Shelfdust Presents: The Fifty Best #1 Issues

This week it's time to finish out our first season, as we look at the comic which ended up in 1st place: Saga #1 by Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples and Fonographiks!

The title should be a clue, but there’s just so much of Saga. This first issue is triple-sized which, yes, is cheating a little. But it’s the only way the series could have started. Nobody is holding back anything. We don’t know... currently... when it’ll come back or how things will finish – but one thing which will never be taken away is how vibran...

This week it's time to dream of a better loving world, as we look at the comic which ended up in 2nd place: Watchmen #1 by Alan Moore, David Gibbons and John Higgins!

Of course we all know everything about Watchmen at this point and then some, being a reimagining of the Charlton superhero characters told across twelve issues. You can see slivers of the original characters within these new shells, but for the most part this is something which not only builds on what came before, but reaches down to shatter the foundations and create something entirely...

This week... okay, it looks bad, as we look at the comic which ended up in 3rd place: Hawkeye #1 by Matt Fraction, David Aja, Matt Hollingsworth and Chris Eliopoulos!

Oh, bro, you knew this was going to happen. Hawkeye’s impact remains just as strong today as when it first came out – for a comic which felt like a “moment”, that moment has certainly proven that it can last. Every inch of Hawkeye’s first issue feels like it was meticulously planned for months, but flies by effortlessly. There are so many callbacks and sequential ideas here within the...

This week it's time to ascend to godhood, as we look at the comic which ended up in 4th place: The Wicked + The Divine #1 by Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, Matthew Wilson and Clayton Cowles!

WicDiv #1 jump straight onto centrestage to offer a showy performance that looks at myth, iconography, devotion, and idolatry whilst quickly building up a fascinating lead character and a world which understands its high concept whilst offering some modern cynicism and paranoia into the mix. It’s a heady mix of concepts, and you could see things easily falling straight down a trapdoor if it...

This week it's time to ogle some deli food, as we look at the comic which ended up in 5th place: Ms Marvel #1 by G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona, Ian Herring and Joe Caramagna!

Devised by editor Sana Amanat with writer G. Willow Wilson and artist Adrian Alphona, Kamala Khan’s first appearance is immediately appealing and delightful. There’s an assured creative hand guiding her, as well as all the other characters in her world, who are quickly and effectively sketched in by Wilson. We see how Kamala has that superhero gene within her, but also how...

This week it's time to pop on the glasses and bumble into trouble, as we look at the comic which ended up in 6th place: All-Star Superman #1 by Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, Jamie Grant and Phil Balsman.

The comic itself radiates with energy, as Quitely creates some wonderful and magnificent pieces, and every page has at least one line of dialogue which feels lasting and memorable. “Only nothing is impossible” says one of the characters, and that feels like the defining thesis of All-Star Superman as a whole. This week Matt is joined by special guest august (in the...

This week it's time to do it all again... again, as we look at the comic which ended up in 7th place: X-Men #1 by Chris Claremont, Jim Lee, Scott Williams Jim Rosas and Tom Orzechowski

Announced as “the dawn of a new era!”, the first issue of X-Men by Claremont and Lee changed everything for everyone. The X-Men – who were reassuring soap opera figures – suddenly turned into blunt-force action heroes through the mighty penmanship of Jim Lee. Even as Claremont allowed the characters time to ruminate on their pasts, Lee was dragging them off into the here-and-now, their pri...

This week it's time to bust out the Freddie Mercury as we look at the comic which ended up in 8th place: Sex Criminals #1 by Matt Fraction, Chip Zdarsky, Becka Kinzie and Drew Gill!

Nobody forgets their first time. Sex Criminals follows only one of the two central characters, Suzie, as it jumps around in her timeline and establishes that whenever she orgasms, she pauses time. Literally, time pauses around her. It's a series about two people who have sex and then commit crimes, sure, but the first issue is a beginner’s guide to sexual experience, to...

This week it's time to meet the second generation as we look at the comic which ended up in 9th place: Giant-Size X-Men #1 by Len Wein, Dave Cockrum, Peter Iro, Glynis Wein and John Constanza.

With this issue Len Wein and Dave Cockrum essentially created the X-Men Franchise, one of the longest-running and most compelling stories in comic book history. Giant Size X-Men saw the original X-Men characters trapped on a mystical, treacherous island – forcing Professor Xavier to recruit a new team of heroes to try and rescue his students. That led to the arrival of iconic ch...

This week it's time to draw up a salt circle as we look at the comic which ended up in 10th place: Sandman #1 by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, Robbie Busch and Todd Klein!

Told across decades, the first issue of Neil Gaiman’s revelatory series details the capture and imprisonment of Dream, one of the Endless People who control the minds and hopes of mankind. Joined by Sam Kieth, Gaiman tells a compulsive, contorted story which dwells on the details of craftmanship: the effort that goes into creating magic has never been so painstakingly put tog...

This week it's time to prepare for the world that's coming, as we look at the comic which ended up in 11th place: OMAC #1 by Jack Kirby, Jerry Serpe and Michael Royer!

Jack Kirby’s series was designed to be a vision of the future – but not even the King could’ve realised how darkly accurate he was when he set about creating the first issue of OMAC. Kirby’s paranoia was meant to be overt and shocking, but now it simply feels prescient and unsettling – how did he know this would all start to come to life? Beca...

This week it's time to pack up our bags and head off for Freshers Week as we look at the comic which ended up in 12th place: Giant Days #1 by John Allison, Lissa Treiman, Whitney Cogar and Jim Campbell!

John Allison’s self-published Giant Days books may have seemed an unlikely candidate for a shiny series from BOOM! Studios, but the first issue of the ongoing series proved to be a perfect fit for the publisher. Bringing in cartoonist Lissa Treiman to handle the artwork brought fabulous life to each of the three girls at the heart of...

This week it's CLOBBERIN' TIME!!!! as we look at the comic which ended up in 13th place: Fantastic Four #1 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, George Klein, Christopher Rule, Stan Goldberg and Artie Simek!

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby defined superhero comics forever with this issue, introducing four heroes whose simple powers belied the complex world which was to come. Kirby is having fun with the issue – especially his design for The Thing, which is a classic part of American comics – and Lee does his standard thing, corny dialogue and basic personalities. Is it actually good, though? This week...

This week it's time to throw off the strait jacket, as we look at the comic which ended up in 14th place: Y: The Last Man #1 by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, José Marzan, Jr, Pamela Rambo and Clem Robins!

Many people would hail Y: The Last Man as the definitive “#1” comic book issue. It’s easy to see why: it’s structure jumps from character to character with absolute grace, giving the reader everything they need to know about every single person who appears. The rest of the series continues in a love-it-or-hate-it fashion, but the first iss...

This week it's time to wake up in a strangely empty hospital, as we look at the comic which ended up in 15th place: The Walking Dead #1 by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore!

Rick Grimes, the standard protagonist, is a police officer who gets shot in the line of duty. When he wakes up from a coma, the world is full of zombies. That’s it, that’s the comic! But that early jump in time means everything for the narrative: Rick enters the world and has to adapt to it at the same time as the read...

This week it's time to FIGHT FOR EARTH!!, as we look at the comic which ended up in 16th place: New Gods #1 by Jack Kirby, Vince Coletta, and John Constanza.

New Gods explodes straight towards the reader right from the start, a burst of cosmic energy which arrives fully-formed and ready for war. The comic introduces a dazzling number of concepts and characters, each of whom seem to have a long and intensive past which only gets briefly revealed before the story moves on to the next. This week Matt is joined by guest Paul Lai to t...

This week it's time to get super-distracted from our schoolwork, as we look at the comic which ended up in 17th place: Ultimate Spider-Man #1 by Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley, Art Thibert, Steve Buccellato and Richard Starkings.

Although it now looks gleefully dated to the time it was made, Ultimate Spider-Man #1 remains a breath of fresh air, especially against the deliberately edgy or provocative books which made up the rest of the Ultimate line. Here we get a perfectly charming take on the classic story, with new patter from Bendis and fast-paced art from Bagley which gives y...

This week it's time to find out about the secret lives of our evil parents, as we look at the comic which ended up in 18th place: Runaways #1 by Brian K. Vaughan, Adrian Alphona, David Newbold, Brian Reber and Paul Tutrone!

Runaways follows a group of kids whose parents throw a party each year: after spending time introducing each family separately, Vaughan’s script then hurls the very different children together into an awkward, tentative group as they wait for their parents’ private meal to finish. When they get bored and go eavesdrop, however, it leads to a ma...

This week it's time to feel sad across the course of nine panels as we look at the comic which ended up in 19th place: Mister Miracle #1 by Tom King, Mitch Gerads and Clayton Cowles!

Mister Miracle is a deeply curious comic, the product of Tom King and Mitch Gerads presumably having several very late nights with little sleep. There’s something hypnotic and mesmerising about the opening of the maxiseries in particular, a dark and worrying piece which follows the New Gods as they head into their next inevitable chapter. Scott Free is the focus of co...

This week it's time to teach Guy Gardner a lesson, as we look at the comic which ended up in 20th place: Justice League #1 by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire, Terry Austin, Gene D’Angelo and Bob Lappan!

You can tell there’s going to be trouble from the moment Justice League begins. This was a different approach to superheroes, letting them be fun and funny characters first and turning their lives into a daily routine of heroism. They go to a job, assess a situation, and act on it: or rather, Batman does all of t...

This week it's time to jump onboard the floating Batmobile, as we look at the comic which ended up in 21st place: Batman & Robin #1 by Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, Alex Sinclair and Pat Brosseau!

A burst of vibrant energy following some fairly dark and sinister storylines, Batman & Robin harkened back to the brightest times of Batman as it followed Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne's new adventures. The elements of melodrama and suspense present from Morrison’s previous run are still in place to an extent, but the story has swivelled round to give them a more comical, ov...

This week it's time to clock in for the day shift, as we look at the comic which ended up in 22nd place: Gotham Central #1 by Greg Rucka, Ed Brubaker, Michael Lark, Noelle Giddings and Willie Schubert!

It’s almost a running joke by now that the Gotham Central Police are hapless to the point of being completely irrelevant – particularly when supervillains get involved in matters. But what Gotham Central did was take that concept and apply it to real people, who were tired, underfunded, and working day-to-day in situations which could result in their deaths at any m...

This week it's time to pedal through time, as we look at the comic which ended up in 23rd place: Paper Girls #1 by Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, Matthew Wilson and Jared K. Fletcher!

Paper Girls is exactly what it says it is, but also so much more, following four young women as they cycle their morning paper route, hurling newspapers onto every porch. As they go about their path, however, Chiang inserts unexpected and surreal twists into proceedings in such a way that you can’t quite tell everything that’s going on, or why it’s happ...

This week we're keeping a close eye on the new neighbours, as we look at the comic which ended up in 24th place: The Vision #1 by Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Jordie Bellaire and Clayton Cowles!

Who would’ve thought that Vision could prove to be the lead for a dark and unnerving Marvel series? Well, Tom King made his name on writing maxiseries, and The Vision has the benefit of having Gabriel Hernandez-Walta on art – a hugely talented penciller whose work, coupled with Jordie Bellaire’s colours, created a sombre tone which would help inform the charac...

This week we're pretending our tragic past didn't actually happen, as we look at the comic which ended up in 25th place: Daredevil #1 by Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera, Marcos Martin, Joe Rivera, Javier Rodriguez, Muntsa Vicente and Joe Caramagna.

For several years there was a contest to see who could write the most miserable life for Matt Murdock – a contest which was only broken with the arrival of Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera and Marcos Martin to a rebooted series in 2011. They changed things round with a bouncy, life-loving Daredevil, who fought brighter villains and had a brand new...

This week we're reluctantly leaving our cave to revisit the comic which reached 26th place: Transmetropolian #1 by Warren Ellis, Darick Robertson, Nathan Eyring and Clem Robins.

Angry, bitter, and politically charged, Transmetropolitan follows reformed journalist Spider Jerusalem as he's forced to return to the Big City so he can trade his words for money - and then trade that money for various psychotropics and whatever else he wants. It's a comic which has a lot to say about a lot of things, and barely finds room for the endless tirades it needs to unload on readers. To...

This week we're heading across to an island paradise, to look at the comic which ended up in 27th place: House of X #1 by Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia and Clayton Cowles.

When it debuted House of X immediately stood out as an issue which people will be talking about (and re-reading) for years. It set out not only to define the X-Men: but to rebuild what they’ve always been. The result is an actually uncanny narrative telling us where the X-Men have now gone, and who they have become, and what their goal is. To...

This week we rise up from our miserable grave to look at the comic which ended up in 28th place: Immortal Hulk #1 by Al Ewing, Joe Bennett, Ruy José, Paul Mounts and Cory Petit!

In The Immortal Hulk, when Bruce Banner dies, Hulk rises at night to take vengeance. The opening issue provides a straightforward example of that, as a botched robbery sees Bruce take a bullet to the head – and an innocent bystander killed in the process. Hulk rises up to seek out the people responsible and gain a measure of justice. This week Matt is joine...

This week brings politics into our superhero comics, as we look at the comic which ended up in 29th place: Ex Machina #1 by Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, Tom Feister, J. D. Mettler and Jared K. Fletcher.

The first issue of Ex Machina doesn’t let up for a second as it follows the career path of Mitchell Hundred as he goes from civil engineer to aspiring superhero and then into the role of Mayor of New York. There’s time for every character to get a bit of time with Vaughan and Harris’ lead, which allows them to de...

This week brings us a whole new superhero universe, as we look at the comic which ended up in 30th place: Astro City #1 by Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, Steve Buccellato and Richard Starkings.

The first issue of the series explores a single day in the life of a hero, but through the adventures and rescues sits a beautiful character study which would go on to become the definitive voice of the series: every single person in this world is rounded and thoughtful, and over time the creative team would move on to explore each of them in tu...

This week brings us the perfect comic for 2020, and one which ended up in 31st place: Crowded #1 by Christopher Sebela, Ted Brandt & Ro Stein, Triona Farrell and Cardinal Rae.

The first issue of Crowded – about a crowdfunding app which allows people to hire assassins to take out people they don’t like – runs on cheap coffee and cigarettes, with a wiry, spiky energy which propels its mismatched characters into a gonzo world filled with high adrenaline and constant paranoia. It’s the comic of the time, in many respects, with the nervous tics thrust into the story by Sebela ma...

This week brings us the best comic of all time which ended up in 32nd place: Love & Rockets #1 by Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez.

Los Bros Hernandez are regarded as two of the greatest cartoonists of all time, and although a little rougher, you can see their style showing through in this very early work from the pair. There are several different shorts in the issue, but of perhaps most note is the start of the long-running characters Maggie and Hopey, who would go on to become two of the most enduring and beloved creations in comics history. Fo...

This week brings us four young ninjas who are also turtles, as we look at the comic in 33rd place: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird and Steve Lavigne.

One of the most unexpected success stories in comics started off with four turtles, some mysterious chemicals, and a surly rat. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is exactly what it says it is, only far darker than anyone might have predicted for a comic with that title. Originally intended as a pastiche on several other comics published at the time, the first issue instead caught the mood...

This week it’s time to bring in the A-Listers, as we look at the issue which reached 34th place: JLA #1 by Grant Morrison, Howard Porter, John Dell, Pat Garrahy and Ken Lopez.

That creative team played into every dream about each character and let them all feel powerful or inspiring in their own way, rather than trying to beat them down or offer some kind of subversive take. Batman was the smartest man in the world; Superman the most considerate; Wonder Woman was powerful and sharp ; Green Lantern was the everyman. And in the first issue? A ne...

This week it’s time to pop on a trenchcoat and demand some coffee, as we look at the issue which reached 35th place: Planetary #1 by Warren Ellis, John Cassaday, Laura Martin and Bill O’Neil.

Planetary sees a team of exceptional pricks working together to save the world from unbearable pricks. It’s a specifically Ellis sort of story, with magnificent bastards lording it across one another through judicious use of one-liners, pinned together by Cassaday’s sturdy character and frequent use of decompression. It’s a comic where every beat lands with exact precision, and each characte...

This week brings us a hard-hitting exploitation series which reached 36th place: Bitch Planet #1 by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Valentine de Landro, Cris Peter and Clayton Cowles.

There isn’t a moment for readers to breathe in Bitch Planet. The opening issue understands that readers will get what’s going on, and so it spends its pages making sure that every incident has purpose rather than trying to catch them up with exposition and introduction. When a new batch of women are sent to a “facility” on another planet for being “non-compliant”, we see them try to resist immediately, onl...

This week brings us THE REIGNING DEFENDING UNDISPUTED UNIVERSAL CHAMPION, who reached 37th place: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1by Ryan North, Erica Henderson, Rico Renzi and Clayton Cowles.

Okay, so you might be cynical about Unbeatable Squirrel Girl making it into this list: but that’s what Squirrel Girl is all about, isn’t it? The first issue gives us a Squirrel Girl who is suddenly the most realistic superhero in all of comics: a nice, charming girl whose capacity for understanding and empathy gives her the ability to stop any villain in their tracks. The fundamental warmth...

This week brings a bunch of armed weirdos in a van as we look at the comic which came in 38th place: Copra #1 by Michel Fiffe.

“Inspired” by Suicide Squad, Copra is an action comic with the unmistakable hand of Michel Fiffe on the accelerator. The first issue sets up all the hallmarks of the series as it continues onwards: the gleeful chaos of the fight sequences, the death tally, the attachment to the characters. It also keeps the reader guessing throughout, unsure who is going to make it out alive or how the more eccentric aspects of the s...

This week brings a dark look at power and corruption, as we look at the comic which came in 39th place: Monstress #1 by Marjorie Liu, Sana Takeda and Rus Wooton.

The first issue of Monstress offers a clever trick for readers: it shows them everything, and then reveals that there’s far more to “everything” than they could have ever predicted. The story revolves around a young girl called Maika, who is sold as a slave to wealthy masters – only to then turn the tables entirely on them. To find out more about the issue, Matt Lune was joined...

This week brings a psychedelic revolution, as we look at the comic which came in 40th place: The Invisibles #1 by Grant Morrison, Steve Yeowell, Daniel Vozzo and Clem Robins.

Following their time together on Zenith, readers could be forgiven for thinking that they knew what to expect from the team of Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell when they paired again for a new series at Vertigo. Yet whilst that sense of political subversion continues onwards from their earlier work, The Invisibles is far more forceful than anybody could have predicted. It’s at once a celebration of anarchy a...