Marvel Comics

Joe Kelly's Amazing Spider-Man run is one of the most emotionally varied of the modern era. He moves effortlessly from the hilarious Deadpool team-ups — still considered among the best Deadpool stories ever written — to the devastating Rhino story that became one of fandom's most discussed single issues, to the brutal Grim Hunt arc where Kraven's family hunts down every spider-hero. Kelly understands Peter Parker's voice perfectly. Art by Ed McGuinness and Chris Bachalo at their most dynamic.

Joe Kelly's Deadpool run is the creative moment that transformed a 90s mercenary character into something genuinely literary — Kelly introduced the fourth-wall awareness as a systematic device, gave Deadpool his signature voice, and wrote the first truly great Deadpool story in issue #11's time-travel team-up with the Golden Age hero, which remains one of the most moving single issues in the character's history. Kelly balanced comedy and tragedy in a way that no subsequent writer has fully replicated, and his Deadpool is the template against which every later run is measured.