For the first time in a long long time, I finished my stack of monthly comics before the next month’s arrived.  Anyways, here are the rankings:

Top 5:
1. Ultimate Spider-man (Issue #9) [Miles has his first run-in with the police.]
2. Justice League (Issue #8) [Green Arrow’s pursuit of the Justice League was pretty entertaining.]
3. Daredevil (Issue #10.1) [Daredevil makes a play in his conflict with Megacrime.]
4. Ultimates (Issue #9) [Reed Richards should not be trifled with.]
5. Moon Knight (Issue #12) [I had no idea that this issue was the end of the title, but I really enjoyed the conclusion to Bendis and Maleev’s story.]

Top 5:
1. Ultimate Spider-man (Issue #8) [Regular artist Sara Pichelli returns as Miles has a run-in with his uncle, The Prowler, and Aunt May finally hears about the new Spider-man.]
2. Fantastic Four (Issue #604) [Steve Hickman finally tied up some threads that he started early in his run on Fantastic Four.]
3. Ultimates (Issue #8) [Nick Fury seems to have been outplayed by the President of the United States.]
4. Justice League (Issue #7) [In this new take on the Justice League, Colonel Steve Trevor has an important job.]
5. Ultimate X-men (Issue #9) [A tale from Camp Angel.]

Top 5:
1. Ultimate Spider-man (Issue #7) [Fill-in artist Chris Samnee returns for another issue, and while I’m still looking forward to Sara Pichelli’s return, I liked the art and the script much more than the last issue.]
2. Ultimates (Issue #7) [I’ve really enjoyed how the two storylines have started to intersect.]
3. Justice League (Issue #6) [This issue wrapped up the first story arc, which I definitely liked.  I hope the book continues to be equal parts characterization and action.]
4. Ultimate X-men (Issues #7 and #8) [Both of these issues were good, but I especially liked the Jean Grey story in #8.]
5. New Avengers (Issues #21 and #22) [Victoria Hand’s role in the Norman Osborn saga finally seems to be revealed.]

I’m way, way behind on my comics, so these are the rankings for my January comics, which I received in the mail in early February.  Hopefully I’ll catch up soon.

Top 5:
1. Ultimates (Issue #6) [I’ve enjoyed the new Ultimates book, but this was the first issue where I really felt engaged by both major storylines.]
2. Justice League (Issue #5) [It’s been fun seeing all the members of the team get to know each other.]
3. Ultimate Spider-man (Issue #6) [The story for this issue was strong as it usually is, but the fill in artist did not compare to Sara Pichelli.]
4. Green Lantern (Issue #5) [Sinestro’s team-up with Hal Jordan continues.]
5. Avengers (Issue #21) [In this issue and in New Avengers #20, the Avengers are dealing with the repercussions of Norman Osborn being on the loose.  Both issues were entertaining, but they feel like rehashings of the Norman Osborn stories from a year or so ago.]

I’d gotten way behind on my comics (I started a job and oddly enough, I haven’t had the free time to keep up with my reading) so I just finished my monthly comics.

Top 5:
1. Ultimate Spider-man (Issue #5) [Miles gets himself a real costume.]
2. Justice League (Issue #4) [Aquaman might just be a badass.]
3. Ultimate X-men (Issues #4 and #5) [I’m not sure if Quiksilver knows what he’s doing.]
4. Batman (Issue #4) [This story about The Court Of Owls by Scott Snyder has been really cool and Greg Capullo is killing it on art duties.]
5. Green Lantern (Issue #4) [At some point, I’d really like to read all of the Green Lantern stuff by Geoff Johns, but for the time being, I’m really enjoying the current issues.]

It’s a bad sign for the all the Avengers books that my Top 5 is filled with DC books.  New Avengers has been pretty good, but Avengers has been sub-par and Secret Avengers went from being one of my favorite comics to being my least favorite Avengers book.  I hope they rebound soon.

Top 5:
1. Ultimate Spider-man (Issue #4) [Miles Morales swings into action for the first time.]
2. Captain America (Issue #4) [Ed Brubaker’s first arc with Steve McNiven on art duties has been great.  The story featuring Codename Bravo has been fun and the art has been amazing.  On a related note, we learned that Bucky is still alive in Fear Itself #7.1.]
3. Justice League (Issue #3) [This issue brought Wonder Woman and Aquaman into the fold.  So far, this new beginning for the Justice League has been really cool.]
4. Avenging Spider-man (Issue #1) [This new ongoing title is essentially a Spider-man team up book.  Since Spidey is currently a member of two Avengers teams and the FF, he has plenty of friends to team up with, so I think this book could be a lot of fun.]
5. Batman (Issue #3) [Scott Snyder’s story arc about The Court Of Owls with art by Greg Capullo has made Batman my second favorite title of DC’s The New 52.]

Top 5:
1.  Ultimate Spider-man (Issue #3) [The first Miles Morales story continues to unfold.]
2.  Amazing Spider-man (Issues #671 and #672) [Spider-Island reaches its conclusion…I really enjoyed this story.]
3.  Daredevil (Issue #5) [It’s good to have Daredevil back in New York.]
4.  Superior (Issue #6) [Mark Millar and Leinil Yu’s independent story reaches its climax.]
5.  Justice League (Issue #2) [The new origin of DC’s supergroup has been my favorite book of The New 52 so far.]

Top 5:
1. Ultimate Spider-man (Issues #1 and #2) [It feels good to have Ultimate Spider-man back at the top of my comic book power rankings (there wasn’t an issue released last month).  I never really like when the comic books I read get mainstream media coverage, normally because it means something is going to be spoiled for me (see the death of Captain America, Spider-man unmasking during Civil War, etc.)  In this case, I didn’t like the coverage that came with Peter Parker’s death because of the debate about the new Spider-man, Miles Morales, who is half African-American and half Hispanic.  I may be in the minority, but I’m not disappointed that Peter Parker is dead…he died fighting for the people that he loved and I think that solidifies his place as a hero.  (And so far Miles Morales seems like a very good replacement.)  Rather than going on too long, I’ll just share this review of the first issue that I found while searching for the image at the top of this post.]
2. Amazing Spider-man (Issues #669 and #670) [Parts 3 and 4 of Spider-Island were really good.]
3. Captain America (Issue #3) [My disappointment with Steve Rogers replacing Bucky Barnes as Captain America has quickly dissipated as Ed Brubaker and Steve McNiven have been crushing this opening story arc.]
4. Batman (Issue #1) [Along with Justice League, Batman was one of the two DC titles that I’m definitely planning on sticking with.  I’m going to check out the second issue of Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, All-Star Western, Action Comics, Detective Comics, Batman & Robin, and Batman The Dark Knight.  One issue of Superman and Wonder Woman was enough for me.]
5. Moon Knight (Issues #5 and #6) [The new take on Moon Knight from Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev has been pretty good, but issue #6 was definitely my favorite so far.]

Top 5:
1. Justice League (Issue #1) [This was a great start for DC’s The New 52.  I can only hope the other titles that I’m checking out are as good as this.]
2. Captain America (Issue #2) [A really cool story so far that’s being told in the present and in the past (as most great Captain America stories are).]
3. New Avengers (Issue #15) [I really enjoyed this Fear Itself tie-in issue starring Squirrel-Girl…that’s right, I said Squirrel-Girl.]
4. Ultimate Hawkeye (Issue #1) [Along with Ultimates #1, this was a good beginning to the new Ultimate universe.]
5. Amazing Spider-man (Issues #667 and #668) [Spider-Island has been fun so far.]

Top 5:
1. Captain America (Issue #1) [I’m sad that Bucky’s run as Captain America is over, but this first issue with Steve Rogers back in the costume was pretty good.]
2. Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates (Issue #6) [The finale of this Death Of Spider-man tie-in has Nick Fury as the big winner.]
3. Daredevil (Issue #1) [Daredevil returns to Hell’s Kitchen.]
4. Moon Knight (Issue #4) [Moon Knight and Echo get in some trouble in Los Angeles.]
5. Ultimate Fallout (Issues #1 through #4) [This mini-series is all over the place, but some of the stories have been good.]