User blog comment:20thCentFopp/How Realism Caused the Failure of the Original Incredible Hulk/@comment-24308873-20131130204326/@comment-23748647-20131130212922

You certainly have something there. Rick Jones functions to some degree as the human companion. Or at least thats his role in the early Avengers stories. However in Hulk, he makes less sense. He certainly is a precursor to Spider-Man. Human Torch = Draft 1, Rick Jones = Draft 2, Peter Parker = Final Copy.