Taking a Page From Marvel, I Will Now Steal a DC Blogs Idea!

First off, posting may become more erratic starting tomorrow. The semester is kicking off, and I'm not sure yet whether it'll affect my posting. Hopefully, I'll keep up a 1 post per day pace, at least.

Anyway, if you go to Absorbascon, and go to Scipio's earliest posts (March 27, 2004) he has some posts on what he calls Dynastic Centerpieces. He gives a few examples of DC rebuilding them (Green Lantern), and makes some of his own (Black Canary, Martian Manhunter). I figured I'd give it a try with at least some Marvel characters, starting with the one I know best, Spider-Man! Let's say this is the set up for Straczynski as he comes onto Amazing Spider-Man and Paul Jenkins is still writing Peter Parker Spider-Man. JMS can still go mystical, but this gives me plenty of time to prevent "The Other" and hopefully the organic web-shooters Peter got in "Disassembled". Mary Jane is not in town. She can be dead, divorced, whatever.

Dynastic Centerpiece - Spider-Man, aka Peter Parker, mild-mannered high school science teacher, plus occasional photo journalist work (maybe only during summers, or on weekends).

Junior Counterpart - Johnny Gallo, aka Ricochet. Was given the identity from some old-time hero named the Black Marvel. While I don't know where the costume came from, as Peter still has the one he used in the "Identity Crisis" storyline, the fact remains Johnny has one. He's a mutant possessing superhuman speed, agility and balance, as well as a sort of danger sense. All of which means that in a fight, he would be very similar to Spider-Man in fighting style, with lots of jumping around, hit and run style attacks, using his various throwing disks (his teammate the Hornet made some with boomerang capability, as well as some explosive ones. Hornet is dead, killed by Wolverine, but since Spidey appears to be buddies Stark, he can probably get him to make more. It's better than the new costume Tony made for Spidey. What an eyesore). Personality wise, Johnny is a lot like Peter, very jokey, and full of nervous energy. Peter would probably be good for calming him down.

Female Version - Anya Corazon, aka Arana. I'm not too knowledgable on her. Has some similar powers to Spidey, though she seems to also grow an armored carapace. Powers are mystical in nature. Works for some group called the Webcorps, which could have some relation to Ezekial and his company, or just be a similar group. Is in conflict with the Sisterhood of the Wasp, leading to speculation they are related to Shathra, the wasp creature that came after Peter with plans to use him as food for her babies. She seems to go a bit berserk at times, so she's probably too out of control to work with Peter frequently, not to mention her handlers might now encourage his presence. Still, given they both have problems with mystical things, a sometime partnership might be good. Plus she's a high school student, maybe at Peter's school? Too much coincidence?

Kid Sidekick - Mattie Franklin, aka Spider-Woman 3. Gained power by taking part in Norman Osborn's 'Gathering of the Five'. Has super-strength, agility, can fly. Can form weird psionic spider-legs. From what I've seen, not as violent as Arana, actually tried to take over for Spider-Man when Peter had given up the webs for awhile. Has worked with him successfully before.

Black Sheep - Kaine, aka the first Spider-Man clone. Stronger than Spidey, with an adhesive ability strong enough to scar people, as well as a spider-sense heightened to the level of giving him flashes of the future. He's also mildly psychotic, but if Spider-Girl is any indication, capable of being a good guy, albeit a bit of a violent one. Probably not someone Peter would work with often, but he'd at least be aware of him.

Civilian Companion - Randy Robertson. Son of Joe "Robbie" Robertson, he was Peter's rommate during the Howard Mackie written "Mary Jane is dead" time before Straczynski came onto Amazing. Provides a tie-in to Peter's work at the Bugle. If you want someone new, there was a teacher in Peter Parker Spider-Man that Peter talked in a couple of storylines.

Elder Statesman - Option 1: Madame Web, powerful psychic, rejuvenated to a younger age by Norman Osborn's 'Gathering of the Five'. Assisted and was assisted by Spider-Man in the past. Has been a mentor to Mattie Franklin. Option 2: Arthur Stacy, brother of George Stacy, uncle of Gwen Stacy, Peter's love prior to Mary Jane. Just like George Stacy was a good enough cop to figure out who was under the Spidey mask, Arthur was in SHIELD. I'm sure he has access to all sorts of intel on Webs. Would keep Spider-Man more grounded in the Peter side of things than Madame Web.

Animal Companion - This smelly cat. Peter found it right before JMS came on board, defended it from some men who were after it for unknown reasons, and the cat bonded with Peter, or at least decided to use Peter as protection (cats are evil like that). I'd have at least liked to have found out what the deal with it was. Oh, yeah it's smelly. Or we could go with Kevin, the piece of cheese Peter was keeping in his fridge, that apparently developed low-level sentience.

Authority Figure - At the Bugle, let's say Robbie Robertson, give Peter a more friendly boss than ol' JJ. Could function as the civilian who knows his identity, if we go with Madame Web instead of Arthur. Robbie's smart; with all the thousands of Spider-Man photos Peter's shot, plus the odd bruises, there is NO WAY Robbie hasn't put two and two together. At school, the principal, I can't remember if they were ever named. In his personal life, I suppose Aunt May, who should definitely still know Peter is Spider-Man. It's much better than her not knowing and hating Spidey (Bendis whiffed on that in Ultimate I feel)

Romantic Interest - Well, I guess it almost has to be Mary Jane. But if we've gone back to Peter being roomies with Randy, that would mean MJ isn't there, so let's bring in Felicia Hardy. She's still interested in Peter, I believe he still likes her, but is too faithful to MJ to consider anything. But if MJ is out of the way (which is what some people believe Quesada is pushing for from House of M and The Other), why not Ms. Hardy? She could watch his back out in the field.

Contextualizing City - Look, it's New York alright? I thought about moving him to Chicago, another city with enough skyscrapers for web-swinging, but I think it's probably too windy for effective web-slinging. Seattle is too rainy, Peter isn't an angry enough person for Philly (I base that strictly off their sports fans). He doesn't strike me as a SoCal kind of guy.

Anyway, what are your thoughts? Do you have people you think would fit better? If you have a good city for him, by all means. Scipio, if you read this, have I got the right idea here?