check out Dan Slott's Spider-Man/Human Torch miniseries and then tell me if he's not his best ally.
t:
I love that mini, but the whole point of the series is to show that they generally don't work together naturally, and tend to screw things up when they team up.
Fun reading, and a good friendship, but I think a lot of people her are confusing 'friend,' with 'ally.'
Johnny isn't that great a fighter either, has no real intellectual skills, is impatient, is a show boat, and is known for making a furious amount of mistakes
I like him as a character, he's hilarious and fun, but he isn't a great ally to Spidey or anything.
He also works in a very different world from Peter. Peter and Matt are both street level guys, Matts a lawyer, (bloody handy,) both have similar fighting/transport abilities, both have a very high intellect, are patient, work at things, are passionate in their beliefs on what's right, share rogues, and are much more grounded in more of a local 'street,' world, have lost their first loves, have parental loss issues...
I could go on for a really long time describing how they can easily connect, and why they can work together easily, and help each other out, but I think I made my point.
Johnny's usually in another galaxy, or dating some floozy, he's just nowhere near Spidey's world
Not to say that it ain't great when they meet though
