I'd definitely pick up Spidey... Slott's been pretty consistently good. I enjoyed the 'Superior' arc quite a bit, and what I've read of the rest is good as well.

If you like 'teen' type books, Avengers Academy and the sort of follow up Avengers Arena were also both quite good, but keep me might it's a teen book, it's gets a little hipster at times.

Bendis' X-Books are decent, but the move at a glacial pace that gets pretty frustrating.

Iron Man has been pretty meh under Gillien... I wouldn't be buying it if I didn't have a huge run of it.

Stay far, far, far, away from Hickman. ( Unless you like him, I guess). The man is terrible. I can't wait until he goes off to indy land, hopefully never to be seen at Marvel again.

On the DC side, Morrison's stuff with Damian Wayne is decent, somewhat contiunity heavy. The pre-New 52 stuff looks really good, but I haven't read it yet.

The only New 52 Title I'd recommend is Aquaman.

If you are looking for Bat stuff to read, look no further than Gotham Central. Rucka, Brubaker, Lark and company. The focus is on the Gotham PD post Gordon and Bats is only a supporting character in it, but for my money it's the best Bat-related book of the 21st century.

For Cap, I'd also say Brubaker's run.

As for Spidey, lost interest sometime during the Ben Reilly debacle and never went back, so really can't help you there.

Fraction and Larroca's Invincible Iron Man was decent, not great. I sampled parts of it via trades from the library but never felt the need to go get the rest.

Unlike Wildfire, I enjoyed what I read of Hickman's FF, again via trades from the library, but couldn't stand what I read of Morrison's Batman, especially where Damian Wayne was concerned.

Outside those you mentioned but sticking to big 2 super-hero stuff since that seems to be the focus of what you want to read...Immortal Iron Fist under Brubaker & Fraction, James Robinson's Shade series in the new52, Daredevil by Bendis & Maleev and Brubaker & Lark all worth checking out. All of Jeff Parker's Agents of Atlas stuff is worth tracking down as well. If you are looking for X-related stuff, I quite enjoyed the 2003 Mystique series by BK Vaughan (later issues were by McKeever and I have heard they were good too but haven't gotten around to reading them yet. Also from BKV-the Dr. Strange The Oath mini with art by Marcos Martin is well worth checking out. The early issues of the first Secret Avengers run by Brubaker and Warren Ellis were also a good read. I also quite liked the Sword of Atlantis issues of Aquaman, but that's because I am a fan of things sword and sorcery. The cosmic stuff from Abnett & Lanning at Marvel gets a lot of positive vibes and I am currently tracking down a lot of it to read, but the GotG issues are going berserk in back issue process right now so I am waiting for trades on that stuff. If you like sci-fi/cosmic, also check out the 8 issue Adam Strange mini by Diggle and Pascal Ferry from '04 (collected in trade as Planet Heist).

If you want indy stuff form this century as well, let us know, I am sure a lot of folks have recommendations outside big 2 super-heroes too.

-M

Runs I remember very fondly:

Mark Waid's Daredevil.
Gail Simone's Secret Six.
Pak & van Lente's Incredible Hercules/Herc.
Abnett & Lanning's Guardians of the Galaxy (as well as the event series around them: Annihilation, War of Kings etc.)
Hawkeye by Fraction.
Lapinot by Trondheim
Conan by Kurt Busiek.
Astro City by Busiek.

I enjoyed Astonishing X-men by Joss Whedon and John Cassidy. It ran from 1-24 (2004-2007).

BATMAN

I loved Morrison's run on Batman from start to finish. As mentioned above, Paul Dini's work might have been even a little better. Gotham Central should definitely be on the short list as well. The Brubaker/ Rucka issues in Batman and Detective are also worth reading. My other favorites involve cartoons and Adam West, so that's my list.

SPIDEY
Ultimate Spider-Man by Bendis and Bagley is probably my favorite Spider-Man run since Lee/ Romita Sr. I liked most of issues by Straczynski until Sins Past. The Paul Jenkins work of the era on Peter Parker was even better. Since One More Day, it's been a very mixed bag for me and I stopped collecting back issues right before Doc Ock took over.

IRON MAN
My last Iron Man comic read was when Kurt Busiek was the writer.

CAPTAIN AMERICA
I liked the Brubaker run, but stopped when Cap was killed and haven't been back since.

FANTASTIC FOUR
I found Millar's run satisfactory and really disliked Hickman's. For me, Mark Waid's Fantastic Four is the best era of all time, except for Stan and Jack.

SECRET SIX
I read the Villains United mini series and that was enough.

MARVEL
The only other Marvels I've liked were the first two volumes of The Ultimates and The Pulse, a comic about the Daily Bugle staff.

DC
The last decade the two authors at DC I've loved above all others are Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns. I enjoyed Final Crisis, 7 Soldiers, Batman whatever, Flash, Aquaman , JSA, Green Lantern, Blackest Night, Infinite Crisis and others. For a taste of the DCU I recommend Brave & the Bold. Mark Waid's and J Michael Stracyznski's issues were great and many of them are done in one.

OTHERS
Astro City and Invincible

Good call, but most of what I loved about it was its throwback feel. It was a massive homage to the Claremont Era.

A few have already been mentioned, but my list would include:

Whedon's Astonishing X-Men run -- loved the back and forth between Kitty Pryde and Emma Frost

Daredevil -- I've read pretty much everything from Frank Miller's first run and onward, and I'd rank Bendis's run with Miller and Waid as the top three most entertaining runs from the past ~34 years.

Immortal Iron First -- The first 17 issues by Fraction et al tend to get the most attention, but I enjoyed the series as a whole.

Slott's run on Amazing Spider-Man #648-700 -- Superior Spider-Man was entertaining, but I found the ASM issues to be the stronger stories overall. I liked how Slott brought back the idea of Peter being a science whiz -- it makes sense that if he's so smart, he should be able to get a job at a place like Horizon instead of being forced to peddle Spidey photos.

Superman: Birthright by Mark Waid -- Waid was born to write Superman, it's a shame that he probably won't get a chance to write an extended run on the character anytime in the near future.

Superman for All Seasons by Jeph Leob