Pretty much my thoughts to a T. Loeb has been especially hit or miss since signing an exclusive to Marvel. Cambell's alright as an artist, although he's been away from regular gigs so long that like Joe Mad, aside for random covers and slowness (or random art for WIZARD), his buzz has lowered.
Doesn't anyone find it counter-productive that Spidey's two B-List titles are being merged with his A-List ASM in order to trim down the line, yet they are launching yet another Spidey title? Doesn't that defeat the purposes of the merge (because Spidey's other two titles sold about half what ASM does or less, but still on par with, oh, ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR or better)? Or is it much like when Marvel used to cancel a low selling X-title under the premise of, "trimming down the line" during the late 90's-early 00's, merely to then launch another 1-2 X-Books to replace it? Until Marvel sticks to their guns about trimming titles, no one will take them seriously. Even if it is a mini, that still means an extra Spider-Book on the racks. Like in the 90's when Venom never technically had an ongoing, but merely a train of mini's for about 5 years to the point they may as well have made it an ongoing.
Some mini's have a clear purpose and others just tell a story that could have easily been told in the ongoing. Books clog the racks some weeks.
