I Can't Decide Whether It's Intentional, Or A Happy Accident

I remember when Bendis started New Avengers, and he was discussing his choices for the roster, he mentioned that part of why he wanted Wolverine and Spider-Man on the team was he thought they were one of the great intentional (unintentional*?) comedy duos in comics.

Now, one could probably make the case, were they so inclined, that he was blowing smoke, and Wolverine and Spider-Man were on the team because they were big draws, and would lend something extra to the title in terms of sales**. However, I think Bendis really believes that statement, because that seems to be how he plays them in the Ultimate Spider-Man. Spider-Man swings (no pun intended) between thinking Wolverine's the coolest guy ever, and a lunatic who drags everyone around him into a mad world of explosions and pain***.

What I found interesting is that the comedy between the two never came together, not while I was reading the title anyway. Instead, the comedy seemed to come from Luke Cage and Spider-Man, with Luke seeming to swing between being amused with Spider-Man, and exasperated with him. My personal favorite moment was probably during the interminably "New Avengers vs. lots of ninjas" fight during the Ronin arc (issue #11, 12, something like that). Luke gets knocked off the building, rides the elevator back up, the fight's still going. Spider-Man says 'This fight's been going so long, I've run out of jokes', and Luke's response is 'Well, that's one good thing to come out of this.' That certainly wouldn't count as "unintentional", but it got a laugh out of me, so I guess it qualifies as comedy.

I can't decide why it played out that way. Maybe Bendis decided he was doing the Wolverine/Spider-Man thing enough in the Ultimateverse, and didn't need to do it here as well. Maybe it was his fondness for Luke Cage, and wanting to give him something to hang his hat on. Spider-Woman had all the espionage, "which side is she double-crossing again?" stuff, give Luke a bantering friendship with Spider-Man. Maybe he felt like they were a better case of opposites than Peter and Logan, though they do have the bond of being the only two consistent members of the team to be in stable relationships****, which is perhaps a bond?

I have no complaints with the switch in plans, I just wonder about the why. I'm a Nosey Parker that way.

* I can't remember which he said. I think it was unintentional, but when you're describing fictional characters that can only interact in a way you, the writer/artist team, prescribe, can it be described as "unintentional"? You are planning to play their relationship as funny, so it's intentional, even if you write it so that the humor comes when the characters, in world, are not actually trying to be funny. Isn't it? I think I've given myself a headache.

** Which it certainly seems to have done, since sales figures say New Avengers sells better than say, the Busiek/Perez Avengers, for what that's worth.

*** To be fair, though, Wolverine usually warns Spider-Man that it would be safer to stay away from him, and Peter doesn't listen. Because he's a teen with a guilt complex the size of Ohio, I'd imagine.

**** Luke with Jessica Jones, Pete and MJ. I read them before One More Day, so I'm ignoring whatever that might do. Also, I'm ignoring the Sentry, on the grounds he was hardly a presence in the time I read the book, outside of the arc devoted to trying explain what the hell he was doing in the universe in the first place.