What is the best period of the Spider-Man comics?

[Mister Mets]

Since I'm asking the worst period of the Spider-Man comics, I might as well ask about the best...

The contenders (which I'm picking due to a sense that people really like the material/ not as endorsements.)

The Stan Lee/ Steve Ditko run of Amazing Spider-Man
The Stan Lee/ John Romita Sr run of Amazing Spider-Man
With no other Spider-Man comics published at the time, these can be largely standalone.

Gerry Conway's Amazing Spider-Man: Also corresponds to Len Wein's Marvel Team-Up run.

The Roger Stern Amazing Spider-Man: Roger Stern/ John Romita Jr on Amazing Spider-Man, Bill Mantlo and Ed Hannigan on Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man, and JM DeMatteis on Marvel Team-Up, and ends with Peter going off into the Secret Wars.

The Michelinie/ McFarlane Era: I'm starting with January 1988 with the first issues of Conway's run on Spectacular Spider-Man and Michelinie's run on Amazing Spider-Man, and ending with Acts of Vengeance, as that marks McFarlane's departure from ASM, and comes after the resolution of the Tombstone story.

The Clone Saga: I'm well aware it has its fans.

The Intermediate Era: Maybe you really like the post-Clone Saga, pre-Mackie/ Byrne relaunch era.

The JMS/ John Romita Jr Amazing Spider-Man:
This would include their run on the main title, as well as Jenkins and Wells' Peter Parker Spider-Man, and the Tangled Web anthology series.

The Brand New Day: This was the 101 issue run by two different writing teams, where the satellite books were replaced by more issues of Amazing Spider-Man.

The Big Time/ Superior Spider-Man: The period when Peter Parker worked at Horizon Labs, and Doctor Octopus swapped bodies with Peter Parker. This would also include Yost's run of the team-up titles.

Parker Industries: This would include Dan Slott's Amazing Spider-Man Volumes 3 and 4, as Peter Parker gets name recognition as a CEO. Other runs include Joe Kelly's Spider-Man/ Deadpool.

Note: I may refer to one title in the options, but the question is about that period of the main books.

For simplicity's sake, I'm not counting Alt-U spinoffs like Spider-Girl and Bendis/ Bagley's Ultimate Spider-Man, which were run out of different editorial offices. Spider-Gwen did touch on events in the main book more often so it's valid as part of the series.

[Celgress]

Stern/ Romita Amazing Spider-Man, DeMatteis MTU, Mantlo/ Hannigan Spectacular is the best era, IMO.

[Mia]

I started collecting in '89. So for me it was from that time to the Clone Saga (mid 90's) when I dropped the books/lost interest.

[WebLurker]

I'd have to say USM, so I can't vote.

[Batman Begins 2005]

Had to decide Lee/Ditko and Big Time/SSM which also includes Yost's Avenging Spider-Man and Spencer/Lieber's Superior Foes of Spider-Man. Going for where it all began.

[Mike]

Love the Lee, Romita and Kane issues.
Read them in Marvel Tales.
The Wein and Ross issues are a close second.
Actually Amazing Fantasy #15 through Amazing Spider-Man #180 are all AMAZING!

[Mister Mets]

After thinking of this for a while, I've gone with Stern/ Romita Amazing Spider-Man, DeMatteis MTU, Mantlo/ Hannigan Spectacular.

On ASM, there's probably a better batting average than the series has ever had, with some all-time greats (The Hobgoblin Saga, The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man, Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut) in a two year period.
Spec has one of its best stretches ever, with the debuts of Cloak and Dagger, and the Owl/ Octopus war.
And MTU has some good work with early DeMatteis.

There are some other good periods (Lee/ Ditko, Lee/ Romita, Early Quesada, Big Time/ Superior Spider-Man) but they don't reach the same heights with the same consistency.

[oldschool]

Hands-down, the mid-80's for me. Stern/Romita is my personal favorite Spidey run and that era of Spec is also excellent. Even MTU had some very good stories; just an overall excellent period for the WebHead before the wheels started to come off with clones and restarts in the '90's.

[WeirdSpider]

The post-Clone Saga period gets my vote. Some good stories during this time period especially in Spectacular Spider-Man. Norman Osborn buying the Daily Bugle made for some great drama, Peter and Mary Jane were written well during this period, and Howard Mackie wrote some of the best stories of his career.

Too bad this period was cut short for the fucking awful 1999 reboot/Spider-Man Chapter One **** which was the first of many failed attempts to bring the character "Back to Basics".

[Zeitgeist]

I'm not going to throw in a vote as of yet but I feel Brand New Day should be getting a lot more love just based on logistics alone. Steve Wacker did an amazing job corralling a who's who of writers on a thrice-monthy comic book and pulling it off, no less. The organization to have something like that work I imagine is insane.

[Prof. Warren]

I'm not going to throw in a vote as of yet but I feel Brand New Day should be getting a lot more love just based on logistics alone. Steve Wacker did an amazing job corralling a who's who of writers on a thrice-monthy comic book and pulling it off, no less. The organization to have something like that work I imagine is insane.

I agree. Brand New Day was a great time for ASM, one of my favorite eras.

I'm also not voting in this simply because it's impossible to choose. ASM has had too many excellent runs to pick just one as "the best".

[Miles To Go]

A toss between the Lee/Ditko era, the 80s as a whole, and the Intermediate era for me...I tend to view the intermediate as the prelude to Spider-Girl and the run definitively ends with Mr and Mrs Spider-Man

[comicscollector]

I voted the Stan Lee and Steve Dikto first stories of Amazing Spider-Man.
I have always seen Stan Lee as the best writer of Spider-Man stories.But this topic was difficult to vote because the Stan Lee and John Romita Sr era was almost as good as the previous era.
And then there other great period of times as the start of the era with Roger Stern on Amazing Spider-Man and the late 80´s and early 90s.That had ASM being a very good comic book in terms of story and art.And with the secondary Spectacular SPider-Man even being as good or even better with the J.M.DeMatteis run.The start of BND had Amazing Spider-Man being a fun title to read again to me as well.And i liked that the narrative of the stories changed to be in Amazing Spider-Man mostly.

[Pav]

The best period is the one to come -- the one to which you can look forward, hope for your favorite villain to show up, hope for your favorite D-Listers will be brought back.

-Pav, who realizes his answer is cheating...

[Scott Taylor]

Lee/Ditko for me, but thats certainly not a knock on the other eras mentioned