Not so long ago, I was browsing some of my digital back issues, and ran into a stack of ‘AvX‘ stories. Though only a couple of years out of date, they might as well have been from the 1970s for all the resemblance they had to today’s Marvel output, and in many ways felt more out-of-date and less meaningful than Lee/Ditko stories from the 1960s. Weirdest of all was the moment when I forgot Spider-Man he was an actual Avenger, even though he has been one for more than a decade at this point. My brain simply refuses to build the bridge that says he belongs to the team, even though I’m good with Firestar being an X-Man, Medusa belonging to the Fantastic Four and Dick Grayson always getting snubbed by the JLA. (Seriously, those guys owe Nightwing an apology.) For reasons I can’t understand, Spider-Man just doesn’t belong in The Avengers in my head, which leads to today’s cognitively dissonant query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) has an even bigger problem when it comes to the membership of Red Hulk Thunderbolt Ross, asking: Which bit of your favorite pop culture just doesn’t BELONG (in your mind?)
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Optimus Prime in any of these oh so fashionable “its both sides” and “morally ambiguous” stories.
From that same era, as much as I really LIKE the idea of Namor being with the X-Men, some part of me just can’t make that connection stick. Which is weird, because it can accept Longshot.
I can see that. I always thought Namor more like crossing over with X-Men, rather than being part of the team. He’s too high and mighty for that.
AVENGERS: Starfox. No. Just…no.
JUSTICE LEAGUE: This may age me, but JLA began to go wrong when they let Zatanna in. And I say this harboring a deep affection for Snapper Carr.
X-MEN: I’m with y’all on Namor as an X-Man. “Mutant” is wa-a-ay down on the list of attributes that define who Namor is. It’s an afterthought retcon and it looks it.