My favourite DeMatteis story is still Kraven's Last Hunt. I also loved the recent The Gauntlet run by Waid, Slot, Wells, Stern, Kelly, etc. My favourite run by a single writer is probably JMS's run from the past decade. 

  JMS (The Other, Happy Birthday, Coming Home, etc). 
Bendis' Ultimate Spiderman
Mark Millar's Marvel Knights
Stan Lee (Amazing Fantasy 15, The Final Capter, The Sinister Six, etc.)
Gerry Cownway (the PUNSHER, The Death of Gwen Stacy, Spiderman vs Hulk, etc)
Roger Stern (Nothing can Stop the Juggernaut, the Hobgoblin, THE BLACK SUIT!) 
Jimmy Ownley (Gang War)
 J.M. De Matteis (Kraven's Last Hunt)
Tod McFarlane (THE GODDAMN VENOM, Cosmic Spidey, etc.)
Mark Bagley - He is an Artist (The clone Saga, Ultimate Spiderman's First artist) 
 
 "Webheads" (Marc Guggenheim, Dan Slott, Zeb Wells, Mark Waid, Joe Kelly and Fred Van Lente)  run is pretty cool too =)

As far as visually...Mark Bagley and Steve Skroce had the most visually pleasing Spider-Man runs. Bagley pretty much defined how Spider-Man is drawn today; Skroce...took everything we know about Spider-Man visually and threw it out the window. His Spider-Man is actually poetry in motion; his Peter Parker needed work; but you don't read the book for Peter you read it to see Spider-Man be Amazing 
 
 
As far as writing goes...Stan Lee is the gold standard. He defined everything and gave everyone personality... Roger Stern took everything Stan Lee had done and added a little spice to it. Case in point: Hobgoblin... Stern just got it and knew what made Spider-Man, Spider-Man.

From artists:Mark Bagley,Todd McFarlane
From writers:Stan Lee,J.M. DeMatteis,Roger Stern,Brian Michael Bendis.From "webheads" I prefer Mark Waid,Joe Kelly and Zeb Wells.

Oh yeah! And Ultimate Spider-Man too. I was thinking just ASM runs when I first replied. 

" @Night Thrasher: Whoa, Stand Lee is the gold standard. I just finished reading his run and I think it was decent. He definitely created a lot of interesting villians, but he would often overwrite dialouge and made the comic too similar to a daytime soup opera. And he also did not give everyone personality. Most of his characters were either one or two dimensional. "

Writers: JMS, Stan Lee. Dan Slott, Joe Kelly etc... Are all my faves. 
 
Artists: Paulo Siqueira, Steve McNiven, Mark Bagley, Marco Cecchetto, Steve Scroce etc...Are my faves as well. 
=]

1. Issues by Joe Kelly

2. Dan Slott's run

3. Bendis Ultimate Spider-man

I tried reading the old Stan Lee stuff but the dialogue is too dated and annoying. It really doesn't hold up well. I can understand people putting Stan Lee's run near the top because he created spider-man and most of his villains, but reading those issues now puts me to sleep.

In no particular order:

JMS- His first arc on Amazing Spider-Man is one of my all-time favorite Spider-Man stories.

David Micheline- Love every Spidey story of his that I've read.

Bendis- I don't think I've ever read an issue of Ultimate Spider-Man I didn't like. Granted, some issues were better than others, but his work on that title is amazing (pun intended).

Stan Lee- Though a bit corny and dated, his issues of Spider-Man are still very entertaining.

Dan Slott- I haven't read his last few arcs (I'll get the trades), but what I have read by him is among the best Spidey stories that I've read. 50 years and Spidey's still going strong.

it still boggles my mind that so many people like and even rate JMS's run so highly....IMO if it weren't for what JMS did to Spider-man we wouldn't have needed OMD so badly....the Other along with his unmasking in Civil War imo were some of the best examples of "jumping the shark" like they would do anything to try and drum up new readers and it ended up painting the character into a corner where there wasn't much else left to do other than remove those plot points with OMD

aaaaaannnnnyway

my list would be

Ultimate Spider-man: I brought this up to Inferiorego not that long ago but if you read USM from the beginning to the end now knowing that Peter is going to die it turns the book into a much more depressing story...there were so many times throughout the series where people would talk up Peter's future saying how he was going to be the best hero of their time and even Peter talking to MJ so many times about their future and how they're going to get married some day...it almost makes you believe that Bendis had Peter's death planned from the beginning

Slott's run on ASM: I don't really know what to say other than with arcs like Spider-Island and Ends of the Earth I sincerely believe that we're witnessing one of the best Spider-man runs of all time

Grimm Hunt: it really showed just how lethal of a character Peter could be if he were ever to slide to the dark side

@danhimself: Well, I don't really care for JMS's later work on the title, but I think his first few story arcs are among the best Spidey stories I've read. But to each their own.

Slott for sure. I think we have more stuff coming in the next couple years to really solidify his run as great.

Bendis's/Bagley Ultimate Spiderman of cource!

And Mark Millar/Terry Dodson Marvel Knights

(not in any order)

Kraven's Last Hunt

Spider-Man Reign

Dan Slott's run

Stan Lee's run

Ultimate Spider-Man

Also, even though they're not very focused on Spider-Man (he's mostly a secondary character in them, either as a cameo, or being talked about sometimes), Spider-Man's Tangled Web is fantastic.

Amazing spiderman everything-700

Just, ALL OF IT. EVERYTHING!1!11!!!!

Gerry Conway

Tom DeFalco

JMS

How good is Dan Slott's run?

Not a very good one. At the beginning he had potential but now his material is weak. I hope that Clone Conspiracy is good but he should leave the project sooner than later. Sadly I don't see that happening cause now he's a consultant for the new spidey cartoon which will release in 2017. If the guy at least gives me what I've been dreaming off forever, the death of Aunt May, then the guy would no longer be bad for me, hell I'd even promote the guy.

@ursaber: aww c'mon. Aunt May's ma girl

@alex_1333 said:

WHY!?

• She's irrelevant to the plot, like really what's her purpose? oh that's right she has none. She's like this really old prop.
• She's a constant reminder that Peter chose his "grandma" over his WIFE. I know Quesada's to blame but in universe, she's one of the causes that hold Peter back from true growth (and Slott's writing).

Did you read ASM 19, cause she looked like and undead mummy zombie that really needs to be put down.

I mean, LOOK AT THIS, It will forever haunt my dreams.

Waaaaahhhhh. Just let me DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!

@ursaber: Damn fam. She's the dope aunt tho. Why do you keep bringing up her age so much like it's a bad thing lmao. Do you have some granny issues or something? ?

@ursaber: for the record I feel like her age makes her wise and cool. But hey that's your opinion so I'm not gonna try and change it.

@alex_1333: then tell me, why do you think she's "dope" or even relevant, cause to me she's long overstayed her welcome. It probably won't change my opinion, but getting perspective can help me understand.

@ursaber: Well I feel like she plays somewhat into Peter's life like when she occasionally gives him advice. And I think that's dope. Whether he chooses to ignore or take that advice is up to him. Anyways she has her moments. I guess I can kinda see why you would want her to be killed off since she is getting kinda old and not everyone wants to live like that for a long time but still, i don't get how killing her off would progress Peter's story or him as a person? Like it might just make it a little more lonely.

@alex_1333: Killing her off would not make Peter lonelier. Its an avenue of story telling that hasn't been explored yet. Spidey's supporting characters such as Harry, or Flash Thompson can be given more screen time and make way for better supporting characters. Peter has a long lost biological sister called Teresa Parker. She can easily replace Aunt May and take over the role of being Peter's last biological relation. Also she's kind of a badass.

@ursaber: oh, well you actually make good points. I can't argue with that. I guess if she dies there is one positive for her. She can finally be with Ben. ?

@alex_1333 said:

Exactly! and with her second husband too if he isn't magically revived after Clone Conspiracy. And we both know that the afterlife exists in many forms in the Marvel Universe so she would be at peace and with her beloveds, watching over Peter from the beyond, just like Uncle Ben. Her death could also trigger the beginning of breaking the contract with Mephisto allowing Peter and MJ to be together again and hopefully have the daughter they were always supposed to have.

@ursaber: Damn. Well now I agree with you completely!

@ursaber: Lmao! ?