6. Spider-Man/Human Torch
Marvel ComicsDan Slott is currently the Spider-Man writer supreme, but with all the messing about he's done on the book (in a nutshell: Doctor Octopus died, but swapped his and Peter's brains so he was Spider-Man for a while, but now everything's back to normal...sort of) and the amount of references to old stories he puts in his scripts (he's a huge webhead geek), we can't recommend his stories to new readers. We've been life-long Spidey fans, and even we have trouble getting our heads around them. For something a little less impenetrable - and a lot more fun - we recommend this miniseries he wrote with the incomparable Ty Templeton on art duties. For the most part we've been focussing on some of the best stories about Spider-Man, and the stories that say something about him as a character. In the case of this team-up, we get to see a broader view of his history as a superhero, and where he fits into the Marvel Universe as a whole, as he hangs out with his BFF Johnny Storm from the Fantastic Four (BF from the FF). Each issue is about a different time period in the character's careers, meaning you get a potted history of fifty years of Spider-Man comics in about five easy pieces. Plus the Human Torch totally calls him out on something you might have realised by this point: for a supposed loser dweeb who suffers terrible misfortunes, Peter Parker sure does have a lot of luck with the ladies.
Where to read it: The digest-sized Spider-Man/Human Torch: I'm With Stupid