I've read Bendis, Millar, Brubaker and others being referred to as "architects" at Marvel.

While I tend to like most of what Brubaker does (especially Captain America), those three in particular have torn the Marvel U apart.

Bendis-

Avengers Disassembled which killed Scott Lang, Hawkeye, the Vision, and made the Scarlett Witch the reason it happened.

Secret Invasion which had the lasting effect of killing the Wasp.

Not to mention Dark Reign, Siege, and other things that have made the Marvel U a darker place.

Millar-

Civil War which had the Marvel Universe pick a side over superhero registration because the writer wanted to have the New Warriors act like idiot, Iron Man and Captain America become enemies, and wanted to kill Bill Foster.

Brubaker-

Deadly Genesis which made Charles Xavier a supremely terrible person by allowing a whole new group of X-Men (including Cyclops' long lost brother) to die and then erasing everyones mind of the incident. And he killed Banshee. His X-Men run killed Corsair, Lilandra, and a few others.

Killed Captain America then Mary Sued Bucky to the point that alot of readers were disappointed when Steve Rogers returned. 

I turned my back on all but 3 Marvel titles around the start of Fear Itself but I could detail my issues with Matt Fraction as well since I tended to drop books (Iron Man, X-Men, Thor) during his time writing them, so I guess I consider him the worst of the architects.

I see alot of tearing down what others have built but not a whole lot of rebuilding or at least adding anything worthwhile to the history of Marvel.

••

I've heard good things about Brubaker's work, and yet there is this. In almost fifty years, virtually every writer who has worked on CAPTAIN AMERICA has toyed with the idea of bringing back Bucky. Certainly Roger Stern and I did. And in each case, the idea was abandoned for the same reason Rog and I abandoned it: IT'S A BAD IDEA.

To make matters worse, the character Brubaker "brought back" ISN'T Bucky. Not the Bucky we thought we knew. So in addition to actually DOING this BAD IDEA, Brubaker plays the "Everything you know is a lie" card.

What's the point?

(Actually, I think I can answer that. Oscar Wilde provided the answer when he said "The only thing worse than being talked about is NOT being talked about." At Marvel, today, that has been elevated to the level of POLICY.)

I've heard good things about Brubaker's work, and yet there is this.

His work on Captain America is very good but the whole Resurrection of Bucky/Death of Captain America/Bucky as Captain America storyline is the foundation of his run. I tend to like the other parts of the run much better.

Plus by bringing Bucky back, he has aged the Black Widow since she had a connection with him during the Cold War. Yet another character that needs the Infinity Formula.

Even though he has an interesting story and look, the Winter Soldier is a character that didn't have to be James Buchanan Barnes. 

When I was deep into the MU and discovering the history and evolution of the whole thing, I was in awe of how an unseen hand seemed to be guiding the pieces to fall together so perfectly.  I was very interested in the whole picture--The Power Cosmic, The Elders, The Nexus of All Realities, down to the street level players all fit together like with intelligent design. 

I think two major issues today are:

1. Lack of maturity of the writers.  Not all of them of course, but I see a major "I want to leave my mark!" mentality, as has been stated, but also a "the bigger the better" mentality that has gotten comletely out of control.  You have 5 year olds that don't want to eat their cereal out of the Rubbermaid bowl but the fine china.   OR

2. Complete lack of control and vision from editorial.  It could even be the editors that are mandating these idiotic arcs that crap all over everything that has been established. 

Either way it is obvious that very short term thinking is at work here. 

Shawn Kane wrote: ...Plus by bringing Bucky back, he has aged the Black Widow since she had a connection with him during the Cold War. Yet another character that needs the Infinity Formula....

Credit (or blame) where it is due: Chris Claremont wrote a story in "Uncanny X-Men" during the Jim Lee era where Wolverine and Captain America team up during World War II, and also in that story is a young Black Widow. Even at the time the story was published, that made The Black Widow closing in on senior citizenship.

••

From the early days, Natash's beginnings were linked to the Battle of Stalingrad, which was in 1942/43. She was about 10, at that time, putting her birth sometime around 1932.

Just another little bit of Marvel lore that needed to be forgotten, or at least not referred to after a certain point. (When I was doing THE CHAMPIONS I thought it was kinda cool that Natasha was pushing 50 and still HOT. But that was about the last time that really played.)