Expert: Kellen Tyler - 5/22/2008

Question
Best of Comics Question I would like to know what you would consider is the best issues or story arcs in the original X-Men, Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America, Amazing Spider-Man, Ghost Rider; Hulk, and Fantastic Four series. Please put the issue #(s) next to your selections. Thanks.
P.S. I realize this is a large task so I don’t mind if it takes you a long time to do.


Answer
Hi Jason,

I'm good with X-Men history and some Spider-Man but not so much with everything else... and some I just don't read at all.  You should use marvel.com and wikipedia as resources to find more issue information for other titles:

SIGNIFICANT X-MEN ISSUES
*Dark Phoenix Saga -- gaining the Phoenix Force (Uncanny X-Men #101–108) and the Dark Phoenix Saga (Uncanny X-Men #129–138)
*Days of Future Past -- Uncanny X-Men #141 & 142
*Inferno -- New Mutants #71-73; Uncanny X-Men #239-243; X-Factor #35-39; X-Terminators #1-4; Excalibur #6-7; Avengers #298-300; Daredevil #262, 263, 265; Power Pack #42-44; Cloak and Dagger (Vol. 3) #4; Fantastic Four #322-324; Spectacular Spider-Man #146-148; Web of Spider-Man #47-48; Amazing Spider-Man #311-313;
*Mutant Massacre -- Uncanny X-Men #210-213; New Mutants #46; X-Factor #9-11; Thor #373 & 374; Power Pack #27
*X-cutioner's Song -- Uncanny X-Men #294-297; X-Factor #84-86; X-Men #14-16; X-Force #16-18
*Age of Apocalypse -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Apocalypse#Read_order

SIGNIFICANT SPIDER-MAN ISSUES
*Spider-Man and Green Goblin discovered each other's identities, Green Goblin becomes amnesiac (Amazing Spider-Man #40, 1966)
*Green Goblin remembered Spider-Man's identity (Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine #2, 1968)
*Peter discovered the truth about his parents' occupation and cause of death (Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5, 1968)
*Green Goblin killed Gwen Stacy (Amazing Spider-Man #121, 1973)
*Harry Osborn discovered Spider-Man's identity (Amazing Spider-Man #134, 1974)
*Peter encountered the first Gwen Stacy clone (Amazing Spider-Man #143, 1975)
*Spider-Man's clone Ben Reilly first appeared (Amazing Spider-Man #149, 1975)
*Peter's life history told and origin retold (Amazing Spider-Man #181, 1978)
*Peter proposed to Mary Jane for the first time (Amazing Spider-Man #182, 1978)
*First appearance of the alien symbiote (Secret Wars #8/Amazing Spider-Man #252, 1984)
*Peter proposed to Mary Jane for the second time (Amazing Spider-Man #290, 1987)
*Mary Jane accepted Peter's proposal for marriage (Amazing Spider-Man #292, 1987)
*Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson married (Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21, 1987)
*Mary Jane announced she is pregnant (Spectacular Spider-Man #220, 1995)
*Spider-Man (temporarily) quit being Spider-Man (Spectacular Spider-Man #229, 1995)
*Aunt May discovered Peter is Spider-Man (Amazing Spider-Man #35, 2001)
*Joined the New Avengers. (New Avengers #3, 2005)
*Died after battle with Morlun (Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #3, 2006) & then reborn (Amazing Spider-Man #527, 2006)
*Discovered new powers (Amazing Spider-Man #529, 2006)
*Received new costume from Tony Stark (Amazing Spider-Man #529, 2006)
*Publicly revealed identity (Civil War #2, 2006)
*Betrayed Tony Stark and joined Captain America's resistance (Civil War #5, 2006)
*Mephisto erased Peter's marriage to Mary Jane and rewrote the last few years of his life (Amazing Spider-Man #545, 2007)


Some other stuff:
Avengers arcs --
*Kree/Skrull War
*Scarlet Witch/Vision children and breakdown
*West Coast Avengers
*Disassembled

I have nothing for Iron Man, Captain America, Ghost Rider, Hulk, or the Fantastic Four.  Sorry.

K