other manners.
Olympians are actually "more immortal" than Asgardians. The Asgardians can literally die and (at least potentially) stay dead because their "immortality" is actually just slowed aging thanks to Idunn's golden apples (not a euphemism, pervs); see Skurge, Odin, Bor, and others. They tend to keep coming back because their life force is extraordinarily potent. The Olympians are just plain immortal. At most, Ares would just wind up in Hades like Zeus did, and someone would probably free him eventually or he'd bust out or, knowing Ares, he'd kick Pluto's ass and take over.
Anyway, I really hope it's not Bucky. It'd be lame to kill him off. I want to see him and Steve act as partners again, at least for a little while.
Yeah, I mean, one Olympian may already be dying soon in another book anyway. They go to a realm that has been fled before, even before comic books.
I also hope it isn't Bucky. Even with Rogers stealing his reason to exist, I think Brubaker wants to at least have some fun with the two co-existing as heroes again.
