"Wow. You made Spider-Man sad, congratulations. I stabbed The Hulk last week"
Wolverine, Venom Annual # 1 (2018)
Nobody does it better by Jeff Loveness
"I am Thou, Thou Art I"
Persona
This is true he pops up with the FF in his first year. He has been in the FF, Avengers, Defenders, even an X-book and has the spider team thing. !00 issues of Marvel teamup. He is in every event.
He has always had a rich supporting cast. he is seldom really alone. The whole loner thing is a weak argument.
Why does a lot of people just think he should be with the Avengers? He's been more recently portrayed as an extended FF family member. He's always been like comic relief in the Avengers. Just saying.
Spider-Man is a loner. When he was initially conceived, when the books were really good, one of his appeals was that he couldn't get along with a team and had to deal with stuff by himself. The flood of mediocre team-ups is because he is popular and makes money, and his good stories and relationships with other heroes never lead to him being stuck with anyone. He has had allies, partners, and sidekicks, but never for long and nowhere close to becoming anything like his Robin. Other heroes can be the frosting, but if they're truly part of the cake, something's off.
I don't blind date I make the direct market vibrate
But for the most part he's pretty much solo in his own books, and team-ups are usually one-offs. So he can play well with others but that doesn't mean he has to be in a team.
He's also only recently been depicted as a mentor, and a rather hands-off one to boot. Same with his relation to anything Spider-Verse related.
How much of his supporting cast is actively involved with his hero life, though? Other than Black Cat, not that many on a consistent basis.
There's a difference between a confidante or two and a bunch of fellow Superheroes or sidekicks.
they're just jealous they aren't the face of Marvel and are petty that way.
Here we go with the things must stay static crowd. he must be a loner, he must be a failure, he must be the same for decade and even though the character has aged he must not show any growth. Tedious.
Does he have to be on a team? no but he works well in a team and has several times.
Being an Avenger is more an in-universe achievement more than anything else.
The FF was just a natural conclusion of his close relationship to the family.
Agree, Frontier. The FF is more of a family thing but nevertheless no less significant than his being in the Avengers.
This idea of being in the Avengers as some kind of progress is absurd.
Captain America was a World War 2 soldier, fought in the US Army alongside generals like Terry Allen, Patton, Eisenhower and Commander in Chief FDR. Are we going to pretend that Cap going from serving in the US Army to the Avengers is some kind of "progression". What about Thor, Prince of Asgard who led the Einerjar in battle numerous times in many wars across the Nine Realms. Is The Avengers a kind of progression for him? I suppose you could argue Avengers represents progression for Tony Stark certainly at least in a moral sense. Being in the Avengers arguably ruined Hank Pym on the other hand and led him to his degradation.
So the way I see it, there's nothing inherent to all of this
Those were the original members of the team though, so from the get-go they set up the pedigree of the team and defined what it meant to be "Earth's Mightiest Heroes."
Hank would've always had bipolar disorder, but I guess the public forum of The Avengers and the stress of that and his relationship with Jan just exacerbated it.