I have to ask the comic collectors out there, what the hell is going on with Marvel and DC? Most of their stuff has been renumbered yet again and the respective universes keep undergoing major realignments. Marvel's don't seem as bad, but DC just keeps on with do-overs that never "fix" whatever it is they are trying to fix.
The New 52 from DC came about because they wanted to "freshen up" the line, allowing them to reinvent themselves for a more diverse audience. It was also in reaction to Disney acquiring both Marvel and the Star Wars franchise a few years earlier. I did NOT care for them dropping the numbering on tenured books like Action and Detective Comics but they decided that they needed a clean break from what they were doing and that meant all books got new number #1's...no exceptions.
Anyway, for the first year or so seemed to be a big enough success that Marvel aped the concept and introduced the whole "Marvel NOW" relaunch. It was meant to steal DC's thunder from the New 52 as well as helping them deal with the fact that they weren't getting the ROI they wanted for dealing with Sony & Fox on the Spider-Man, FF, and X-Men related movies. You mentioned books like Uncanny Avengers as being a contrived title but it was actually a smart legal move on Marvel's part in that it denied Fox the ability to use the stories to be made into movies since the X characters were intertwined with the Avengers. As time went on, it became more obvious that Marvel wanted to get out of the deals they had with both Fox and Sony so things like mixing X-Men with Avengers on one team, hyping up the Inhumans over Mutants and discontinuing the FF in their own book was deemed necessary. You can see other things taking shape like them focusing more on characters like Spider-Gwen and Miles Morales instead of Peter Parker for a while there.
As far as renumbering goes...it's partly due to people getting excited over the concept of the #1 issue and both companies view that high numbered books tend to scare away potential new readers (which is almost to say to hell with the existing readership). In DC's case for the New 52 it did make sense that they were renumbering their entire line to appear more cohesive (which wasn't exactly the case) but for Marvel, they kept hitting the reset button to keep getting that spike in sales, volume numbers be damned.
At least with this latest streamline attempt with DC's Rebirth, they're going back to the legacy numbering on books like Action Comics and Detective Comics even though it's not completely fixed in that the New 52 issues count towards the totals and a book like Action will resume around the 950's instead of at 905 (the first volume ended at 904). I would have preferred they reinstated legacy numbering to books like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman as well (along with bringing back Adventure Comics) but I guess I should settle for the fact that I should see Action Comics #1000 in my lifetime.
My next big issue is with both companies putting crappy artists on their books. I used to laugh at the art of guys like Mike Alred and Frank Quitely, but now it seems crap art like that is in demand. What happened to the Silvestri's and Lee's of the four-color funnies? A huge chunk of the comics out there now look like ass IMO.
Then I noticed DC soliciting damn near every single book with an alternate John Romita Jr. cover. I have to ask, why? I've thought that guy's art sucked since back in the 80's. He regularly made Spider-Man look like a buffed-up, square-muscled freak. I put his crappy art on the same playing field as Rob Liefeld in the suck department. And wouldn't you know...old Liefeld gets just about as much cover art duties. You can't browse a comic rack without seeing some guy with no feet, tiny thumbs, shoulder pads, 1 billion pouches and a grimace like he's shitting a brick...all surrounded by disembodied heads similarly constipated or making the "O" orgasm face.
I don't like Mike Allred on mainstream stuff but his style fit a book such as Madman like a glove. I haven't much cared for Quietly's artwork but it worked for All-Star Superman. I don't follow Top Cow so I don't know if Silvestri is still producing artwork or not but I know Lee is more behind the scenes now since selling Wildstorm to DC and becoming co-Publisher with Didio. He still draws covers and as much as I like his art, it's starting to feel a little dated to me.
As for Romita Jr., I used to utterly despise his artwork back in the day. He did do a crossover book with Punisher/Wolverine/Ghost Rider that I enjoyed the look of and I really liked his effort on Punisher/Batman that I wasn't as aggravated by his art. I get what you're saying about it looking boxy and what not but let's not fool ourselves, it's still leagues better than anything Liefeld has ever done.
Next up, why the hell did Todd McFarlane feel it appropriate to put the sucktastic Erik Larsen on Spawn penciling duties? Spawn faded into mediocrity years ago, but seeing Larsen's lame-ass artwork on the cover makes me feel bad for Spawn. I didn't feel as bad for Spawn about getting killed and his old lady remarrying his bestest buddie as I do about seeing him ravaged by Erik Larsen's gnarly pencils.
I dropped both Spawn and The Savage Dragon around the same time and eventually quit collecting comics for most the late 90's and early 2000's. I was suffering serious burn out from Image and the stuff coming out of DC and Marvel at the time was NOT stuff I gave a crap about. I'm surprised Spawn is still going at this point and I'm just as surprised as you that McFarlane would let Larsen work on pencils. I used to enjoy The Savage Dragon for the first couple of years until the wheels fell off. Oh well, I figure McFarlane is still too busy making toys.
Other little things I have noticed are an abundance of nudy-cover variants for independent publishers and Marvel must being using a roulette wheel to come up with names for their relaunched books. Uncanny Avengers? Ugh...this all just makes my head hurt. At least these guys haven't gone and done something super regrettable like turning Thor into a chick or making Doctor Octopus the new Spider-Man.....oh wait....damn. 
They're between movies so this gives them time to mess with things like make Sam Wilson Cap and have Thor be a woman. They've done worse in the past like making Tony Stark a teenager and the whole Heroes Reborn thing. Steve Rogers should be back as Cap here shortly and Jane Foster will stop being Thor once the Thor: Ragnarok movie rolls around. Like I mentioned before, Uncanny Avengers is them using the characters to sell books but mixing them with Fox prohibited properties. I don't know if UA is even still going or not since I don't buy Marvel (though I've been sorely tempted to pick up Spider-Woman as she's always been a favorite character of mine). They're also pushing the Inhumans and if I recall they just came out and said that Quicksilver/Scarlet Witch aren't mutants nor are they Magneto's kids but Inhumans instead.
In regards to independents, the only "nude" stuff I see comes from companies like Zenoscope who do the Grimm's Fairy Tales stuff. It all looks super cheesecake to me but apparently it sells.
The only indie stuff I keep up with anymore is the Hellboy/Mignola-verse stuff from Dark Horse and Valiant. I'd count Astro City from Vertigo but that's a DC banner so that doesn't really count.
