10 Best Comic Runs Of All Time

Spider-Man is one of the most popular and endearing comic book characters of all time, but the formula that engendered this timelessness can only be found in the initial comics, written and drawn by Spider-Man co-creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

This run encapsulates everything that is at the core of Spider-Man's essence - his growth from an awkward teenager into a hero is all on display. The progression that follows Peter's life feels natural and his ever increasing struggles are earned. This often comes in tandem with juggling his personal life along with battling nearly his entire rogues gallery of villains, all of which come to prominence during the first few years of Lee and Ditko's run.

Over time, most comic book characters are drastically altered or retooled, but that is far less evident with Spider-Man. All other webbed writers and artists have continued to build off this solid foundation instead of trying to reinvent the concept altogether, to varying degrees of success. This speaks to not only the influence of this run, but also to the strength of the stories that were produced.

As most comics fans will already know, Ditko was the perfect choice to be Spidey's penciller. His style portrayed the wall-crawler as wiry and agile, yet strong and dynamic, with the then unusual template creating the now iconic movement we associate with the character.

Spider-Man was designed to be a flawed character that young readers could relate to at the time. Those early struggles are what people always picture when they think about the book's salience, and what created Marvel's most timeless and beloved character.