I think this thread is one of the very important reasons why Peter/Spidey needs to stay young.  Peter was always portrayed as being very smart - definitely someone who could become the next Pym or Stark.  However, that was always in the future.  I think everyone (I'm talking readers) assumed that the logical step of the character would be to become a successful scientist.

Of course, achieving that step would make the character very different than the one everyone is currently reading about.  So Peter needs to stay young and in college.  Peter being an adult and being anything other than a successful scientist is to betray his potential, everything he has worked towards in his life, and everything that Uncle Ben and Aunt May sacrificed for because they knew his potential.

As for Hank McCoy, I always thought Hank was very smart, but not truly a genius.  He tried too hard at using big words when they weren't needed to come off as a genius.  I think he really wanted to be Reed Richards brilliant, but knew he wasn't and it was his way of kidding himself.  Hank is certainly smart enough to understand Marvel style science geniuses and help out Pym in the lab and do lab work, but not really discover anything great on his own.

If you're 28 and you have a part time job as a photographer and you still have trouble paying rent, you're not nerdy or smart - you're a loser.

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Hes a top photographer for a major newspaper. Thats hardly a loser.

He's not a top photographer for a major newspaper - he's a freelance photographer for a third-tier newspaper that spends more time editorializing (without factual basis) about Spider-Man than it does actually investigating news stories.

Jimmy Olsen is a top photographer and more recently a cub reporter for a major newspaper. They send him to cover war torn Qurac or to take pics of the Justice League meeting with the President. He works with award-winning journalists like Clark Kent and Lois Lane. He's about 20 and he's Superman's Pal.

Peter Parker gets random shots of Spider-Man foiling a bank robbery for a paper that's going to write a story about how Spider-Man took a cut off the top before handing the dough back to the guards. He's about 25-30 and he's a loser.

As for Hank McCoy, I always thought Hank was very smart, but not truly a genius.  He tried too hard at using big words when they weren't needed to come off as a genius.  I think he really wanted to be Reed Richards brilliant, but knew he wasn't and it was his way of kidding himself.  Hank is certainly smart enough to understand Marvel style science geniuses and help out Pym in the lab and do lab work, but not really discover anything great on his own.

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I'd agree, I guess. Hank McCoy is very well read and has researched different fields, especially mutation, he's just not an inventor or industrialist the way Stark, Pym, Richards or Peter Parker are.

Still, though, that doesn't mean he's not a genius scientist - he's just a genius in a different way. When I was a kid of 10-11, I'd look at Beast and I'd look at Forge (who could whip up anything he thought of) and I always knew/got the impression that Beast was far more intelligent, Forge was just a little more practical. (Side-stepping of course the fact that Forge's "mutant power" is the ability to "make stuff" which is kinda lame. I'd rather have the metal skin or teleportation myself.)

He's not a top photographer for a major newspaper - he's a freelance photographer for a third-tier newspaper that spends more time editorializing (without factual basis) about Spider-Man than it does actually investigating news stories.

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The Bugle is portrayed as the top newspaper in the Marvel universe and Jonah Jameson is very famous. Peter Parker is Jameson's top photographer. The papers reputation has taken a hit because of JJJs obsession with Spider-Man.

But its still one of the biggest newspapers in the world. With Peter Parker being the top freelancer there.

Regardless still doesnt equal him being a loser. Neither does having trouble making rent.

Brad, your point about Forge is relevant, and is one reason why I dislike the character.  His "power" is too comic-booky.  Other mutants' powers are OK - laser beam eyes, telekinesis, cold generation, wings.  But "I can invent anything" sounds less like a "real" power, and one that can only exist in the artificial constraints of "comic book logic."

I could accept Forge much more easily as an example of another gifted human in the vein of Tony Stark, but without possessing his charm or business acumen.