I don’t read a lot of comics these days.

That in itself is not brand new. I have gone through phases in my life where I have read more, less, or no comic books. But when I have typically fallen out of love with comics in the past, it has seldom been their own fault. Usually it has been that I felt I was too old for them (high school) or I didn’t have the money for them or I was too engaged in other hobbies. I just temporarily placed comics on the back burner while I focused on other things.

But for the first time in my life, I’m reading very few comics for a newer reason: they just aren’t interesting to me anymore.

It didn’t happen all at once, of course. It was a gradual dropping off of titles. And there were several culprit reasons as to why. DC got too confusing for me with all of their continuity shredding when they started the New 52. If I was someone who was less obsessed with continuity, I’d give their Absolute line a chance. And I feel like I still should; after all, I loved Marvel’s Ultimate line from the early 2000’s. But at this point, it feels like I missed the boat entirely. Then there was Spider-Man, and oh… we’ll get to the problem with him. The last books I’m barely clinging to are the X-titles in Marvel, and whereas I consider myself as still “reading” Uncanny X-Men, I have missed the last two or three issues to come out.

So what’s the problem?

Well, I’ve often considered myself as someone to whom characters are more important than creators. And while I’m not wildly impressed with the crop of modern comic writers and artists, either, I’m more upset with what Marvel and DC and Image have done to my favorite characters. The titles I grew up loving are barely recognizable any longer. It feels like the companies are going out of their way to trash my favorite heroes and heroines.

Can they be fixed? I’m sure they can, but I’m equally sure they won’t be. Or maybe that’s just the pessimism setting in. But I, at least, know where I would start in returning these characters to the best versions of themselves. And that brings us to where we are today.

If I was given the opportunity today to repair the injustices done to some of my more beloved comic characters, what would I do?

Well…

1) Jubilee

What better place to start than at the top? With my very favorite comic book character–hell, my favorite fictional character or all stripes. With the last comic I currently collect being Uncanny X-Men solely because Jubilation Lee is featured there, what would I do to make that title, and her, even better?

Admittedly, 2026 looks to be a monumental year for Jubes. She had a stand-out moment in X-Men ’97 season 2 episode 2, complete with 90’s needle drop. And on top of her regular roster appearances in UXM, she has had or will have three other books featuring her this year: Jubilee: Deadly Reunion, The Hellfire Murder, and Tomb Of Apocalypse. It’s the kind of 2026 that a fan of hers could only dream of.

And yet: I have complaints. And I say this as someone who historically has just been happy for Jubilation to be in titles. She was M.I.A. for so long, I never even minded when they turned her into a vampire. That stretch of her existence gets called out as a low point a lot, but honestly? Some of her best stories came from that era. Wolverine & Jubilee, Patsy Walker: Hellcat, X-Men, and Generation X were all good bits of Jubes-centric storytelling that featured her time as a bloodsucker.

No, my complaints stem from Marvel’s (well, comics’ on the whole, but Marvel in particular) love of reverting things to a status quo: Jubilee has a son that has just been written out of existence! Where is Shogo? Well, he’s in Otherworld, living the life of a dragon, with his mother nowhere in sight. What mother just abandons her infant son?! This makes Jubilee feel WILDLY derelict as a parent.

How would I fix it? Well, I’d have Jubes go fucking get her son back and continue raising him with the X-Men. And I’d probably throw in a line about having suffered some kind of head trauma where she thought leaving him on his own was a good idea ever. Or, no that’s insulting, I’d actually weave a tale about someone in Otherworld using magic or telepathy to trick Jubilee into having done it. They wanted this dragon for their own, and Jubes has to go fight them to get Shogo back.

I KNOW Marvel is obsessed with not having their characters feel like adults (MORE ON THIS IN A BIT!), and this is why Jubes got written away from having a kid. But look: I didn’t create Shogo. You have to deal with him now. He’s a character who exists. Get him back into the mix!

2) Kyle Rayner

Kyle is arguably my favorite DC character. Not that one I feel has the best stories or the greatest adventures or the most stand-out comics featuring him. But he is the character I often feel tied to the most. When I find out that DC is publishing a book with Kyle, I buy that book. That’s more than I can say for a lot of other characters. Even Wally West, who I think has two of the best runs in comic book history, is not a character I buy every book he features in.

Where did DC go wrong with Kyle? Man, where DIDN’T they go wrong with him? First, they eschewed his role in the Justice League in the early 2000’s and had John Stewart feature in the Justice League Unlimited cartoon instead of Kyle. Then, they brought back Hal Jordan–Hal Jordan who had decades as the Green Lantern and had a satisfying character arc resulting in his demise–and made him the central GL again, relegating Kyle to a guy who appeared in secondary titles. Then, and most egregiously, when they STILL managed a role for Kyle, as the White Lantern, they took that from him, too, and made him just another Green Lantern in the crowd. Kyle has spent the entire 2000’s getting shit on one way or another.

How would I fix it? Well, I can’t go back in time and re-do the JLU cartoon or stop Hal Jordan from coming back from the dead. But if I had my druthers, Hal would have stayed dead, Kyle would have been the central GL for a few years more, and he would have passed the mantle on to a newcomer sometime in the 2010’s when he became the White Lantern.

Luckily, DC has actually already started fixing Kyle! In the recent DC KO storyline, they revealed Kyle IS still a White Lantern, even if it requires great stress/drain to tap into that power. I’d give him a story arc where he completes the transformation back to full-time White Lantern and goes back to his role there where he isn’t just a background GL anymore. I’d also feature him in a monthly title that doesn’t necessarily have to be his own–he’s worked on teams before–and reinvigorate his role in the DC Universe.

3) Barbara Gordon

This is the hardest one to discuss because I feel like Barbara Gordon is the least “damaged goods” of anyone I’m discussing here.

My personal complaint with Babs is that I think she was at her absolute best when she was Oracle. She was stuck in a wheelchair due to the Joker, but she did not let her handicap define her. She still managed to be one of the most necessary heroes in all of DC by adopting her new role as the JLA’s and Batman’s tech wizard. I think it was a great use of her as a character, and it was empowering for fans of all body types and abilities to be able to see themselves as a hero, too!

That said, I’m not going to lie and say I haven’t really enjoyed Gordon’s usage since she was healed and put back in the Batsuit. I loved the Batgirl of Burnside run, and her subsequent post-New 52 books have been good, too. So she worked in the chair, but she’s been great out of it, too. What’s my complaint?

How would I fix it? Look, these aren’t real people we are talking about, so I feel only a twinge of sadness when I say: put her back in the chair full time. Have some criminal permanently disable the chip in her spine that allows her to walk and flip and kick around. Have her become Oracle full time again for the JLA and Batman and the DC heroes at large.

There was a book called Batgirls a few years back where Babs took a back seat role to guiding Cassie Cain and Stephanie Brown as the duo of Batgirls. That was a superb role for Barbara, and I would love to see them revive that title.

4) Spider-Man

Now we reach the big one.

Spider-Man comic books have, by-and-large and with only an occasional exception here or there, been unreadable for 20 years or so. I do not personally know anyone that will attest to having liked Amazing Spider-Man more than having disliked it in that time. And this all traces back to one decision. The worst decision Marvel ever made.

One More Day.

In their quest to make Peter Parker feel more youthful and to “connect” with more fans, Marvel undid his marriage to Mary Jane. This has killed interest in the character and made the main Spidey books a cesspool. Because Mary Jane is still around! And she genuinely creates an albatross around the neck of the book where no one will ever be allowed to move on because she’s THERE, but not in the way ANYONE wants her to be. And because the books need to back up why she is there, they have done everything from give her superpowers to give her a boyfriend no one liked. Sometimes she and Peter date, sometimes they don’t, but they are never getting back together, so it’s all so pointless.

What’s more, One More Day has rendered PETE’S ENTIRE DATING LIFE a chore. Because we KNOW he’s not allowed to be married. So why should I ever get invested in his being with Felicia or Carol or Bobbi or whomever? It’s editorially bound to be a temporary thing.

How would I fix it? It’s been 20 years. It’s really tempting to say “And then Peter woke up from his bad dream and gave his wife a big hug”, but that’s impossible at this point. Aside from that, I have two solutions… one would be popular, and one would be wildly not so.

The popular solution would be to have Peter find out about Mephisto’s deal, go to Marvel Hell, and kick the devil’s ass and undo the undoing. There are so many super-geniuses and mystics in Marvel, that this should be an easy story to write. It would be a massive middle finger to the creatives in charge who decreed that Spidey has to be single by just hand-waving away the hand-waving they did 20 years ago. No new marriage; Spidey just defeats Mephisto, he and MJ are reunited, and I guess Aunt May dies. Oops.

The UNpopular solution is… just kill Mary Jane! For good and forever. Because that removes the pall over the books where fans are just waiting for them to get back together. Remove the eternal torture and memory of what could be from the equation. And then have Pete move on–permanently–with someone new. Or old. Or Felicia. Have him marry the Black Cat.

Personally, I’m all for option one. but at this point, I’d take either.

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And those are four fixes to my four favorite “problem” characters. What do you think? Are there are any characters in serialized fiction that are currently broken that you still love? How would you fix them? Let me know in the comments!

And until next time… take care!