Originally Posted by
Revolutionary_Jack
The Marvel Shared Universe has its charms when you have a character like Doom. Doctor Doom is the most versatile character there is. Doom can work against any hero, any genre, any setting. He can get in anyone and everyone's face from no-powered nuts like the Punisher all the way to the Mighty Thor. From Luke Cage to Doctor Strange. Doom works brilliantly in Spider-Man's corner the few times he has crossed over.
But most Marvel characters don't have that versatility, among both heroes and villains.
--Iron Man for instance would not be interesting if you put him against street criminals and gangsters. Dude with the arsenal and ordinance of an entire aircraft carrier versus street punks, not so interesting. Iron Man also doesn't work well when you have him deal with X-Men related stuff since aside from throwing money, there's not much Iron Man can do, aside from getting wasted by Magneto with a single sway of his hand.
--Captain America works well in street settings, political settings, and cosmic settings. But put him in an X-Men story where you have the loyalty to nothing but the dream confront the fact that he doesn't seem to do much for mutants. I am not sure if that's an issue with him or the X-Men since the X-Men's entire issue of mutant persecution and being on the margins rests awkwardly within the Marvel Universe for reasons many people have pointed out.
Spider-Man's a fairly versatile character in a lot of respects I'll say. Spider-Man's run has worked well when squared off with the street criminals, with super-criminals, and even cosmic and supernatural stuff. Spider-Man becoming Captain Universe is a classic story, as is JMS' Spider-Totem saga.
If you look at Spider-Man's publication history. His major shared universe events and stories is stuff like "Nothing can stop the Juggernaut!", "Spider-Man Versus Firelord", the "Captain Universe Saga", "Doomed Affairs", "The Death of Jean deWolff", Slott's 'Spider-Man/Human Torch". I'd also add that wonderful and charming two-parter with Loki that Fiona Avery co-worked with JMS, where Spider-Man and Loki prove to have better chemistry than Spider-Man and Thor ever did. From Ultimate Spider-Man, you have the romance with Ultimate Kitty Pryde.
But aside from that, there's not much. The majority of Spider-Man's stuff works best with him as a solo hero.