Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday! This is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where a new top ten list hits the web every week!

This week our topic is …

TOP TEN FAVORITE GRAPHIC NOVELS/COMICS

10. GREEN ARROW: Quiver/Sounds of Violence

As a long suffering Green Arrow fan, I was always a little disappointed in the treatment Oliver Queen received back in the day.  All that changed when writer/director Kevin Smith of Clerks, Chasing Amy, and Dogma fame took the helm with this title and brought GA back to life in more than one way.

9. X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST

I arrived on the comic scene just a little too late to enjoy the famous Claremont/Byrne run on Uncanny X-Men, so I picked this title up to see what all the gushing was about.  Needless to say, I was amazed by this story, which introduced me to the world of the X-Men and turned me into a fan for years to come.

8. THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN

Okay, I am only talking about the graphic novels here, not the Hollywood movie of the same name.  Loved the concept.  Dug the story.  Thought the time period was cool.  Even the art (which would not normally be my favorite) worked with this tale, penned by Alan Moore.

7. THE AUTHORITY: Relentless/Under New Management

After having been away from comics for a number of years, I picked this one up on a whim one day and was blown away by Warren Ellis’ amazing writing and Bryan Hitch’s artwork.  Sure, it was a superhero team book with stories about superhero clones and alternate reality villains, but the subtle satire added a nice touch that made the story even more entertaining.

6. THE WALKING DEAD

What can you say about this comic that hasn’t already been said a thousand times over?  Not much.  Honestly, I still recall picking this up at a Barnes & Nobles to see what this zombie comic was that had spawned the tv show.  I actually read it before ever watching the show.  Blew me away.  Still think it is a great story — at least the first several years before things became rather repetitive.

5. THE ULTIMATES   

As an Avengers fan from the time I first picked up a comic in the late 1970s, I adored these characters.  Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, and all the rest among my favorite heroes.  As I got older though, I wanted a more mature, realistic version of their adventures.  With The Ultimates, I got my wish.  Sure, the characters and their issues were a little bit different; the world more gray than black and white; but it was still superhero fun — just for the older me.

4. KINGDOM COME

Writer Mark Waid and artist Alex Ross created an instant classic in my opinion when they put the final touches on this story of the DC Universe decades in the future.  Seeing Superman and everyone else as old, past their prime heroes struggling to deal with a future they cannot allow to stand was a reading experience I won’t ever forget.

3. PLANETARY

Writer Warren Ellis and artist John Cassaday turned this story about mystery archaeologists of the late 20th Century into a must read for me.  All the exciting adventures of the team — from uncovering unknown paranormal secrets to hidden historical events to lost island of dying monsters — were simple and entertaining yet mesmerized in how they mimicked comic history itself.

2. WATCHMEN

A legendary graphic novel which deserves every bit of praise which is heaped upon it, in my opinion anyway.  It was especially mesmerizing when it was first published back in the 1980s, turning the superhero genre on its head and showing what supers in the real world might be like.  Having read it back upon initial release and several times since, it still is a dramatic story — even if it isn’t quite as shocking as when I first encountered it.

1. THOR: Walter Simonson

Hands down the greatest comic run of any writer ever!  At least, in my eyes it is, but I am far from an impartial judge, because this is the comic which made me fall in love with the medium during those awkward preteen years when I wondered if I could continue to read comics.  Yeah, Walt Simonson put a stop to me wandering away, trying to act like I was “too cool for comics.”  Nope, he showed me I had to keep reading, because, otherwise, I’d be missing out on these epic adventures like the ones he dazzled me with during his time on Thor.  Was the best comic then, still is!   ( I did warn you I wasn’t at all impartial.)