Do note that even there, they told him, “If you don’t want to tell the story with it being Norman as the father, it’s okay, you don’t have to tell the story at all,” and JMS chose to tell the story anyways. So while yeah, editorial told him Peter couldn’t be the parent, they also didn’t force him to actually do the story.

Good point. That probably was a bad call by JMS

Not great, but certainly not bad enough to get in the way of me enjoying a cracking story.

You have a higher pain tolerance than I. That Turner/Lee/flat Image crap makes my eyes bleed.

I thought the editorial interference was to make Gwen Stacy’s affair and subsequent children be with Norman Osborne rather than Peter Parker. Really I preferred JMS’s version.

That was a previous instance of editorial interference.

Do note that even there, they told him, "If you don't want to tell the story with it being Norman as the father, it's okay, you don't have to tell the story at all," and JMS chose to tell the story anyways. So while yeah, editorial told him Peter couldn't be the parent, they also didn't force him to actually do the story.

The last time editorial interfered with a JMS story, it was to keep him from bringing back Gwen Stacy and erasing not just the Peter/MJ marriage, but the whole Peter/MJ relationship, so it doesn’t seem to me that it is really a clear-cut case of “editorial bad, JMS good.”

I thought the editorial interference was to make Gwen Stacy's affair and subsequent children be with Norman Osborne rather than Peter Parker. Really I preferred JMS's version.

And I never really get the hate thrown at the art in the early part of Rising Stars. Yeah it's crappy 90's Image house style art, but then so are the books drawn by Jim Lee, Michael Turner etc...

Not great, but certainly not bad enough to get in the way of me enjoying a cracking story.

Not as excited about that as I would've been 5 years ago, frankly. His Spider-Man run really lowered my opinion of him as a writer (Gwen having kids by Osborn... UGH).

I thought Midnight Nation was an excellent early attempt at doing a maxi series by someone with very little comics experience but a great deal of writing experience.

Shame then that JMS as a comics writer dates back to the 80's.

I think he'd fit well at Wildstorm. Or maybe with Gary Frank on a Superman title. hmmmm...

We've been rewatching Babylon 5 during the writer's strike and that's really what I want more of. I want him to play off the success of the Buffy comic and do Crusade how he would have wanted.

I also seem to recall JMS saying writing Superman was an ambition. Therefore I'll; not be surprised to see JMS Supes

(I can't remember where I saw either of those !)

MIDNIGHT NATION - what flaws? It was Perfect!

There were few odd moments of characterisation, motivation and overall plot.
Especially with those goblin looking villains - they seemed to change what they were all about whenever the plot demanded it - like what were they doing in 'our' world in the first issue, they never do anything alike it again etc
Also a bad idea to have these villains that are meant to be really powerful keep getting clobbered so easy...

If I re-read it I'll compile a list for you.
Not saying it was bad at all, just saying there were some flaws that you have to consciously ignore.

At least compared to RISING POWERS - that was disastrous at least artwise (with the exception of Brent Anderson and Stuart Immonen).

The very same editorial interference you mentioned before.

That and everyone was demanding it - he was constantly asked over and over in interviews at the time about bringing her back in.

But,I am curious to find out what DC books he may write.

I find it odd that so many are assuming he'd go to DC - he's enough of a name (and probably has a good amount of F-You money) that he could go to any company and they'd be happy to have him.
I'd prefer him to go back to doing his own finite books.

if he didn’t like it, why didn’t he just keep MJ and Peter separated forever, like they were when he came on the book?

The very same editorial interference you mentioned before.

And while any retcon of the marriage is stupid, "change one thing and everything else follows logically from it" is certainly better than "we're not going to say what exactly changed, but the marriage is gone, nobody remembers Peter's secret identity, and Harry Osborn is alive, and we're not going to bother explaining it beyond 'magic, now shut up and enjoy the comics we read when we were 13 all over again.'" If only for maintaining the pretense of giving a damn about good storytelling.