7. Unscheduled Stop
Marvel ComicsSpider-Man is just like us, sure, but what makes him a hero is that he chooses to do things that most of us would never think of doing. Partly because we doubt anybody in the WhatCulture offices or reading this right now have received spectacular powers after being bitten by a radioactive spider, but also because we don't possess the pure strength of will Peter Parker has to always do the right thing, even when he's facing insurmountable odds. That's the case with this short story arc from a couple of years ago which finds our hero dealing with a collapsed train tunnel full of innocent civilians. Riding the New York subway (because we guess web swinging gets a bit tiring after a while), Peter's Spider-Sense leads him to the back car, which is promptly buried under rubble in an "earthquake", is split apart from the rest of the train, and begins to fill up with water - it turns out they're under a river. It's a fantastically tense, fast paced story that makes a goofy villain - The Shocker - a force to be reckoned with, but also reaffirms the pure humanistic heroism of Spidey as a character. Sure, he's though huge alien invasions and super-criminals, but he spends just as much time rescuing everyday folk.
Where to read it: The Spider-Man: Death and Dating collection, which includes a couple of other stories that are way better than that title suggests