JT's Top Five: Favorite Ongoing Comicbooks

Hey everyone, JT back once again and would you believe I'm debuting yet ANOTHER new feature? I'm like a frigging machine or something. This is the debut edition of JT's Top Five, where I'll pick five things that I'm currently enjoying, hating, or wanting to see. This first edition will feature my five favorite ongoing comics, future editions will feature my five favorite comic characters, five least favorite, five team-up's I'd love to see, and etc. and of course, I'm taking requests and recommendations. So let's get this first edition underway.

There are a few rules I made for this post, as to narrow things down. Due to the DC Reboot it has to be something with at least five issues, something that's not been canceled, and something I look forward to reading each and every month, not something that sits on my dresser just begging to be read. (I'm looking at YOU, Uncanny X-Men!)  But before I get to my top five comics, here are a few honorable mentions.

Honorable Mentions

Morning Glories - Definitely one of my favorite books, the only reasons it didn't make my list is because it doesn't have a definite schedule (I'm not even sure when the next issue come out.) as well as the fact it sometimes gives more questions than answers, and as a fan of the TV show LOST, I'm kind of afraid not all of the questions will be answered.

Invincible - A great series, a few months to a year ago it was probably my favorite. After the Viltrumite War, the book got a little stale and had some slow storylines, things are finally getting interesting, but those same slow storylines are fresh in my mind, so it brings down my enjoyment of the series as a whole.

The Walking Dead - This has been an amazing series that I recently read from the beginning up to the current ongoing issues, if I have any complaints as of now, it's that the story is moving along pretty slow, I can honestly say not much has happened in the last four issues, and between that and the constant flip flopping of Rick, I couldn't justify putting this on my top five favorites.

There are quite a few more, including Ultimate Spider-Man, Severed and Catwoman but those three were the closest to making the list. Now with those comics out of the way, let's get to my top five favorite ongoing comics.

5.) Green Lantern -  Now I know X-Man is groaning as he reads this, and I can't say I blame him. Geoff Johns seemed to be phoning it in this time last year while writing Green Lantern, and during Brightest Day before that, but now that he's got Sinestro in charge as the Green Lantern of Hal's former sector, and Hal as a normal guy who had some very bad moments in the first few issues of this series, it's become extremely enjoyable. Hal's character is still around, but he seems more as a secondary character for the most part, whereas Johns is exploring new ground with Sinestro, including his tied to Korguar, his people, his former enemies, and the man who gave his ring to Hal Jordan, Abid Sur. I look forward to seeing how Hal will be humiliated, or redeemed each month, as well as seeing Sinestro in action with a new ring around his finger and dealing with attacks from his enemies and his own teammates. Say what you will about Geoff Johns, I even rated his most recent Justice League issue a 3/10, but he definitely delivers on the Green Lantern series, which shows why he has over fifty issues of the series under his belt over the last few years. I look forward to seeing how long Johns can keep Sinestro in the forefront as the main Green Lantern before Hal takes his place once again.

4.) Batman - Scott Snyder. In the last year, the American Vampire writer has written some of the best Batman stories in recent memory. He's written Dick Grayson and now he's writing for Bruce Wayne, and in a time where story arcs last from 3-6 issues, he's crafted an exciting story that looks to last a year, a Batman story that seems new but doesn't seem drastic and like a sudden change from the Batman we've come to know over the last seventy-plus years. The Court of Owls storyline started off slow, but Snyder has made it exciting and his innovative storytelling and style (especially in issue 5) has given us something we've never seen, Batman out of his element, lost and confused and relying on nothing but his wits when even those have become unreliable. Batman being the one hunted, as well as haunted all at once is an interesting thing to see, and Snyder allows us to get into the head of a man like Bruce, a man of Science, who wants to make sense of everything, but can't seem to due so with this enemy. It's hard to express how great a job that Snyder has done with Batman, and it's clear he's just getting started and enjoying the ride.

3.) Aquaman - If you would have told me a year ago that Aquaman would be one of my favorite comic series, I'd laugh in your face, and probably slap you. Yep, I'm a bit of a jerk. But lo and behold, here we are and I will openly say that Aquaman is probably the best comic coming out of the DC Reboot. It's got everything you need for a comic, and Johns doesn't try to hard, he knows that Aquaman has been a joke for years and he uses that to his advantage. A line here or there about Aquaman and how he shouldn't eat fish  because their his friends or mentioning how Aquaman is "No one's favorite superhero" and you not only have some funny lines, but a character that becomes easy to relate to. Add in the fact that the story seems to build more long-term storylines slowly from things touched upon earlier in the series is pretty interesting, especially considering it's only been five issues so far. In the most recent issue we saw something many people, including myself had pondered for years, what would happen if Aquaman was stranded in the desert? We saw what happened, and we saw the human side of a hero, which we don't see too often outside of Spider-Man comics. It's hard to explain what makes Aquaman come off so likable here, but with the same skill Johns uses to make you enjoy seeing Hal Jordan have a miserable life, he uses to make you connect with Aquaman, a character I mocked mercilessly for losing his hand twice last year, so you can see how far I've come thanks to the amazing story that Johns has been crafting for Arthur Curry, the King of Atlantis.

2.) Amazing Spider-Man - Dan Slott is the best Spider-Man writer in the history of the series. That's my opinion anyway, now it may not mean much as I haven't read every Spider-Man comic ever written, but Slott is often taking chances and they pay off. Since American Son, I've read and enjoyed everything that Dan Slott has done with the Amazing Arachnid. He's made me laugh, he's made me cry, he's shocked me and he's left me wanting more the whole time. During Slott's run with Spider-Man, we've had some of his biggest moments, and Pete's went from a poor photographer to a successful scientist, he even managed to fix the One More Day travesty by writing One Moment In Time. He's brought back obscure characters and made them some of the best, all the while keeping Peter Parker as the character we know and love. If you're not enjoying Spider-Man I truly feel sorry for you, because it's one of the best written books today. From American Son to Big Time to Spider-Island and the upcoming End of The Earth storyline, Slott has written Spider-Man impeccably and I can honestly say as long as Slott is writing Spider-Man, I'll keep reading it. Oh, and did I mention how awesome he made the Hobgoblin?

1.) Venom - Venom is THE BEST SERIES OUT RIGHT NOW. Simple as that. Rick Remender, a man whose work I was not familiar with outside of two issues of Booster Gold that I don't remember anything about, took a character I loved, Venom, and a character I was indifferent about, Flash Thompson, and made him without a doubt one of my favorite characters. Over the span of a year of amazing writing, Flash Thompson replaced Eddie Brock as my favorite Venom, and that's one year of the 24 that Venom has been around. Venom is an amazing book that much like Spider-Man, allows you to see past the superpowers and connect with the character. Flash comes off as a man who wants to do right by his woman, his family, his friends, and his country, and things get more and more difficult from the moment he becomes Venom. Add that with the wonderfully written stories by Rick Remender and the amazing cast he's included, Spider-Man, Betty Brant, Eddie Brock, Captain America, and Venom's newest nemesis, Jack O'Lantern (Think a 100% evil, completely insane Deadpool) and you've got a recipe for the best ongoing series since Bryan Q. Miller's Batgirl. If you aren't reading Venom, you should be, if you are reading Venom, get someone else hooked, because this is a comic that makes me proud of being a comic fan. 

And there you go, my five favorite ongoing comicbook series. I hope you all enjoyed and I'd love to see your picks, so feel free to let me know what books make your top five and why, as well as any ideas on what you guys would like to see next. Favorite Storylines? Favorite Characters? Five Things I'd do in Comics? Let me know, and I'll take it from there, but until next time, this is JT, signing off.