Best runs in characters

[Seren]

I think Kelly Thompson's run on Captain Marvel has surpassed Kelly Sue Deconnick's for me.

Dennis Hopeless' Spider-Woman is what made Jessica Drew my favorite character

Waid/Samnee Black Widow

[gurkle]

I'm going to list my favorite runs in terms of characterization. This doesn't necessarily mean the best run they were in but the one that features my favorite take on that particular character.

Scarlet Witch: Kurt Busiek Avengers (with Abnett/Lanning Force Works as a close runner-up)
Wasp: Roger Stern/John Buscema Avengers
Vision: Roy Thomas Avengers
Hawkeye: Thunderbolts
Captain America: J.M. DeMatteis Captain America
Iron Man: Archie Goodwin Iron Man
Peter Parker/Spider-Man: Lee/Romita Spider-Man
Reed Richards: Mark Waid Fantastic Four
Sue Storm/Invisible Girl/Woman: John Byrne FF
Johnny Storm/Human Torch: Chris Claremont FF
Ben Grimm/Thing: Lee/Kirby FF
Daredevil/Matt Murdock: Ann Nocenti

I was going to do this for the individual X-Men but I find I can't separate most of them in my mind from Chris Claremont because he wrote it for so long and has so much influence on later characterizations.

[Personamanx]

For Spider-Man I would probably give it to Brian Bendis, and the totality of his Ultimate Spider-Man stories. I don't think there's been any other runs of any length that were as consistent or as enjoyable.

[K7P5V]

Busiek/Bagley on T-Bolts:


Fabian Nicieza on T-Bolts:


Peter David on Captain Marvel:

[K7P5V]

Ellis/Shalvey on Moon Knight

Agreed. Too bad it only lasted six issues:

Nicieza - Gambit

Agreed. It seems Nicieza is one of the few who can write Remy:

For Spider-Man I would probably give it to Brian Bendis.

Agreed. Bendis' Ultimate Peter Parker will live on in our hearts:

[K7P5V]

Jim Starlin on Silver Surfer

Totally agree. As long as Ron Lim was at the helm, I enjoyed the first three runs of the Silver Surfer...

Englehart - 80's run:


Starlin - 90's run:


Marz - 90's run:

[Grapeweasel]

For Spider-Man I would probably give it to Brian Bendis, and the totality of his Ultimate Spider-Man stories. I don't think there's been any other runs of any length that were as consistent or as enjoyable.

Bendis took 40 years of actual innovation, cherry-picked the stuff he liked, and everyone acted like something was being created. The Marvel Adventures Spider-Man did the exact same thing without all the pretension.

[PCN24454]

Bendis took 40 years of actual innovation, cherry-picked the stuff he liked, and everyone acted like something was being created. The Marvel Adventures Spider-Man did the exact same thing without all the pretension.

So does Spencer’s work and you don’t see anyone else complaining.

[Personamanx]

Bendis took 40 years of actual innovation, cherry-picked the stuff he liked, and everyone acted like something was being created. The Marvel Adventures Spider-Man did the exact same thing without all the pretension.

Yeah, it's about as derivative as any franchise comic with 30+ years of history behind it. He had the benefit of being able to start fresh, had a lot of stories to pull elements from, and was successful enough for long term arcs to have actual pay offs. Not to mention having long stretches with excellent artists that paired well with the narrative directions at their time. The book had everything going for it, and the result is one of the most consistently enjoyable runs of superhero comics under a single writer.

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man was great, and had similar advantages. Freedom from established continuity while being able to draw upon elements from the character's long history to create stories. There were certainly some fantastic done-in-ones, and mini-arcs. But it was never in its nature to be terribly ambitious, and the frequent changes in creative teams make it difficult to place onto any "best runs" list.

[Snoop Dogg]

So does Spencer’s work and you don’t see anyone else complaining.

gonna get this post tattooed on my back

[capandkirby]

Hmmm, for Cap it's a tie between Gruenwald's ten year run, and Waid's Captain America vol. 3, for me.

[Marvell2100]

Totally agree. As long as Ron Lim was at the helm, I enjoyed the first three runs of the Silver Surfer...

Englehart - 80's run:


Starlin - 90's run:


Marz - 90's run:

That run had me on the edge of my seat with each issue.

[Zero Hunter]

Totally agree. As long as Ron Lim was at the helm, I enjoyed the first three runs of the Silver Surfer...

Englehart - 80's run:


Starlin - 90's run:


Marz - 90's run:

It broke my heart when that book starting falling apart. After Lim left it was just never the same. The book spent 100 issues making the Surfer a true cosmic hero but it seemed like every writer after Marz just wanted to do retreds of the tourtured poor soul version from the original Stan Lee run. I mean the book had good writers with the likes of George Perez and J.M. DeMatteis, but it could never capture the fun of those first 105 issues and the art was no where near as good as when Lim was on the book. When Lim left with issue 92 you could kind of feel Marz losing interest and he was gone a year latter himself.

[K7P5V]

Hmmm, for Cap it's a tie between Gruenwald's ten year run, and Waid's Captain America vol. 3, for me.

Agreed. But Waid's run from Vol. 1 will always be my favorite:

That run had me on the edge of my seat with each issue.

Agreed. Bringing back Thanos & making him an adversary for the Silver Surfer did wonders for Marvel Cosmic:

It broke my heart when that book starting falling apart. After Lim left it was just never the same. The book spent 100 issues making the Surfer a true cosmic hero but it seemed like every writer after Marz just wanted to do retreds of the tourtured poor soul version from the original Stan Lee run. I mean the book had good writers with the likes of George Perez and J.M. DeMatteis, but it could never capture the fun of those first 105 issues and the art was no where near as good as when Lim was on the book. When Lim left with issue 92 you could kind of feel Marz losing interest and he was gone a year latter himself.

Agreed. However, I always thought DeMatteis' run had potential (especially with pleasant artwork from the ever-reliable Ron Garney):

[nnelg]

Claremont/ Lobdell/Nicieza on X-men
Hama/Claremont on Wolverine
Simonson on Thor
Busiek on Avengers
Grunewald on Captain America
Dixon on Punisher
Peter David on Hulk, X-Factor
Howard Mackie Ghost Rider, Mutant X
John Byrne on Alpha Flight