Marvel Mutant Massacre
Dark Phoenix Saga
Days Of Future Past
Civil War
World War Hulk

Nice choices. My are:

Mutant Massacre
Fall Of Mutants
X-Cutioner's Song
Dark Phoenix Saga
Messiah Complex

1.) Infinity Gauntlet
2.) Secret Wars
3.) The Herald Ordeal (all previous heralds team up to take down the new guy...Morg)
4.) Blood and Thunder (Infinity Watch and Surfer team up to take down a Crazy Thor.)
5.) Annihilation

here are mine..

top 5 year 2000 stuff

Marvel Knights Spider-man 1-12.. uncle ben smoking? peter taking pain pills?? spiderman hitting green goblin with a mailbox??? man that story was cool.

ultimates volume 1.. cap kicking hulk in the nuts.

ultimates volume 2.. clint using his fingernails as projectiles!!!

wolverine origins.. now i know why he's obsessed with redheads.

new avengers 1-5. i know the rest of the series sucked. but the first story arc was really, really good. sentry was cool. ripping carnage in half. that was awesome.

Marvel Knights Spider-Man #1-12 Down Among Dead Men, the first time I Noticed Mark Millar

Thunderbolts 110-121 Faith in Monsters, Caged Angels, Prob my favorite Marvel Story Arc of all time. Warren Ellis run on Thunderbolts, that Inspired Bendis to turn the Marvel Universe on its Head.

1985 #1-6 A Simply Brilliant Story

Ultimates 2: I Actually liked it better then Ultimates, but they were both good.

Infiniety War: I think Starlin may be a real genius

Id go with

1) Ultimates vol 1 & 2
2) Infinity gauntlet
3) planet hulk
4) Secret War (original)
5) Origin (wolverine)

Most of mine are long, extended runs by particular writers, but I just couldn't dissect and pull out a single story from these runs without ignoring a whole lot of other greatness.

1. Black Panther - the Chris Priest run, issues #1-49
The rest of the series was still good, but the Kasper Cole story that starts in issue #50 took the comic in a different direction. The first 49 tie together very well.

2. Thor - Walt Simonson
Classic.

3. Daredevil - Ann Nocenti
She had DD on a weird, interesting vibe that I find fascinating every time I reread it.

4. New X-Men - Grant Morrison
I can't get over how much I loved that run.

5. Annihilation - Keith Giffen
This story was epic in a way that didn't feel as worn-out as other so-called epics. I loved this stuff.

1) Annihilation/ Annihilation: Conquest
2) Age of Apocalypse
3) Infinity Gauntlet
4) Planet Hulk
5) Fatal Attractions
6) Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank
7) Onslaught Saga

Supreme
Ultimates vol1
Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt
Hulk: Future Imperfect
X-Men Days of Future Present/Past


Wanna add Morrison's X-men run, Brubaker's Cap, Phoenix/Dark Phoenix sagas, Marvels, Punisher:The End, The Last Avengers Story, Death of Captain Marvel, Hulk/Jarella storyline, Planet Hulk, Miller's 1st DD run, AoA,---good lord, the list goes on and on....

Definitely Squadron Supreme, most of Morrison's New X-Men run, the first Ultimates, Wolverine: Origins, and Annihilation. It's just sad because Marvel hasn't come up with anything good lately. I know they just want to be different, but how come the bad guys always win? And to me, Iron Man and Reed Richards are forever ruined. I can't even stand comicbooks with them in it anymore.

Oh, special mention to Ultimates 2. I love the part where Hawkeye uses his fingernails as projectile weapons...

I know how you feel. I've always been a DC guy but I do love my share of Marvel comics. The last "epic" that I enjoyed was Civil War but then it fell flat at the end. I always had this weird feeling that Marvel has the artist and DC has the writers.

Let's see. I'd go with a few already mentioned and a couple that weren't:

1. Captain America: Death of the Red Skull (issues 290-301). Really, I'd put the whole DeMatteis run as the best Cap run ever (narrowly edging out Roger Stern's time on the book), but in terms of a single arc, this was the climax of that run.

2. Secret War I

3. Squadron Supreme (vol. 1, Gruenwald)

4. The Infinity Gauntlet (and Thanos Quest)

5. Avengers West Coast: Lost in Space and Time (issues 17-24). Kind of a dark horse choice, but a tremendously fun story with important character development and tons of nods to classic Marvel continuity without trampling over it or rewriting it.

Secret Wars-The Original, still a great fan story for people.

Anhiliation-What a tremendous story the brought the marvel cosmic universe back to the forefront, and as a long time Nova fan, what amazing development for the Human Rocket.

Runaways-Great story, great twist, really cared about the characters.

Kraven's Last Hunt-One of the best Spidey Stories ever, and should be the 4th and 5th Movies.

Maximum Carnage-I only put this in as I am a huge spidey fan boy and the moment in the series where Cap shows up and offers Spidey a hand is still one of my most favorite panels in comics, i am truly a geek here, but I loved that moment.

I also loved how Kevin Smith's Black Cat Spider Man story started, before the 2 year break in the story, but what a cop out for an ending.

My list is going to be very unrefined .. and doesnt pack the punch and acclaim as others mentioned but for my favorite five marvel story's are all ones that i had spent hours rereading and enjoying in my "youth" in comics.

Seige of Darkness (rise of the midnight sons threw seige of darkness)

Maximum Carnage

Infinity Gauntlet

Clone saga (everything up until ben became spidey)

and The boy who collected spiderman .. this story made me cry .. still does when i read it.

You must've missed Annihilation at the same time (which wasn't nearly as hyped, but delivered SO MUCH MORE). I highly recommend. To me, THAT was Marvel's last big epic...and a masterpiece.

As for the artist thing, I'm big on Ethan Van Sciver to be honest. He's done great work on Lantern and a few other things. The Dodsons and Dale Eaglesham are also personal favourites that currently reside in District County.