Originally Posted by
AlexCampy89
Very interesting topic.
I was about to open a similar thread, asking for New Avengers issues in which Spider-Man had a major role.
Thankfully I googled it and Wikipedia came to save me.
Despite Spider-Man being part of the NA was a huge deal, there is no story in which Spider-Man was supposed to be more than a talkative punching bag or a cameo.
as others pointed out, Cap, Thor and Tony were the only ones allowed to save the day. Luke Cage and Wolverine had their occaional spotlight moments, but one could argue that even Spider-Woman, Vision, Echo/Ronin, Hawkeye, Jessica Jones, Hulk, Red Hulk, etc were practically useless.
By the time AvX came, Spidey got his two pages glory moment by getting his ass kicked by Magik and Colossus. That's how you could summarize the peak of Peter's experience in the Avengers (yes, during the Worldwide arc, when Peter was billionaire he kinda replaced Iron Man as the financial backer of tge team, but those stories were so bad, it's better off we forget about them).
a similar conclusion may be reached by analyzing Spider-Man's role during the cross-over events that Marvel kindly shoves in our throats every year.
Top of my mind I can only mention Secret Wars1, 2, Infinity Gauntlet, Civil War, AvX and Siege as the only cross-overs in which 616 Peter Parker has had any relevant role. In Secret Wars and Civil War 2 Peter's spot was stolen by Miles Morales, and one could argue that Peter had to share his spotlight with other characters even during some Spider-centric events like Spider-Island Maximum Carnage (which found a way to put Captain America in)and the various Spider-Verses.
My personal take on this is that Marvel wants to balance Spidey's major popularity with pure badassery by other characters. So, If Spidey is the top popular character, he also has to be weaker than almost any other hero.
So the average kid could still idolize Spidey, while having nerdgasms and power fantasies over Captain America and Iron Man.
The MCU has little to do in all this as it started durong tge very first Marvel Team Up issues in the 70s.