To preface my ongoing look at the Mythos of the comic hero and essentially how I would change certain heroes/heroines to make them better, let me just say this: I love comic books. I have loved comic books since I was old enough to remember. I started with comics based on toys and cartoons that I watched: Transformers, GI Joe, Ninja Turtles, etc. That spilled over into Superman, Spider-man, and all the rest.

This will be a look at all those four colored men and women I've called friends and enemies for years and years and years and years. This will be a look at how I might go about fixing some of the problems that have befallen some of these characters either in recent memory or plagued them since day one.

When Spider-Man started in the early 1960s, he was created as a teenage boy. A geeky teen boy with girl trouble, a boy who has to hide his FANTASTIC secret from those all around him. A boy with problems not unlike most of the readership had at the time (or would have in the future). That was fine for that time period, but times have changed. And we will get to that.

Spider-man was created with a nod toward the real-world, a new super-hero in the same mold of the Fantastic Four, created with feet of clay and real problems and real actions and reactions. That was the first problem. Real people age. Real people grow old and die of diseases, die in wars, die crossing the street by a runaway drunk driver. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko embraced the real world. Pete made a bad decision and the people he loves (his Uncle Ben) suffered. That was real.

That wasn't Superman stopping a train with his pinky and protecting the citizens of the planet from a falling asteroid. That was Spider-Man making the wrong decision and his best friend in the whole world getting murdered.

And so it went. Things blossomed from that. Pete quickly grew into a young man, graduated high school, and was off to college. That is where the first problem comes in: Marvel Comics does not like an aging Spider-Man. Sales numbers (sadly) reflect this as well. Marvel had something with the young man who had massive problems facing his every waking day, and by distancing him from these problems, bypassing puberty and jumping right into college and a better looking Peter Parker who had really grown into his body and his powers who was dating very very lovely ladies, it was all wish fulfillment.

Spider-Man is not wish fulfillment. From the very first issue, it has always been about With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility. Peter Parker is a down on his luck loser and that is what works. He isn't supposed to be married to the Super-Model/Actress, he's supposed to be alone in a dumpy apartment scrounging around for money to do his laundry and buy Ramen.

But again, times changed. Peter grew with the times. People wanted to read about a married Spider-Man. People fell in love with a foil for Pete to have. Mary Jane. Someone he could talk to, bounce his horrendous life off of, someone to gain strength from. You ask me, it completely goes against what I think, but Peter was a better character while married to Mary Jane. That is the Spider-Man I grew up with. That is the Spider-Man I knew. And that is where Joe Quesada is wrong.

His argument was that he wanted to give the readers back the Spider-man they knew and loved. We have that Spider-man in the Ultimate Marvel Universe. 616 Pete was married, had a clone, nearly died, got more spider-like, and revealed his identity to the world all while becoming a more well-rounded hero that joined the Avengers and fought side by side with the Titans protecting the world.

And in one fell swoop, it was all gone. Brought back to Spidey in the 70s. Which is still not the original Spidey. Yeah, he's down on his luck, yeah he doesn't have a lot of options, but he still is a handsome young man, swinging (pun intended) bachelor, and has the love of a feeble old Aunt to take him to better places in his life because he still has people to rely on.

There are about a zillion more Skrully things he's done, but you get the gist. Pete could have been revealed as a Skrull. Problem solved. It wipes away the entire time he has been a Skrull (since 1975 perhaps) and there is no wedding, there is no clone saga, CLAP CLAP CLAP all has been revealed appropriately.

Mary Jane could be a Skrull.

Supermodel actress. Stay at home wife? Flighty flirty party girl. Worrier? She changed drastically overnight when Gwen Stacy died. Maybe she never came back to see Peter. Maybe it was a Skrull the whole time. Maybe that's why her personality changed so quickly. She wasn't best friends with Gwen, they vied for the same man. Maybe the Skrulls placed her in a lucrative job in France and the MJ we've seen since her return to Spidey pre-wedding has been a Skrull? Food for thought, her plane also got blown up by a terrorist in or around Peter Parker Spidey #26 (during the wonderful Paul Jenkins run) and miraculously she was unharmed. Hmm.

Aunt May could be a Skrull.

This one is easy.  She died. She's nearly 120 years old. She was 80 when the first comic came out, and somehow, she's gotten younger? She died in Amazing 400 and then miraculously (you'll see that word a lot) returned during the Howard Mackie/John Byrne tyranny time on Amazing. The Gathering story-arc or whatever it was called. Maybe the "actress" who died was a Skrull and Aunt May was also shot on day one by the same robber, only Peter never found out because the Skrulls had massive plans to mess up his life? Hmm.

Any of the Daily Buglers could be Skrulls.

Hell, they've all died and come back, and none of them have powers. Maybe JJJ is a Skrull and has been feeding the NYC in Marvel Skrull propaganda for years, and was working with Aunt May Skrull to make Spidey into a villain to eventually lead Peter down a dark path. Hmm.

Harry and Norman Osborn are Skrulls.

Both died. Both have Goblin powers. Both screwed Peter's life royally. Norman had kids with Gwen (Skrull-kids?). Both died. Green and purple costumes? Both died and returned under really strange circumstances (Norman never really died and was healing for 22 years! Harry was in France! With the real MJ perhaps?). Lots of little coincedences.

Maybe Mephisto is a Skrull with magic powers that can wipe out history.

If Joe Quesada isn't going to change who Spider-Man is for the time being, then the only possible way to save him is to kill Aunt May. Spider-Man has to learn something new. He has to learn that his decisions still affect the people around him, even though the world doesn't know who he really is.

Either that, or learn from his first mistake. Make friends with powerful people (Fantastic Four, Avengers, X-Men), trust them with your secret and protect the people around you because you have the back-up that you so desperately need.

That's what Joe has forgotten. A lot of the fans forgot as well. The world is a much different place. Spider-Man cannot make the same decisions he made in the 70s because the world is not like that anymore. Sure, he can be a down on his luck loser, but he can't do the same things he's always done. Villains are being made more realistically (for the most part) and the hero has to fight them in a different ways. Terrorism faces the heroes of the Marvel universe. Despots. Greedy war-mongers.

They aren't just all green-skinned weirdos who suffered similar trauma to Pete. The villains are becoming more seated in the real world, and to return to a page from Stan and Steve, Peter Parker needs to return to the real world as well. He needs to be realistic. He needs to have feet of clay. He needs to grow-up.

That is the only way to save Peter Parker: have him grow up. All his fans have.

Either that, or bring back Ben Reilly and let Peter and Ben team up with Eddie Brock, Arana, Jessica Drew, Julia Carpenter, Mattie Franklin, Johnny Gallo (Ricochet), Toxin, Prowler, Black Cat, Ollie Osnick, Rocket Racer, and the list goes on. Make a family of heroes similar to Batman. Take what makes Peter so great, and add a certain Caped Crusader tinge to him and give him something more. Make him something more. Have Peter Parker take back the streets of New York City with the help of his friends.

Give the books a real world feel to them. Have him surround himself with like-minded individuals (which we ALL do) and give him something to fight for. Make him a real-world superhero in a real-world Manhattan taking his creed With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility to protect the entirety of the city. Make him a man determined to save the world.

Make him a hero again.