What was the best Superhero Book or Story Arc?

I haven't actively collected a superhero title since high school (and that was more than 20 yrs ago), because as much as I may like a character, how good a title is depends a lot on the creative team interpreting that character. Since the creative teams on superhero books (the most popoular and longest running titles in most comic houses' stables) change very often, you get a lot of dreck along with the good stuff. That made me want to buy only the really good stuff; the arcs that stand out. Not so long ago, TPB's were only made out of such arcs; you wouldn't see every arc in a series eventually published as a trade. That was the stuff I'd buy. And it still is. My superhero purchases are few and far between.

I have titles from Marvel & DC's "main universes" in mind more than anything, here. I think "Watchmen" may be the best series ever published, but I'm removing it from my consideration for purposes of this discussion. Feel free to leave it in, if you like. That being said, I think my favorite story arc would have to be "Daredevil: Born Agin". I was never much of a Daredevil fan; I'd buy a book if its cover looked interesting when I was a kid, but that was about it. I didn't think he was anything special either way. Until, that is, I read "Born Again".

Don't get me wrong, "The Dark Knight Returns" , considered by many to be Miller's masterwork, is a great series. But the way he revitalized Daredevil is something to behold. He retold the origin, and even though I knew the story and had seen it told in the book before, spotty as my Daredevil collection was, his take on it was so fresh and well devised that I wasn't bored reading it. His portrayal of the Kingpin was masterful; he became a villain I loved to hate, and not just some silly fat guy, which was how I always perceived him before (I know, the image had been worked on for some time before that in DD & Spidey, but I wasn't actively rading them, and from what little of that I did see, Miller's take here was worlds better anyway). And the way Miller clicked w/ Mazzuchelli's art was nothing short of breathtaking. As Miller says in his afterword, some of Mazzuchelli's best work is done in panels w/ no dialogue; he says a lot w/o the characters saying anything. And he is so right; the panel where Matt Murdoch is hugging the crying Karen paige after he drops the icicle on Paulo's arm makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. And the fight w/ the Kingpin, after he steals the cop's billy club; wordless, but tense as all hell.

I said in another thread that if I were going to recommend a superhero book to someone who'd never read comics before, this would be the one. It's a mature, realistic, well thought out and beautifully crafted piece of work.

What's your opinion? We'd like to know.

I was never much of an X-Men fan to begin with, and the "Let's bring Phoenix back from the dead" story lines reinforced that for me. I hear you with respect to the spoilers about every arc that comes down the pike now on the net & in Wizard, but there's an easy cure for that: do what I do (as is obvious from some of my posts): don't pay attention. I probably miss out ona lot of good stuff, but nothing's spoiled for me. And the stuff I do end up picking up is recommended by my regularly collecting friends, so it's been "road tested" for me already. Sometimes they even (horror of horrors!) let me borrow a trade so I can test drive it myself. BUt, like it or not, you gotta give credit where it's due, and the Dark Phoenix saga stands out in many peoples' minds as a high water mark for the medium. Maybe I'll buy a trade just for completeness' sake.