about the lack of constant characterization, constant shakeup of status quos, reboots, Crises, consistency of universes, length of runs by creative teams, none of that.

In fact, I don't care about anything but getting a good story. Gimme that, and I'm square. I haven't *really* given a toss about universes, or things never being the same again, since the COTW gang got me sucked into playing catchup with Infinite Crisis four or five years ago.

And generally, I find good stories most commonly in titles outside the superhero mainstream (though I read plenty of those as well). Yes, I know the post was directed at DC/Marvel U's, but with those I find the good stories are all generally dependent on the creative team - and even then editorial fucks up with great frequency.

If there's one title to recommend based on your criteria, it'd be the past 40 or 50 issues of Amazing Spider-Man. What led into 'Brand New Day' may have been execrable, but it's not lost on me that the stories since then have been good-to-great in general, and frequently exceptional. But a lot of that has to do with the Spidey brain trust, and editorial not forcing ASM into the greater MU (though yeah, they do pimp Spidey out something fierce for commitments outside his own book.) But even on that book I've started picking and choosing my arcs based on the writer.

There are also a gang of books I'd recommend coming from Image, Vertigo and Icon...

Criminal
Scalped
Unwritten
Walking Dead
Fables
Unknown Soldier
Daytripper
Proof

all of which have been getting my money monthly for quite a while now. I really can understand wanting to pick up some aspect of what you loved as a kid, but I kind of see that as limiting yourself.