He read the 90's Harras run originally and wanted to read the Avengers again. He mentioned that the guys at my LCS mentioned Thomas, Englehart, Shooter, and Stern's runs as other issues he might like. He told me that he was gonna pass because the Busiek/Perez run was one that he tried out and he said it felt "cheesy" and he figured older runs that inspired that one wouldn't be to his taste.

So while I could say that the 90's era of the mega crossover and Avengers wearing leather jackets doesn't really feel very Avenger-y to me and I certainly don't see the Bendis era as anything special, it's all personal preference. I can say that reading those Shooter Avengers issues as a kid (via my older brother's subscription) made me a lifelong Avengers fan. Discovering the earlier runs thanks to comic book shops and flea markets and eventually buying the Stern run myself shows that there's something for everyone. Even if we don't agree over what was the best. 

But those were significant changes, right?

I was a tender 13 year old when Secret Wars hit the stands and though you might not have liked it, I most certainly can tell you why it was a HUGE hit with me and ALL my friends: at that point we weren't yet being treated to a never ending dose of major company-wide crossovers and with Secret Wars you had most of Marvel's major heroes all teamed up in fist-pounding action against most of Marvel's major villains!  All nicely wrapped-up with cross-over issues in all your favorite (and not so favorite titles) that you just HAD to have!  All with a brand-new omnipotent cosmic entity who was literally more powerful than ANYONE or ANYTHING in the ENTIRE Marvel Universe.  

It's not hard to fathom what anyone saw in it, it's just hard to fathom what took Marvel so damn long!!

Marc

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That has to be the longest-held consequence of SW. That lasted for about 20 years in publication time!

Haven't Peter and Kitty gotten back together, albeit briefly a time or two since Secret Wars.

Well, in that it ultimately lead to the creation of a new arch-villain, and Spider-Man occasionally wearing a non-symbiote version over the years when he needed a boost in sales, sure. But he had already ceased wearing it by the time SECRET WARS #8 was released!

Several early Shooter Avenger stories are still among my favorites - his first Ultron storyline and his What If? stories leap to mind. Especially as they were written in the 70's and were actual true super hero stories, something that was a bit scarce in those years.

And while I'm no fan of Secret Wars I do credit Shooter with writing an on model monarch Dr. Doom there, a character only a few writers seem to know how to handle properly. His later stuff I'm just not familiar with.

I gotcha! Yes, I was definitely counting Venom and his endless "progeny."

Marc

That Spider-Woman had the costume "first". It was implied that the design subconsciously influenced Spider-Man when he attemped to have his costume repaired, but ended up with the black costume instead.