so I often read positive review of Ultimate Spider-Man (on the Bendis boards)

and sales numbers prove this

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Suggest. Other variables are possible as well. (such as John Romita, Jr.leaving right before Sins Past)

You read positive reviews of USM on a Bendis! board?  Shocking!

Thomas, there are always exceptions to the rule.  Nothing is ever universally panned, just like nothing is ever universally loved.  Let's not talk in absolutes, shall we?  Because you used Google to find one or two good reviews on SECRET WAR doesn't mean that the majority of fans loved it.  The fans I talked to back that up.  Same with JMS, although it's no surprise that the people posting to Spider Fan will swallow just about anything pertaining to their favorite character.

Anywho, continue speaking in absolutes and generalities if is suits you and your position.  Me, I don't know why people continually defend JMS and the absolutely shitty things he's done to my all-time favorite character and I've got quite a few people who back me up, including pre-"The Others" sales figures.

QUOTE: 2. I'm very happy to have found a copy of the Power of Iron Man (which includes that epic), and wish Marvel would just publish a new version of the trade, or a series of David Michelline Visionaries trades.

Good news!  The TPB is scheduled for reprinting under the name Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle.  It's scheduled for release February 15, and will include Iron Man #120-128.  Like you, I have the TPB from 20 years ago, but I'm thinking of picking this one up just to send Marvel the message that there is an audience for this stuff.

I think the run begining from there (when Michelinie/Layton took over) for the next decade or so (through the end of the JB/JRjr run) is just phenomenal (unlike some who have posted in this thread, I thought the Denny O'Neill run was good stuff).  Ideally, Marvel would reprint that entire decade's worth of Iron Man comics.

Thomas, there are always exceptions to the rule.  Nothing is ever universally panned, just like nothing is ever universally loved.  Let's not talk in absolutes, shall we?  Because you used Google to find one or two good reviews on SECRET WAR doesn't mean that the majority of fans loved it.  The fans I talked to back that up.  Same with JMS, although it's no surprise that the people posting to Spider Fan will swallow just about anything pertaining to their favorite character.

Anywho, continue speaking in absolutes and generalities if is suits you and your position.  Me, I don't know why people continually defend JMS and the absolutely shitty things he's done to my all-time favorite character and I've got quite a few people who back me up, including pre-"The Others" sales figures.
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I should point out that spiderfan.org has been around for more than a decade, and has panned Spider-Man stories, including many by Howard Mackie, John Byrne, and even JMS, so they don't give positive reviews to every Spider-Man tale..

And it is astounding that I have found absolutely no postive reviews of Milligan's X-Men & Marvel Knights Spider-Man. They're two books I would consider universally panned, which is why I said reviews were consistently negative in the first place. That's the main reason I haven't picked up the books myself (except for "The Other" crossover.)

The reasons I'd defend JMS is I that enjoy his work, and I don't think the stuff he's done with my favorite character is absolutely, or even usually shitty. I think he is a step up from previous Amazing Spider-Man writers. However I do believe a backlash against "Sins Past" was one of the reasons Amazing Spider-Man sales have been declining (in addition to people waiting for the trade, fans of Jon Romita Jr departing, and a lack of interest in a run that had never topped its first nine issues, and included a lot of "filler" tales.) "The Other" seems to be his solution to that problem.

And yet another terrible "solution" to the problem, in that it doesn't solve it at all.  Once again, JMS exposes himself as someone who doesn't "get" Spider-Man, Peter Parker or his supporting cast.  "The Other", every single story element, is proof of this.  It's a terrible piece of crap and indicative of the majority of his run...a run that has gone on far too long and, to my mind, has done far too much damage to the character.