Football fans have their Super Bowl. Comics fans have super hero movie premieres.  Spider-Man 3 represents more than two hours in a theatre – and fans are likely to eat it up. These days, if Spidey’s a favorite character, then you can proudly wave your fan banner and celebrate his history.

In that spirit, I present this retrospective spotlighting the best writers’ runs on Spider-Man comics.  By doing this, I don’t mean to downplay artists’ contributions. I originally tried grouping runs by artist and writer, but it proved difficult, as a writer often outlasted several artists or vice versa.  I’ll leave it for someone else to evaluate the artists’ run.

That said, I did make one exception to the above rule: I treated Stan Lee’s run with Steve Ditko separately from his succeeding work with other artists. This seemed fair, given that Ditko received sole plotting credit for much of his tenure and obviously contributed greatly to the overall tone of the stories.

Now, as the great Jackie Gleason once said, “and, away we go!.…”

10. Gerry Conway (AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #111-149)
Conway was the first scripter to succeed Stan Lee, and overall, he did a great job. He created the Punisher, Hammerhead and the Tarantula and killed off Gwen Stacy.  So, why don’t I rank this higher?  There are two reasons. First, there’s the aforementioned death. While Gwen’s passing garnered much attention, I’m not convinced that it was a good move. It started us down a dark path where supporting cast members meet unhappy ends, and by now, that’s become cliché. It also invited a rash of “super hero girl friend murders,” with casualties including the Hulk’s Jarella, Captain America’s Sharon Carter, the Flash’s Iris West Allen and of course, Jean Grey.  (Some have termed this the “Women in Refrigerators“ syndrome, referencing a notably gruesome Green Lantern story.) The second problem is the clone story and the Jackal. Granted, the clone mess of subsequent years could hardly be blamed on Conway, although it‘s arguably not a great idea for a Spider-Man story in the first place. Regardless, the Jackal is a poor man’s Green Goblin, and the parallels between Miles Warren and Norman Osborn are too blatant to be ignored. Let’s give Conway credit where credit is due, however.  Stan Lee wasn’t at the top of his game when he departed Amazing Spider-Man, and the book had greatly faltered.  Conway infused new life, and despite some flaws, his first run is generally very enjoyable.

9. Gerry Conway (SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #137-174 & ANNUAL #8-9; WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #47-70 & ANNUAL #5-6)
Conway "concurrently" scripted both Web of Spider-Man and Spectacular Spider-Man and the sub-plots blurred between the two. (If memory serves, Conway once wrote the two main Batman titles in much the same way.) That provided more cohesiveness between the Spider-books, but  regardless, it was just a good, fun run. Conway introduced Tombstone and gave us a gang war between the Kingpin and two werewolf gangsters (no, I'm not making that up!) known as "The Lobo Brothers."

8. Brian Michael Bendis (ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #1-108 and counting)
A fun "reimagining." It keeps all the things that we love about Spider-Man while still providing a completely new take.  Bendis utilizes “naturalistic” dialogue and a more deliberate pace.  “Deliberate” doesn’t equal “dull,” though, and it’s easy to get swept into the narrative.  Bendis also deserves credit for providing a more believable teenage Peter Parker and the best Aunt May in any universe!

7. Al Milgrom (SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #90-100)
“Quirky” doesn’t begin to describe the Milgrom run. Let’s face it: You loved it, or you hated it!  Count me among those who fondly recall the Hermit, the Spot and the Answer. (How could not love a villain who literally has “the answer” to every problem?!)  To me, such oddness seemed refreshing, while underneath it all stood the same Spider-Man that we all know and love.

6. Chris Claremont (MARVEL TEAM-UP #57-70, 74-77, 79-86, 88-89, 100; ANNUAL #2)
Marvel Team-Up published a lot of filler, but Claremont tried to make it something special. He largely succeeded. For a while, a reader could look as forward to Marvel Team-Up as to Amazing Spider-Man.  Sometimes, MTU was better!  Who could forget the Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time Players, Arcade’s giant pin-ball machine or Mary Jane’s possession by Red Sonja?

5. Marv Wolfman (AMAZING #182-204; ANNUAL #13)
This run really hooked me as a kid. Spider-Man graduates…almost.  He’s then cleared by the police, only to have his name again besmirched, and … did Jonah Jameson peak under that mask?  A great Kingpin story, the debut of the Black Cat and a wonderful 200th issue confrontation with Uncle Ben’s killer rounds out the equation.

4. Tom DeFalco (AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #252-61, 263, 265, 268-85; ANNUAL #18.)
To me, this run is almost as good as Stern's and has much the same feel. DeFalco continued the mystery of Hobgoblin, and quite admirably, I thought. (Note that he departed several months before the story arc’s conclusion, and thus should not be faulted for its finish.)  He also introduced a number of memorable characters, including Silver Sable, the Black Fox, Spider-Kid and the Sinister Syndicate.

3. Roger Stern (SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #43,45-52,54-61; AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #224-27,229-52; ANNUAL #16-17)
Stern’s Spider-Man run begins in Spectacular Spider-Man and then immediately continues into Amazing Spider-Man. (Quite literally. Stern’s last Spectacular issue and his first Amazing issue were both cover dated December, 1981.)  Stern arguably understood the character better than any writer since Stan Lee. He deftly mixed the soap opera and super heroics and brought us the compelling mystery of the Hobgoblin. He also never forgot that a) Spidey was a formidable foe for his enemies and b) he never gave up (for a great example of both qualities, see the fondly-remember Juggernaut story in ASM #229-230).

2. Stan Lee/Romita, et. al. (AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #39-100, 105-110 and Annual #3-5)
There's a lot of "artist rotation" in these issues, but Lee's scripting is a constant. After Ditko left, Peter Parker became more popular but still had problems. I like Romita's work a lot, but in retrospect, he wouldn't have been my first choice to succeed Ditko. He made Peter Parker and friends look a little too glamorous, in my view. Still, these are very fun issues and under Lee, Peter was always the "everyman hero" with whom we can relate. The quality of this run does fizzle toward the end, but the majority of stories are quite wonderful.

1. Stan Lee/Steve Ditko (AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1-38 and ANNUAL #1-2)
I’ve often felt that Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko were the “souls” of their respective Marvel creations, whereas Stan Lee was always the heart. It’s true here, as well, I think. Like most Ditko heroes, Spider-Man is an alienated loner. He’ll do the right thing and often suffer for it. Now, take that mix and add Stan Lee. Fans will long debate who contributed what, but I will say this much: Compare Amazing Spider-Man with Ditko’s non-Marvel work, and you’ll see what’s missing from the latter. Amazing Spider-Man includes much humor, irony and naturalistic dialogue not present in series like The Question or Hawk and Dove. To me, Spider-Man would have been a lesser character had both men not been present.