Not exactly.  I want creators who are invested in telling stories about the characters.  I don't want the creator's interest to be put ahead of the character.  If the writer doesn't have any interest in Peter Parker without fundamentally changing him, then he shouldn't be writing Peter Parker.

C'mon Dan, we're talking about fiction.  MILLIONS of readers had no problem with Captain Marvel being magically transformed in every single issue.   You're statement illustrates more of the problem than explaining anything.  That you would write "magically" as if it was a ludicrous idea says to me that you are viewing comic books in the wrong way.  Comic books SHOULD be about magic.  Especially if that magic leads to abandoning the approach of being tied to continuity and realism.  

Your thinking seems to resemble the type of thinking that the big two have adopted, that kids just don't like comic books so we have to shock everyone into reading.  From what I've seen that's the biggest problem in comics.  I'm not saying they don't care or don't want comics to succeed but they clearly have very warped ideas on what kids want or if they should even be included.

Again, you give me the notion that you're missing the point.  I didn't say I couldn't find any examples, I said that I had to ferret them out.  That I have to refer parents to a fringe book like Squirrel Girl instead of any of the major characters that they might actually recognize is a problem, don't you think?

Squirrel-Girl is the type of book that, if any book has to be sacrificed in such a way, creators who just have to broach adult-only themed content should be given.  Not Superman or Spider-Man.  

I think this is the bugaboo with current DC/Marvel in a nutshell.

Catering to the talent before the character is a big part of what got us in the fix we are in today.  For those who see the state of the industry today as a problem that is.

Honestly?  Zero.  None.  If anything, it would create more buzz than all of the stupid events have created combined.  Not only would it give the fanboys something to talk(complain) about, it would reacquire fans who have left.  Do you seriously think that those who are left are going to leave over re-setting characters into their  pre-aged versions?

Instead of doing things like Marvel Adventures where the "real" characters are treated like novelties and put in a fringe book, do that with the mainstream characters in their own books.  Instead of making a thousand different Spider-Man derivatives, come up with new characters to enhance Spider-Man himself.  

Middle-aged Peter Parker is the problem though.  I don't doubt that you could write a good story about him, it's that you aren't writing those good stories for the "real" Peter Parker.

Boundaries?  No, I say values.  Yes, I want Peter Parker to remain timeless.  The Simpsons continues to be a good example.  Bart's still 10 and fundamentally what he's always been.

Why can't that be done with Peter Parker(or Steve Rogers or Bruce Wayne, etc.)?

"Honestly?  Zero.  None."

Then yours is the magic store. :-)
Everywhere else in the world, they'd be piles of angry ashes on the floor.

But I do know that Thor is now Jane Foster.  And Captain America is now Sam Wilson.  And Batman is now Jim Gordon in a Manga armor suit.....

These are stories I don't have to pick up to learn if I'd like them because the very notion of the character as presented is now totally unappealing to me.  

And that's the problem.

Just like the upcoming Fantastic Four movie might very well be a good movie....but it can't be a good FF movie.  Its just too far off the mark of what the FF are.