As for the "DC-ization" of Marvel, I'd say Roy Thomas was the primary avenue by which formerly DC-oriented story elements found their way into mainstream Marvel continuity. Roy Thomas established the Squadons Sinister and Supreme, thereby bringing parallel universes to the MU proper, complete with "Earth-Dash-Something" designations. Archie Goodwin apparently gave us Earth-A, but Roy Thomas revisited it, giving us Johnny Storm as an interdimensional hockey goalie... It was Thomas who incorporated Mark Gruenwald's Omniversal theory and created the title "What If," providing Marvel with justification for it's own ongoing grab-bag of "imaginary stories."

And of course, there was his unending, unyielding insistence on bringing the Golden Age on-stage again and again, incorporating it into modern events in any and every manner possible.

Stan Lee opened the door to the earlier generation of heroes by bringing back Cap and the Sub-Mariner, just as he opened the door to crossovers between Peter's civilian and costumed lives with Norman Osborn and Frederick Foswell.

But, in my view, it took the next generation of writers, Thomas, Conway, Gruenwald, et al to really drive those concepts headlong into the ground.

But, in my view, it took the next generation of writers, Thomas, Conway, Gruenwald, et al to really drive those concepts headlong into the ground.

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Sadly true. There is, after all, a great deal of difference between an open door and any consuming need to walk thru it!

Julie Schwartz coined the term "archeologists" for those writers who are, it sometimes seems, incapable of doing ANY story that does not touch in some fashion upon a previous one -- preferably "fixing" something. I have gone down that road myself, on occasion. It can be tempting!

But, I have seen really good writers actually become TRAPPED by this kind of thinking. Years ago, I mentioned a series idea I had to a fellow writer, one known for his well crafter stories, and almost before I was finished he was pointing out how my idea could "finally" reveal the origin of a character that had not been seen in the comics in about twenty five years, AND incorporate a character that literally had not been seen since a single appearance in the 1930s!! At that moment I realized that for several years that was pretty much the only kind of story this writer had been telling; when not "fixing" something that wasn't really broken, focus tended to be on obscure detail everybody else had forgotten.