10 Best Spider-Man Stories Of All Time

Creative Team: Peter David, Rich Buckler

The Death of Jean DeWolff is a four-part story arc that unfolds in the pages of Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #107–110 (October 1985 – January 1986), and was longtime Spider-Man writer Peter David’s first work in professional comics. The story sees Spidey hunting down the person who murdered one of his close friends, Police Captain Jean DeWolff. What makes this story so intriguing, though, is how mature and grounded it is. Rather than a superpowered villain, it’s a psychopath with a shotgun that killed DeWolff and the fact that she and Peter were close means that the hero’s morals and ability to act impartially come into question on more than one occasion. Plus, we get a fun Spider-Man/Daredevil team-up, which is a welcomed addition to any Spidey story. 

Creative Team: Dan Slott, Olivier Coipel

If you want to see every version of Spider-Man to ever appear in Marvel Comics all converge in one single story, then Spider-Verse is definitely for you. The drama begins when someone starts leaving a trail of dead spider-characters throughout the multiverse, forcing the survivors to band together to fight back against the interdimensional onslaught. While some believe that writer Dan Slott has overstayed his welcome on The Amazing Spider-Man, this story came when he was in his prime, and it even helped launch titles such as Silk and Spider-Gwen. Admittedly, the story does stray away from the street-level action and smaller character moments in which Slott truly excels, but the brilliant interactions between the plethora of spider-characters more than make up for this brief deviation from the writer’s usual bread and butter material.

Creative Team: Roger Stern, Ron Frenz, Terry Austin, Christie Scheele

This one-shot story is told in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man #248 (January 1984) and is perhaps one of the most touching tales featuring Marvel’s resident web-slinger. It’s not an action-driven narrative, but rather the story of a boy who collects everything and anything Spider-Man, from newspaper clippings to mementos from his battles with villains. Spidey pays the boy a visit and the two spend the entirety of the issue conversing and sharing stories, concluding with the hero revealing his secret identity. It’s an incredibly human tale that highlights what it truly means to be a hero because despite all the mud-slinging from the Daily Bugle, all Spidey cares about is the opinion of one small boy.

Creative Team: Dan Slott, Humberto Ramos, Stefano Caselli

What if the inhabitants of Manhattan all suddenly gained the same powers that Spider-Man has possessed for years? Well, that’s exactly what happens in Spider-Island after the Jackal creates an infestation of bedbugs that imbue ordinary people with extraordinary powers, sending the city into absolute chaos. Slott’s ability to balance so many subplots is impressive, and the story does an excellent job answering any and all prerequisite questions for new or lapsed readers. Most importantly, though, is that this is a story that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s fun, witty, and insightful, and it proves that it isn’t Spider-Man’s powers that make him unique – it’s his character.  

Creative Team: Tom DeFalco, J.M. DeMatteis, Terry Kavanagh, David Micheline, Mark Bagley, Sal Buscema, Ron Lim

Embodying everything that readers loved about comics in the 1990s, Maximum Carnage features Spider-Man, Venom, Captain America, Black Cat, and more teaming up to put an end to Carnage’s brutal killing spree. Consisting of 14 single issues, this is definitely a long read, but it has more than enough substance to keep you engaged the entire time. It’s an action-packed, fast-paced, quintessential ‘90s comic book story that explores the clashing of philosophies and worldviews, yet it never tries to pass itself off as more than what it is. Don’t expect to take away any valuable life lessons from this story, just expect to have a great time reading it.

Creative Team: Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale

Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale really seem to have a knack for telling compelling stories about heroes during their formative years. They did it in Batman: The Long Halloween, Daredevil: Yellow, Captain America: White, Hulk: Grey, and of course, Spider-Man: Blue. It’s a story that focuses on the romance aspect of Spider-Man, recounting how Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy first fell in love and exploring how scarred her eventual death left him. In fact, it’s really more of a Peter story than a Spidey story, with the superheroics serving as more of a subplot. It’s a compelling tale of love, loss, heartache, and how those feelings can stay with us throughout our lives, even if we do eventually “move on.”

Creative Team: Gerry Ordway, Gil Kane, John Romita Sr.

Based on the last entry, it should come as no surprise that Spider-Man’s first true love, Gwen Stacy, died, and this is the story of how it happened. Taking place in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man #121-122, we witness Gwen’s kidnapping at the hands of the Green Goblin and Spidey’s failed attempt to save her when she’s thrown off of a bridge. It was one of the first times in mainstream comics where a major character was killed and gives readers a visceral look at what death, guilt, and responsibility can do to even the nicest of people. However, the greatness of The Death of Gwen Stacy isn’t in the tragedy that befalls our hero, but rather how he reacts to it and how he handles this loss in future endeavors. Not only that, but the story cements Green Goblin as Spidey’s most hated foe and sets the stage for the Peter/MJ romance that would go on to dominate the comics for decades to come. 

Creative Team: J.M. DeMatteis, Mike Zeck

Kraven the Hunter has stalked and killed every animal known to man, but the one beast that’s eluded him is the wall-crawler, himself. In Kraven’s Last Hunt, he seeks to remedy this atrocity by not only killing Spidey but by becoming him. Both Peter Parker and Sergei Kravinoff are wonderfully complex characters, and this is one of the best examples of that, as much of the story is an exploration of Kraven’s mindset, giving readers a spectacular and psychological tale of self-hatred, love, and overcoming that which is feared. However, we also see our typically-witty hero seriously question his own mortality and vulnerability, adding a sense of darkness that we don’t often associate with the web-slinger. Nevertheless, it’s still one of the best Spider-Man stories to date, and it helped propel Kraven into the upper echelons of Spidey’s extensive rogues gallery.

Creative Team: Dan Slott, Ryan Stegman, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Humberto Ramos

Unlike the previous entries, The Superior Spider-Man is more than just a single story; it’s an entire 33-issue run, but it still deserves the number one spot on this list because of how well it managed to captivate readers, despite replacing their hero with one of his most notable villains. That’s right – in The Superior Spider-Man, it’s actually Otto Octavius, AKA Doctor Octopus, who’s saving the day, having placed his consciousness into the body of a dying Peter Parker. Naturally, longtime readers were furious when they heard the news, but those that stuck around were rewarded with arguably the most compelling Spider-Man run of all time. In fact, when fans found out that Peter Parker would be returning, it caused just as much of a stir as when they found out he was being killed in the first place. It takes true, unwavering talent to elicit that kind of 180-degree shift from notoriously stubborn comic book readers, but somehow Dan Slott did it, which is why The Superior Spider-Man ranks as the best Spider-Man story of all time.