SPIDER-MAN--John Byrne (but, gee, I loved Ditko and Romita!)

FANTASTIC FOUR--John Buscema/Sinnott

HULK--Herb Trimpe/John Severin

CAPTAIN AMERICA--Sal Buscema (but Byrne is oh so close!)

AVENGERS--George Perez

X-MEN--John Byrne (for the old team OR the Uncanny team!)

DR. STRANGE--Steve Ditko (but Byrne, Starlin, or Miller on a long run could change my mind!)

DAREDEVIL--Frank Miller (though Gene Colan's and Gil Kane's were fantastic)

THOR--Tie between John Buscema (realized) and John Byrne (hoped for)!

IRON MAN--I don't know!  Byrne, Colan, and Romita Jr./Layton are all just right--in different ways!

CONAN--John Buscema

Neal Adams--But his CONAN is right there, one of the best things he's done (and that's saying a lot).  And his IRON FIST would be perfect!

George Tuska--Nobody gave LUKE CAGE the same verve.  Also liked his Tony Stark.

Jack Kirby--He gets DR. DOOM, probably SILVER SURFER, and (how do I say this so it doesn't sound obnoxious?) right up there on CAPTAIN AMERICA and FANTASTIC FOUR (would have liked to see a full HULK run).

John Byrne--Nobody's SCARLET WITCH is better; ditto GALACTUS and SHE-HULK; and I don't think I've enjoyed anybody's RED SONJA more!  Maybe NAMOR (but J. Buscema, Bill Everett, and Wally Wood are tough competition).

Gene Colan--He's the best on BLACK WIDOW, HOWARD THE DUCK, and CLEA.  He could have made SON OF SATAN something lasting.

Dave Cockrum--I'll give him PROF. X, MS. MARVEL, (based on covers) HERCULES and POWERMAN/IRON FIST--and oh what could have been on JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS!

Rich Buckler--Of course DEATHLOK, but I also thought his KILLRAVEN would have been great!

Jim Starlin & Bill Sienkiewicz--Anything they spent time on!

Jim Steranko & Paul Gulacy--Of course their NICK FURY and SHANG CHI are two of the best things ever, but I have to wonder--what if they switched?

Some favorites that I never quite saw the perfect artist on--SPIDER-WOMAN, GHOST RIDER, and DEFENDERS (though I LOVED Sal Buscema/Klaus Janson!).

Avengers: Big John Buscema

Spider-Man: Jazzy John Romita

Daredevil: David Mazzuchelli

Captain Britain: Alan Davis

Marvel Girl: Jackson Guice

Sub-Mariner - Paul Smith

Dr Strange -  Barry Windsor-Smith

Byrne - Doctor Strange (after seeing his take on Strange in the FF, and Namor, I wanted to see a series)

Steve Rude - Thor (Godstorm was soooo good), the Fourth World (Rude has a way of capturing Kirby yet keeping his own style)

Wally Wood inks on Kirby's OMAC

Bill Everett over Kirby's Forever People

BATMAN--Neal Adams (but Jim Aparo is right there!)

SUPERMAN--Curt Swan (it's a push with Adams and Garcia-Lopez, but Swan's Clark Kent and that whole world beat out the rest)

WONDER WOMAN--Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (his covers showed her the best)

FLASH--Neal Adams (again, based on covers; though I loved the Irv Novick issues)

GREEN LANTERN--Kane, Grell, Adams...not sure which stands out the best; would have liked to see a Jim Starlin run

GREEN ARROW--Neal Adams!

AQUAMAN--Jim Aparo

HAWKMAN--Jim Starlin (based on one issue; sorry, Joe Kubert wasn't the best on the space adventures)

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA--Dick Dillin could handle everybody!

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA--Wally Wood

THE SHADOW--Mike Kaluta!  No one else can compare!

DOC SAVAGE--I would have liked to see Rich Buckler take a stab at this.

Never saw the perfect artist for THE ATOM, SUPERGIRL, BATGIRL, ROBIN, CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN, DOOM PATROL (except JB's ROBOT MAN was the best), NEW/TEEN TITANS (Adams did great on the old team and of course Perez on the new), and LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (though Cockrum and Grell were both great).

Neal Adams--DEADMAN, PHANTOM STRANGER, ADAM STRANGE, SUPERBOY

Jim Aparo--THE SPECTRE, COMMISSIONER GORDON, THE JOKER, and his METAL MEN, WILDCAT, PHANTOM STRANGER, were among the best.

Trevor Von Eeden--BLACK LIGHTNING, and his GREEN ARROW & BLACK CANARY were right up there

Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko--All their creations, of course!  (Though I did like what Jim Starlin did with OMAC and STARMAN, and George Perez too.)

Superman - Curt Swan, with someone with the initials "JB" close behind

Green Arrow - Mike Grell

Aquaman - Jim Aparo

Wonder Woman - George Perez

Flash - Carmine Infantino

Avengers - George Perez

Nick Fury - Jim Steranko

Fantastic Four - John Byrne

The Incredible Hulk - Herb Trimpe

Doctor Strange - Steve Ditko

Spider-Man - tie between Steve Ditko and John Romita Sr

She Hulk - John Byrne

Some other major characters and teams, I cannot pick just one (or two close) choice/s. (I've got about 4 each for Captain America and X-MEN, for example)

Just to mix things up a bit -

Spider-Man - Paul Smith

Thor - John Byrne

Daredevil - Paul Gulacy

Fantastic Four - Ron Frenz

Ghost Rider- Bernie Wrightson

Captain America - Walt Simonson

Iron Man - Jose Luis Garcia Lopez

Ghost Rider and The Defenders spring to mind.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN could have been another "Thongor" if not for Roy Thomas and the imaginative two-year start by Barry Windsor-Smith and years of solid John Buscema art after that.  Oh how I wish JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS had the same kind of treatment (preferably with at least fifty issues drawn by Dave Cockrum).

I really give Stan Lee credit for (among other examples of good "shepherding") keeping the canceled HULK alive in the pages of TALES TO ASTONISH and finetuning the premise, powers, personality of the character until the Hulk was ready to headline his own title again--and magazine--and TV show--and movies.

METAL MEN by Bob Layton--The way he illustrates metal and his way with comedy (on HERCULES) makes this a particular "Why did this never happen?!?"

SPIDER-WOMAN--That reminds me: Steve Gerber wrote one issue of MM in 1976; his facility with quirky characters makes me want to have seen more.  Likewise, Spider-Woman was always quirky and something of a lost soul; I REALLY would have liked to have seen his take on her, paired of course with his incredible collaborator Gene Colan (who always had a way with beautiful women) and let's add Tom Palmer to the mix too.  THAT would have been a series for the ages!

CAPTAIN MARVEL/SHAZAM--Another one that recently came to mind was this feature (complete with Mary Marvel and the rest) by Alex Toth!  Something about his "complex simplicity" would have made this a perfect match.

PLASTIC MAN--And I really tried not to list 30 books and just put JB's name after all of them, but I really would have loved at least a mini-series or even one-shot of Plas by John Byrne!  And, of course, the reasoning must be clear: JB drew stretchy better than most with Mr. Fantastic and did comedy better than most with SHE-HULK.

KA-ZAR--I wonder if Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez would have worked better than even John Buscema.