This is perhaps one of the reasons some like myself would like JB to work with one or two of the current guys - I believe JB could BE that guiding hand.

Valid point, except JB doesn't need Bendis to write his comics.  Heck, he didn't need Claremont.

Don wrote...

"You may love the CA/Bucky stories of the 1950s, John, but that doesn't mean they had to be explained and shoehorned into continuity once Captain America was revived in Avengers # 4. Don't work so hard at missing the point next time. "

Two things, Don. One, as I said, *I* liked them. you obviously don't. Marvel, especially in the 70's, was famous for shoehorning lots of things in when they didn't have to. With the higher reader turnover rates, maybe they felt it would keep the readers there longer. Maybe it was poor writng or editing.  That's the true joy of it -- you don't have to like it. Two....spare me of your contempt, ok? It's merely an opinion of a 35 year old storyline.

Watchmen has always been one of my favorite comic books to read. But I think the point JB is making when he says its a terrible super-hero story is that none of the characters involved are really heroes. Some are fascists, some are cowards, some are in it for the glory, approval of their peers and others are super powered beings. But none are heroic. Rorschach, in the begining, seems to be the hero of the piece. When he is exposed as being crazy it takes the heroism out of his character as well. A story that still entertains me, with some of the best art in the world, but not a superhero story. Being "super" doesn't mean you are a hero, that's what I always took from the story.

The sad aftermath of this type of story is that people keep trying to make the existing comic book heroes non-heroic. Dick Giordano was correct in making Moore create a self contained world for this type of story. It's a shame the editors of today won't take that stance to protect their franchise characters.

Looking at the Marvel Universe today, it seems like so many of the storylines that have taken the characters down wrong paths would have been used to tell What If? stories back in the day. What if Spider-Man had joined the Fantastic Four? What if Spider-Man's cloned had lived?

Now those types of goofy ideas have become injected into the mainstream universe and accepted as perfectly reasonable. What If Peter Parker was married? What If the Green Goblin hadn't died? What if Wolverine joined the Avengers? What if Captain American and Iron Man went to war? What if Ned Leeds had been the Hobgoblin? What if Wolverine appeared in half a dozen books every month? What if Marvel's Characters aged at the same rate as our readers did?

********

Good point!