Peter Parker: Spider-Man got hardcore good when Paul Jenkins took over. He was involved in what were, by far, the two best Green Goblin stories since The Night Gwen Stacy Died. There's the aforementioned one where Osborne tortures him and then there's "Death in the Family," where Osborne, on the anniversary of Gwen's death, kidnaps Flash Thompson, force-feeds him whiskey and then puts him in a truck he crashes into Midtown High.
The Osborne story would have trouble moving slowly over the middle issues, hehe. There were only two parts to it. One written by Jenkins and the other by Mackie (I looked it up. It was Amazing Spider-Man (Volume 2) #25, #30 was JMS's first issue). Great storyline and about the only thing I've ever read by Howard Mackie that I outright enjoyed.
The idea with the X-Titles I picked up over on a Newsarama forum. Like I said, it's just a rumor. Nothing really solid. I do like the idea, though.
There's significant debate as to who's causing the massive delays on Astonishing X-Men. I figure it's a combination of both Whedon and Cassady. Cassady is a notoriously slow artist, but all three comics Whedon's presently writing are suffering from massive delays.
I don't know about a massive rethink. My only problem with X-Men is an overall distaste for most of the cast and the art. I've never much liked Bachalo's pencils. The cast is due for an alleged shakeup, majorly. With the Marauders showing up next issue, at least a couple members are allegedly defecting (Teaser art has shown Lady Mastermind, Mystique AND Omega Sentinel with the Marauders, and Sabretooth escaped and is allegedly not coming back). With the major shakeup leaving Cannonball, Cable, Rogue (BIG maybe, she's been through some heavy shit lately) and Iceman as the only team members left, I could do with them building around that.
Uncanny X-Men finally started to come into its own under Brubaker at the end of the Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire. It meandered for a looooong time, but it came together in the ending and the cast is up in the air. Xavier, Nightcrawler, Warpath, Darwin and the Starjammer Hepzibah are the only ones who returned from space. Havok stayed in space to track down Vulcan (Who killed Corsair) with Polaris and Marvel Girl. The new Morlock storyline they just started has started off quite well and it's great to see Storm back in an X-Book.
New X-Men...I want to like it, I really do. I love a lot of the cast and the writers seem to be VERY well-versed in X-Continuity. I just can't get into their infatuation with using death as a tool for plot advancement. They haven't gotten through a storyarc without killing someone off.
While I think they will have an uneasy alliance during WWH, all signs point to things getting even hairier afterwards. With the Skrull revelation in New Avengers, Bendis plans to weave it as a "who can you trust" scenario. There's apparently going to be a couple people switching sides. It's all supposed to culminate in a Skrull related storyarc next year.