I love comics. I mean, if you’re on Comic Vine you most likely love them too. I can get pretty nerdy when it comes to discussing comics, characters, or story arcs. I have staid about an hour after my shift ended just talking to a work friend about X-Men and Captain one time. I don’t know a ton about the characters I love, but I could sit and talk about them for hours. So, with that preface you should have a pretty good understanding of how geeky I can get on the subject.

Lately I’ve been thinking about how stretched some characters are. How many comics is Wolverine floating? What about Spider-Man? Batman has an excuse now. I’m not up on the Batman franchise, but I know that he is running Batman, Inc. while Dick Grayson has . Superman also has a built-in excuse if he shows up in multiple comics: super speed. I’m not a huge DC fan, so I’m going to keep this strictly to Marvel comics.

First up is Spider-Man, who seems to be everywhere. At least you can argue that his super teams (yes, plural) are all based out of New York, but still, how many teams does this dude need to be on? Flagship character notwithstanding, the man is still only (super) human. When does he have time to work at that sweet think tank job of his? Or date? If it weren’t for him cracking wise all over the place, I would think that Parker had subcontracted out to other super dexterous heroes.

Wolverine’s multiplicity issue is even shakier. His main team is based off the West Coast, Avengers is in , his clandestine wetworks team is somewhere in , and that doesn’t count his romps through the South in The Best There Is. Any time this is brought up, the defenders shoot back, “there are mutants that can teleport anywhere in the world”. Most of those teleports were taken out during Second Coming, and I doubt the ones that were left are in the know about X-Force.

Marvel is loaded down with characters. The recent Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt was a shocking reminder that the remnants of the 50 State Initiative are still out there. There were people in that crowd that I’ve never seen before.

I love how Moon Knight is getting some attention by getting another spotlight. However, the fact that he is based on the West Coast and he showed up recently in The Avengers and Secret Avengers (both #12.1) does not help my logical brain function at all.

Not too long ago I read an awesome article about the creation of Jason Todd. Basically, Dick Grayson was growing up and moving on to the Titans. The editors made a decision that Batman worked best with a sidekick. Like Carey said, “Batman need his Robin.” So the creative team came up with Jason Todd since Grayson would be busy in his team book. They knew back then that it wouldn’t make sense to have a kid appear in two books a month. Why can’t they continue with that thought process?

Does Avengers need Spider-Man or Wolverine? Actually, yes and no. Specifically them, no. The team absolutely needs a smart mouth for comic relief to help cope with the stressful life that comes with being a superhero. According to a conversation between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, in the modern world the Avengers needs that certain edge that Wolverine brings. He is that person that is willing to cross the line and do the bad things that the good guys shouldn’t do. If there was a way to reign in Punisher, he could be that guy too. Moon Knight, although he struggles like an alcoholic to not kill people, so that would be wrong to push him into that. There are plenty of darker characters that can fill that ruthless role currently fills.

I know that fans want to read about Deadpool over here, cutting up and… well, cutting up. They want to see more Spider-Man face time in Avengers or FF. My crazy idea would put Spider-Man on only one team, like FF, only because its different and cool and above all else very logical. Wolverine would have one solo series and something like X-Force, because he fits on that team more than anywhere else. Steve Rogers would just have small cameos in comics, because he is super-cop now, and Secret Avengers. Iron Man’s mini event The Iron Age would not happen while Fear Itself was still unresolved.

My strongest plea to the Big Two: please, spread it out. Use your resources (i.e., your other characters). Have your creative teams talk to one another about what the characters are doing and how epic and illogical it is to have Wolverine in Hell but also in New York with the Avengers. I know for fact that the editors do talk because I’ve heard about these summits the writers go on, discussing the upcoming events.

I guess that’s about it. Nerd rant over.    

Nice rant! ^_^ lol

Now I'm not going to argue with you (because for one it's like 5am here and I'm too tired to debate xD) but also because you do make sense and you are right on most parts. But now I don't read or really care for Moon Knight, I can understand the Wolverine being everywhere, and you bring up a good point with putting the whole teleporter theory away with X-Force (I think Pixie can still teleport, right?), if it wasn't for X-Force I think using Pixie would be a good answer. As for Spider-Man, I'm not big on him joining FF because really when they did that they should have just kept the "Fantastic Four" title, I still believe the team would be fun with just Reed, Sue, and Ben (Ben does have a sense of humor everyone) and really it seems like they just killed Johnny off and replaced him with Peter and that was it....seriously, that's how I read it. Really I think New Avengers is pointless, I know they deal with more of the "street-level" and magic sides of things while the main Avengers deal with more global and huge threats to Earth, but in truth because I'm a big Young Avengers fan and really want them to have an on-going series would have rather not have a new New Avengers team and just let the Young Avengers deal with the street-level and magic threats.

But really in the end, I like the Avengers more than the X-Men and with Spider-Man and Wolverine being two of my favorite characters, I like having them on the Avengers....plus I don't read like thirty titles a month so to me they really aren't "everywhere" to me unlike they are to everyone else. But that' just me :P