Rick Jones sure knows how to get around... think of him as the main Marvel Universe groupie.
An orphan Jones made his presence felt in Hulk #1, when he accepted a dare from some friends and drove onto the gamma bomb test site. Dr. Bruce Banner noticed him dicking around on this top-secret military base (only in comics can you have a kid sneaking onto a top secret base in a car unnoticed) and went out onto the site to rescue him. Due to some internal politics and a Soviet spy... the countdown continued while Banner was out rescuing the kid. When the gamma bomb went off, Jones was saved by Banner by being thrown into a ditch (no gamma radiation doesn't know how to get into ditches) , but Banner was exposed to the radiation and transformed, into the Incredible Hulk. They have been close (not that close) friends and allies ever since.
Rick Jones is also responsible for the creation of the super team The Avengers. When the Asgardian god of mischief, Loki was mind controlling the Hulk, Jones called on Thor, Iron Man, Ant-Man, and the Wasp for assistance. The heroes defeated Loki and decided to form the Avengers.
When the Avengers found Captain America, he thought Jones looked like Bucky, his erstwhile WWII sidekick (Cap has this fetish for boys much like Batman) . Jones would soon be wearing the Bucky costume (but only for a while).
Later on Jones found himself wearing a pair of Kree Nega-Bands. When he wore the cosmic bands and slammed them together, he would be physically replaced by Captain Mar-Vell, who was trapped in the Negative Zone when not taking over Jones' life.
They were soon involved in the Kree-Skrull War (the standard for Marvel's intergalactic war stories) which was ended only when the Kree Supreme Intelligence unlocked psionic potential of Rick's (is Rick a mutant too?) mind, called the Destiny Force.
When Captain Mar-Vell died from cancer Rick then went back to hanging out with the Hulk (who really knew how to party), where he met Marlo Jones. They had a good relationship, until Marlo was killed.
She eventually was revived (nobody ever dies forever in the Marvel Universe) and they got married. They then started their own TV trash/talk show called, "Keeping up with the Jones."
Later on, the Hulk (he was pissed off and mindless at this point), threw Jones against a wall, paralyzing him. This with the death of Betty Banner, caused Rick to get depressed again.
Rick's Destiny Force powers then resurfaced, causing the Time Keepers (who are they? I didn't read this mini-series Avengers Forever, I think it was called). who want Rick dead, so that they can wipe out humanity and prevent them from taking over other civilizations (typical). Jones calls on the Avengers again only this time from various times, including a future Captain Marvel, who is actually a future version of Jones himself. When the future Rick Jones becomes injured during battle, Captain Marvel merges with the present day Rick Jones. (are you confused yet?).
When Jones returns to the present day Marvel Universe, he finds Nega-Bands on his wrists once again. But now when he snaps them together, he is replaced by the present day Genis, not the future Genis (now yer confused... so am I) because of a temporal-flux. Jones as the new Captain Marvel also has the new ability of cosmic awareness (just like I do when I eat LSD).
Damn, this kid sure gets around... oh and with all the Captain Mar-vell confusion/schizophrenia Jones separated from Marlo and went back to his swinging bachelor superhero groupie lifestyle. | 
