To answer JB's question: whatever makes him happy. Something in the past could be good. Or, in the present, maybe an X-Men or Avengers title; there are so many of those that I'm sure there could be a team that could, you know, fight villains.

******************

Wallace, you win!  I LOVE this!

Thinking of your OMAC and couple of issues of Indiana Jones, my vote would go for Doc Savage.  On the one hand, that should be a title that Marvel would leave you alone with but I don't know if the licensing is a) currently theirs or b) a nightmare akin to Indiana Jones.

But, it would be a period piece set in the Marvel Universe and Timely characters could pop in and out if guest appearances were wanted.

If everyone votes to stay where they are, the series becomes a JB extravaganza, visualizing the current MU in its current state, with that special JB pizzazz bringing a unifying, emotionally satisfying quality to it all. 

Should some wish to get onboard with changing the status quo, perhaps to reflect Marvel as it once was a little bit more, those characters and books become more deeply immersed in the flow of the story which would involve a Doctor Doom from somewhere in the timeline using a master-level version of his time machine to alter history during WWII. The FF, Reed and Ben in particular, return to that era and play out a number of adventures as they try to locate and stop this new Machiavellian Doom's Grand Design for a Square-One Reboot of the MU. The Invaders become involved, as does Hans, the younger version of Doom who plays a vital role in the way things transpire.

Those editorial offices that wish to use this series to erase continuity or establish a new set-up may do so, and those that want no part of it need play no part in it. In the meantime, we get a rollicking FF-Invaders team-up adventure, done in classic Marvel style. 

Come the end of the series, the FF would be well-established as classic, Lee/Kirby adventurers who work to preserve life and the spirit of curiosity, improving the world for the sake of everyone, not through corporate means, but by working individually and as a family to be the best they can possibly be as themselves, doing those things they do best. Running a monolithic non-profit is not that. Reed is not good with money, as has been shown. 

JB himself would leave the FF in the hands of whatever team is best suited to run the book in the spirit of Lee and Kirby while he goes on to an X-Men title designed to limit outside interference from other offices. If that book turns out to be a Return to the Hidden Years, so be it. And he writes a Spider-Man book all his own as well that yes, sadly would be set upon by the Spidey office inevitably as whatever well-considered, pre-approved storyline involving Mary Jane and Peter falling back in love while trapped in Dormammu's realm is undone by an editorial-office directed mega-mega-event in which we learn May and Ben Parker were both killed and eaten by Venomites decades ago and the couple who raised Peter were their symbiote-inhabited corpses, giving him subliminal alien-tech microscopes and feeding him wheatcakes soaked in symbiote pre-amniotic fluid, preparing his brain to host a new generation of giant, spider-themed symbiotes, ready to be unleashed upon the MU at any moment at the command of their evil queen, Mary Jane Venom herself! Bwahahahaha! Peter's whole life has been a lie! Bwahahaha!! Get on board or get out of the way! The train of change is comin' through! Bwahahahaha! 

And yeah, that's going to suck when it occurs, but hopefully we'll have gotten some good books out before it does. Maybe the Cap office will have a title open at that time and JB can take that over, doing the book as he'd do it today, rather than way back when, perhaps with Cap heading an international crime investigation team with SHIELD-level clearance to investigate and avenge crimes done to the U.S. throughout the world. 

So, a six-to-eight book company-wide crossover set largely in WWII to kick off the return, followed by an X-book written and penciled by JB and a Spidey book written by him (with special stories done as back-ups or chapters in an annual drawn by him) until that falls apart as it certainly must, followed by a Cap series also with opportunities to draw, should JB wish to do so. 

I would hope that wouldn't be too much to ask of the world. 

This is quite the tease and a lot of ideas spring to mind... but selfishly I'd want JB to return the FANTASTIC FOUR to their rightful place as a top tier Marvel title. Afterwards, I'd enjoy a DR. STRANGE run since JB hasn't had a crack at him yet!

-C! 

THE DEFENDERS--The Hulk, Dr. Strange, Sub-Mariner, Hellcat, Nighthawk, Valkyrie, Daimon Hellstrom

THOR

DAREDEVIL

THE INVADERS--Captain America, Bucky, Sub-Mariner, original Human Torch, Toro, Spitfire, Union Jack

DR. STRANGE

CAPTAIN AMERICA

THE X-MEN--Cyclops, Phoenix, the Beast, Iceman, the Angel

SPIDER-MAN

IRON FIST--with the Daughters of the Dragon and Luke Cage

In a perfect world, Marvel and DC would both just have the best talent--like JB--switching around on the best concepts every couple of years.  Back in the day, it would have JB, Starlin, Miller, Michelinie & Layton, Englehart & Rogers, Stern & Romita Jr., Thomas & John Buscema, Stern & Sal Buscema, Claremont & Smith, Englehart & Perez, Gerber & Colan, Moench & Gulacy, Moench & Sienkiewicz, and others I'm sure I'm forgetting!  (We didn't know how good we had it!)

Now, joining JB, it would be artists like Alan Davis, Bryan Hitch, Frank Cho, Jim Cheung, Jim Lee, and, surprisingly, Neal Adams back and working fast and energetically!  (Not sure who the best writers are now--all my favorites have left the building.)

That's how you save the industry.  (And it starts with JB back at Marvel!)