I'm going to go through some of the older spider-man trades I have been rereading ultimate and it is now my favourite version of spider-man that has ever or will ever exist. Then I plan to read JMS run (the other and totem spider stories are over hated) and then the daunting task of braving slotts run up until superior.

My favourite spider writer is bendis. For you guys which writers had the best runs?

Slott's run really has been great. It has met some controversy recently, but everything from Big Time thru the end was very enjoyable. I believe it is too early to judge on Superior, but so far I have been enjoying it.

I'd say my favorite runs were Roger Stern's, Michilinie's, and DeFalco's runs. The fact that those three came pretty much back to back, but not in that order, makes them even better.

JMS's run is also amazing.

JMS. During his run Spider-man was actually spider-man.

Roger Stern.

He unfortunately had a very short run (224-252), and was forced off the title due to editorial disputes before he was able to finish his main story-arc (the original Hobgoblin arc), but in that short time frame he wrote what I'd consider three of the greatest Spider-Man stories of all time. "Nothing Stops the Juggernaut", "The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man", and the before mentioned Hobgoblin arc. His final issue was also the now classic first black costume story. Even many of his less famous stories, like his Vulture story, and his Mr. Hyde story are very good.

Only Stan Lee has a greater number of high-quality stories during his arc, but Stern managed to do so in considerably fewer issues.

Honorable Mentions:

Stan Lee - created the character, most of his villains, and responsible for the majority of his classic stories.

Gerry Conway - wrote "Death of Gwen Stacy", and created Punisher and the original (the good one) clone-saga.

JMS - First half of his arc is amazing (no pun intended), second half is a bit hit-or-miss, but that's largely due to editorial decisions that were forced on him.

JM DeMatteis - wrote "Kraven's Last Hunt", as well as the Harry Osborn Saga. Those two are definite must reads, after that his stuff got bad, but like JMS, I think it was largely due to editorial decisions forced on him (namely the Clone Saga).

Brian Michael Bendis - Ultimate Spider-Man was pretty consistently enjoyable.