Amazing Spider-Man: More or Less Amazing Since Brand New Day?

The Fantastic Four may be the first family of Marvel. Iron Man may be it current cash cow. But make no mistake, Marvel's golden child has always been Spider-Man. Right behind Superman and Batman, heroes with much longer shelf lives, Spidey is probably most well known character in the pop-culture lexicon. So when Marvel began a dramatic shift in their main character's preeminent book, the comic book world took notice. Gone would be the object of Peter Parker's affections and constant source of odjita Mary Jane Parker. The storyline was called One More Day. The story read well in parts, but the entire angle pulling MJ out of Peter's world fell flat in a big way, Straczynski's low point on the book. But I'm not here to talk about One More Day. I'm here to discuss the Brand New Day that followed: Spidey hits the shelves like the plague, upping publication to a whopping 3 books a month. Parker awakens in what amounts to the '70's Spidey mythos with a few twists to keep it modern day. Harry Osborn, once deader than Uncle Ben, is reincarnated ("Harry's been in Europe") and owns his own coffee house. But most importantly, MJ is nowhere to be seen. She is only a ghost from Pete's past only mentioned in whispers. For this reason ASM has really taken off.
I don't want to come off sounding like a MJ hater here. I have nothing against the red-headed population, nor the super-models. But since the increasing of tensions between Tony Stark and Parker since pre-Civil War, every other panel of the book was dedicated to the emo whining concerning MJ or Aunt May's safety. Talk about dragging a book to a swift halt. Staczynski did what he could, but its impossible to write anything backed into such a creatively stifling corner. While I would have moved towards killing MJ, Marvel decided to take their lumps now and bring back Harry as well. This removes the later calls of bullshit when MJ mysteriously rises from the ranks of the temporary Marvel deceased.
Brand New Day also introduced the concept of the "Spidey Brain trust"- a number of the Marvel writing stable both collaborating on where the book was headed in a big picture sense while rotating the actual writing duties. The concept has given the book a fluidity that makes it read as if a single writer was diligently firing off scripts. The group introduced some interesting new villains and redesigning almost every main baddie from Spidey's history during "The Gauntlet."
While the writing has been sharp, the artwork has been schizophrenic. There has been some inspired work, particularly that of Chris Bachalo and John Romita, Jr. But the break neck pace of 3 books a month has left Marvel seemingly scrambling for artists to get the book out on time. This has left the talent level well below where a book of this stature should be as ASM motors toward number 650 likely early next year.
So the book has been markedly better since wiping Peter Parker's slate clean. The only real suggestion I would make is to absorb a few top name artists into the Spidey Brain trust and get them in a rotation to improve the book's artwork. It is a comic after all. I suppose I'll look back at this in a year or so when Marvel reunites the happy couple, only to watch sales decline as ASM once again writes itself into the corner. Mary Jane's a nice girl and all, she just ain't comic material.