The comic book business has changed a lot over the decades. Once upon a time, the main way to read comics was in single issues, with Marvel Comics and DC Comics putting out numerous ongoings and miniseries every month. Eventually, the companies would begin reprinting collected editions of the biggest stories, with classics like Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns showing the success of this format. Over the years, collected editions have become a huge part of the business of comics; they are sold in more places and are easier to sell to casual fans than the single issues. Lately, as more manga fans start buying superhero comics, there are rumblings of making collected editions the main way of consuming comics, taking a page from manga.
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However, there’s something about a single issue story. Nowadays, stories are mostly “written for the trade”, but back in the day, the majority of stories would be resolved in one issue. Sometimes, these single issue stories would just be simple little yarns, but other times readers get something truly special. The best single stories are things of legend, with some of the best of them changing comics forever. These five single issue stories are perfection, and anyone who reads them will fall deeply in love with them.
5) Animal Man (Vol. 1) #5
Originally, I was going to put Batman #666 here, but as I sat down to the old MacBook, I made a Hail Mary. Animal Man is one of DC’s greatest series, its opening 26-issue run from Grant Morrison, Chas Troug, and Tom Grummett going down as one of the best pieces of metafiction in comic history. Animal Man #5 was the first example of where the story was going to go and it is fantastic. The story sees Animal Man learning about a mysterious animal appearing on a certain road, causing semi-trucks to swerve off-road and capsize. What he finds is the most bizarre creature and a driver with a grudge, one that will change comics forever.
One of the points that Morrison makes with Animal Man is that human abuse their creations for their own entertainment. Look at the characters you love most – you’ve cheered as creators have done the worst thing imaginable to them. However, these fictional characters, in a lot of ways, are the children of humanity. We are gods and the cruelty of our entertainment is now taken out on fictional characters. Animal Man #5 will make you look at every piece of fiction that you’ve ever consumed in an entirely different way.
4) Phonogram: The Singles Club#1
Phonogram is one of the greatest books you’ve almost certainly never heard of. The three-volume series from Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie follows a group of British phonomancers, runic magic users who use music as the basis of their magic. The second volume, Phonogram: The Singles Club, follows seven different phonomancers all at the same club on the same night. Each issue follows a different phonomancer through their night at the club and all of them are fantastic (I have the collected edition, but I was able to find three of the single issues; if you know where any are, let me know in the comments), but it’s the first issue that has always been the best of them.
To begin with, its title is from the song “Pull Shapes” by the Pipettes, which is a great song. It follows Penny B, the pretty girl, as she narrates her night at the club. She’s a girl used to being the center of attention, using her magic to build an aura of beauty and allure. The issue takes us inside this girl who seems like one we’ve seen a million times before and shows us the rich interior life there. It’s a fantastic comic, so well down you can smell the stale alcohol, cigarettes, and sweat, the bass booming along with you heart as you dance with that girl.
3) Wolverine (Vol. 2) #90
Wolverine and Sabretooth have Marvel’s bloodiest rivalry, with the two of them having some titanic tussles in the pages of Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, Wolverine, and so many others. Their fights have come from some of the best Wolverine comics of all-time, but there’s one that stands far above the rest – Wolverine (Vol. 2) #90. This issue took place 15 issues into the bone claws era. Over the course of those issues, Logan had been traveling the world, coming to terms with the loss of his adamantium and rebuilding himself from the inside out. This issue saw him return to an empty X-Mansion, ready to rejoin his friends. Well, it’s not completely empty – Sabretooth is there, in his cell.
The story is all about Logan agonizing over whether he should execute Victor Creed, leading to a confrontation where the question is taken out of Wolvie’s hands. It’s a fantastically brutal battle, one that ends with one of the biggest shocks in Wolverine history. This issue is from the Larry Hama/Adam Kubert section of Hama’s seven-year run, when the two of them had reached that perfect level of creative sympatico. It’s everything you could want from a Wolverine vs. Sabretooth comic and it set the bar so high that no other has reached it since.
2) The Multiversity: Pax Americana #1
The Multiversityis one of Grant Morrison’s most underrated works, and it’s an example of why single-issue stories are so great. The story consists of a two-issue bookend series, with seven one-shots in between them, parts of the overall plot running through all of them. Each of these series, except The Multiversity Guidebook #1, all take place on a single Earth, with The Multiversity: Pax Americana #1, from Morrison and Frank Quitely, taking place on Earth-4, the Charlton Earth, home of the characters who inspired Watchmen. This issue is Morrison and Quitely doing Watchmen in one-issue and it’s outstanding.
The story is told completely out of temporal synch, with different scenes happening at different times in the narrative. You can open this book to any page and start there, reading it forward or even backward if you want. In order to understand the story, you have to work with the narrative. It’s an outstanding example of the comic as bravura art. It’s a fundamentally hopeful story about a person’s guilt making him save the world, and just how far he’d go, what he’d sacrifice. It’s a very different take on a story we all know and it’s all in one issue.
1) Saga of the Swamp Thing #21
Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing is brilliantand the modern comic industry wouldn’t exist without it. Moore came from across the pond and brought a heaping helping of maturity to the American comic industry. All of that started with Saga of the Swamp Thing #21, Moore’s second issue on the muck-encrusted mockery of a man. The Swamp Thing has been captured by the Sunderland Corporation, with General Sunderland hiring Jason Woodrue, the Floronic Man, to do a autopsy on the monster to see what makes him tick. The alien plant lifeform makes a terrifying discovery about Swampie, one that will change the world forever.
So, on the one hand, technically, the story with Woodrue does get continued over the next few issues of the book, as he uses what he learned to attack the world, so calling this a single-issue story is a contestable point. However, this issue does have a beginning, middle, and end. It’s the perfect horror story – the bad guys discovering that not only is the monster not dead, but it’s more frightening than ever. Moore didn’t write this story for kids, he wrote for anyone of any age and that’s what made it work to perfectly. The art from Steve Bissette and Jon Totleben is the icing on the cake, detailed, atmospheric art that would set a new standard. This comic is all-around groundbreaking, a flawless example of how great a single issue comic can be.
What’s your favorite single-issue comic? Am I wrong about any of these? Does your LCS have issues of Phonogram: The Singles Club? Leave a comment in the comment section below!
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