Legion of Doom’s Best of 2005- Single Issue
Ultimates 2 #9. World War Three! -Jean Claude Van Doom
Wolverine #32 is the only case I can think of where I was really impressed with an issue on its own. -Jim Doom
Countdown to Infinite Crisis. Sure, I’d been reading trades again since high school, but this 80-page, $1 comic re-introduced me to the joy of getting comics every single week, and it was probably the most action-packed 80 pages ever, AND it made me love a character I had known before only as the basis for Nite Owl in Watchmen. Too bad he got the back of his head blown out. -Colonel Doom
Countdown to Infinite Crisis. Before Colonel Doom lent me his copy of Countdown, I had never read a single in-continuity DC Comic book in my ten years of avidly reading comic books. 80 pages later, I was hooked. I went out and bought a copy for myself, along with Identity Crisis, and Green Lantern: Rebirth. I starting buying the Countdown mini-series and slowly brought the number of DC books I was buying up to the number of Marvel books I was buying. Now, less than one year later, this lifelong Marvel Zombie considers DC his favorite publisher. All because of 80 pages. I can’t think of a better way to qualify “Best Single Issue.” -Fin Fang Doom
I was this close (imagine I’m holding my thumb and index finger very close to each other) to naming House of M #8 as best single issue. Here’s what my entry was before I realized I couldn’t possibly name anything but Countdown the best issue:
House of M #8. Y’know, House of M was really a lousy series. The first three issues were exposition, the writing was sub-par, and there wasn’t even a fight between the good guys and the actual villain at the end. Then the last issue came along, over a month late, and made up for the entire thing. After #8, that feeling that I had wasted $21 on the mini-series went away. I forgot about dislike I had for Bendis as a writer. Nothing that happened during House of M really mattered except what went on in this issue. Yet this issue made up for the previous seven meaning absolutely nothing. That’s pretty impressive.
From a utilitarian perspective, Countdown also got me to switch from being almost 100% Marvel to now near 75% DC, in that it did such a great job of introducing the many facets of what would become Infinite Crisis. I give it, and the accompanying quasi-trade Prelude, the credit for pushing me toward that switch.
I still stick with Wolverine’s role reversal in the concentration camp as the best single-issue in terms of being a self-contained story, but I’d just like to at least give a partial thumbs-up to the popular kid in this round.
I can’t say that issue of Wolverine wasn’t great. It’s definitely the best Wolverine story I’ve ever read. It’s easily one of the best 5 issues of the year, and the best self-contained story if you don’t consider Countdown self-contained.
That dang Wolverine issue had slipped my mind. Given my options, I might’ve opted for that. Definitely one of the top two or three.
It’s a little sad that there aren’t more standalone’s like that. But, of course, those don’t fit into trades, so screw ’em.