Rick Jones...thoughts? 2 2

[comicginger1789]

Curious where your opinions fall on this long time sidekick in the Marvel universe. 

[Cat]

Ultimate annoyance. I never wished I was him as a kid. He just annoyed me. He was just..... there. Mind you, when I was reading for the first time his stories were all reprints, and I wasn't reading what he was up to in Hulk, but I didn't care about Hulk (I was pretty laser-focused on X-books and Fantastic Four, with a bit of Avengers thrown in). While it sounded terrible as an event, I thought the best thing he did was die in Secret Empire. I honestly thought they wouldn't bother to res him. 

[djpinkpanther67]

He was pretty good in the Captain Marvel title. For awhile.  
I feel they kept him and Mar-Vell connected a couple years too long. After they separated,  and writers could expand his story arcs beyond Earth, the title gained a bit more readership (especially during the Stellarax storyline with decent Broderick art), but not enough to save its 1979 demise. 🥺

[comicginger1789]

On 1/3/2022 at 11:05 AM, djpinkpanther67 said:

He was pretty good in the Captain Marvel title. For awhile.  
I feel they kept him and Mar-Vell connected a couple years too long. After they separated,  and writers could expand his story arcs beyond Earth, the title gained a bit more readership (especially during the Stellarax storyline with decent Broderick art), but not enough to save its 1979 demise. 🥺

I feel the same way. I have not really read much involving Rick beyond Captain Mar-Vell so I wondered outside of this how he is received. 

[KirbyJack]

He’s mostly grating, but Peter David made him tolerable in Hulk.

[KirbyJack]

For the T-shirts, if nothing else.

[Beyonder123]

He was definitely a necessary character in the early Hulk issues. He was the only one who knew the Hulks secret, and was a friend of both the Hulk and Bruce Banner. Also Rick Jones was an orphan, and Bruce Banner had an abusive, rough upbringing. Therefore I've always felt that Bruce felt like a kind of father figure to Rick. I've never found him annoying per se. And he at least serves a purpose in the Hulk books which is all that I know him from.

[D84]

[shadroch]

I kept waiting for him to hook up with Misty Knight.  

[Toz]

Liked him better than Snapper Carr.

[Ken Aldred]

On 1/3/2022 at 11:30 PM, Toz said:

Liked him better than Snapper Carr.

There’s that to be said.

[Ken Aldred]

I always thought it was a bit ridiculous for one character to end up being the sidekick for so many different super-heroes. Either it’s difficult to create interesting sidekicks or just the easiest path to reuse one with a successful track record, over and over. Certainly, until the arrival of the charismatic Cheeks the Toy Wonder, DC had little to work with as well.

[shadroch]

On 1/3/2022 at 5:07 PM, Ken Aldred said:

I always thought it was a bit ridiculous for one character to end up being the sidekick for so many different super-heroes. Either it’s difficult to create interesting sidekicks or just the easiest path to reuse one with a successful track record, over and over. Certainly, until the arrival of the charismatic Cheeks the Toy Wonder, DC had little to work with as well.

He wasn't a sidekick. He was a companion who helped minor heroes become major ones and lost heroes like Hulk and the time displaced Captain America. Unlike the Watcher, who simply showed up at key moments, Rick Jones was the nexus of many of those key moments. No Rick Jones, No Hulk.   No Rick, no Avengers, No Rick Jones, then who stops Thanos?  Rick was Bubba Gump before Bubba Gump. 

[Ken Aldred]

On 1/4/2022 at 2:48 AM, shadroch said:

He wasn't a sidekick. He was a companion who helped minor heroes become major ones and lost heroes like Hulk and the time displaced Captain America. Unlike the Watcher, who simply showed up at key moments, Rick Jones was the nexus of many of those key moments. No Rick Jones, No Hulk.   No Rick, no Avengers, No Rick Jones, then who stops Thanos?  Rick was Bubba Gump before Bubba Gump. 

Sounds like a subtle, probability altering power, putting him in the right place at the right time.

Edited January 4, 2022 by Ken Aldred

[SeniorSurfer]

He was integral in the creation of The Hulk and even The Avengers so he gets a pass for that if nothing else.  He seemed to just drop into stories as a superhero hanger-on, maybe inserted trying to form a connection with the teens that were reading the books, maybe because Kirby was trying to see if a Young Allies-type group might stick in the 60s, maybe because he was seen as the "Robin" of Marvel, lingering with The Hulk, Avengers, Cap and eventually Captain Marvel, again to see where he might stick.  I don't remember reading stories with him as a character after that and not missing his absence either.    

[comicginger1789]

I find Rick Jones interesting in the regard that he is always just there. I feel like there is a compelling story to be told with or about him somewhere....

[KirbyJack]

...and I still say, @Straw-Man, that he's on the cover of FF annual 3! 

[KirbyJack]

I say that’s RJ, right under Stretcho’s glove.

[Cat]

FEATURING: THE WORLD'S MOST COLOSSAL COLLECTION OF HEROES... AND RICK JONES! 

[JazzMan]

I was actually thinking about this character the other day.  He plays a prominent role in the origin of the Hulk, he becomes Bucky to Captain America for a bit. He's in everything from Avengers, Captain Marvel and even ROM, yet I don't remember him ever showing up as a peripheral character in the MCU.