>>110009601He was actually.
In the 90's he was obscure but was getting critical acclaim from magazines and fellow comics creators (like Warren Ellis) for his crime comics (Jinx, Torso, Goldfish). Hell, even in 1999 he won the "Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition" award for those three comics. But the general American audience didn't care as much because they usually read Marvel/DC superheroes.
But then he got chosen to write Ultimate Spider-Man, which got published in 2000, and that made him a superstar writer. After that he did Alias and started a long run on Daredevil which got acclaim from the fans, then in 2004 did Avengers Disassembled which started some fan resentment toward him, but subsided by high sales on New Avengers.
