Comic books have increased in popularity over the past 10 years, especially with Marvel movies being so prominent in pop culture nowadays, and a lot of people read them for many reasons such as identifying with the characters to just a simple but exciting enjoyment of the characters and stories lines. Whether you are a casual comic book reader or a diehard fan, comic books are very enjoyable to read and, in this article, I will be going over my top five favorite comic books that I've read.

#5 DC Comics- Green Arrow Vol 5 #21-#34: New 52 Outsiders / The Longbow Hunters

Though this is technically two different story lines, they do connect and make one hell of story to read. The story follows Oliver Queen, aka The Green Arrow, as he leaves Seattle to deal with a Secret group called The Outsiders. The Outsiders are made up of seven different clans. The Axe Clan led by John the Butcher, The Fist Clan led by Onyx, The Shield Clan led by Kodiak, The Mask Clan led by Magus, The Spear Clan led by Golgotha, The Sword Clan Katana, and The Arrow Clan led by Komodo. The group is in the middle of a civil war and Oliver gets caught in the middle of it. While Oliver leaves to deal with that, a new crime lord named Richard Dragon comes to Seattle and takes over the criminal underworld with his team called the Longbow Hunters. When Oliver is done dealing with The Outsiders, he comes back home to Seattle and takes on Dragon and The Longbow Hunters.

#4 DC Comics- Dark Knights Metal

This story is centered around a dark multiverse filled with evil counter parts to various DC superheroes. In this dark multiverse an evil team filled with batmen hybrids team up and plan on invading the regular multiverse to free their master, the evil bat demon Barbatos. In this team of Dark Knights is the Dawnbreaker who is a Green Lantern/Batman hybrid, The Murder Machine who is a Cyborg/Batman hybrid, The Merciless who is a Wonder Woman/Batman hybrid, The Devastator who is a Doomsday/Batman hybrid , The Drowned who's an Aquaman/Batman hybrid, The Red Death who is a Flash/Batman hybrid and then perhaps the most terrifying combo of all , there is their leader The Batman Who Laughs who is a Joker/Batman hybrid. Before you read the main comic book story I would highly suggest reading each Dark Knights' one shots before hand as they do explain each hybrids origin story. In the final battle of the story Batman and The Batman Who Laughs finally come face to face where The Batman Who Laughs delivers a frightening monologue where he says "You've never fought someone with all your training, all your discipline. See it yet? I'm not him in a bat suit I'm YOU." This speech absolutely shook me to my core. In order to defeat the evil batmen, Batman himself does something I'd never thought I'd see. He teams up with THE JOKER. This is a crazy story that was extremely enjoyable to read and I highly suggest you read it.

#3 DC Comics- The Killing Joke

This comic book story line is perhaps one of the most if not the darkest comic book story involving The Joker. The premise for this story is that the Joker is trying to drive Jim Gordon, Batman's detective informant, insane in order to uses him against Batman. The Joker tries to accomplish this goal by finding out where Gordons daughter Barbara, aka Bat Girl, lives. He finds out where she lives and breaks into her home. Once he does this he shoots her in the spine, paralyzing her, and then proceeds to rape her and take pictures of her. He later kidnaps Gordon and takes him to an abandoned carnival where he ties Gordon up naked on a tunnel ride and as the ride begins Gordon sees the pictures of his daughter raped and bloodied. Batman rescues Gordon and faces off against The Joker where Joker delivers the most terrifying monologue I've ever heard when he says "All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one.Bad.Day." This speech is sure to make anyone feel chilled to the bone. Batman goes on to defeat The Joker but Joker was still able to leave his mark in the lives of the people Batman loves.

#2 Marvel Comics- Old Man Logan

This storyline follows Logan, formerly known as Wolverine, in the distant future. This version of Logan is much older as his healing factor has slowed down allowing him to age like a regular human. This version of Logan is also extremely violent and murders people who come after him in very gruesome fashion. The story is very compelling and will guarantee to keep you hooked from page 1. This storyline was even adopted into a movie in 2017 with Hugh Jackman reprising his role as Logan for the last time. The movie beautifully adapted the story into a movie and it was the perfect send off for his character. I highly suggest reading the comic book before watching the movie as it will make the movie more enjoyable to watch. This story is without a doubt the darkest comic book story Marvel has every written and I absolutely love it.

#1 DC Comics- Flashpoint

Perhaps the darkest story in DC history, let alone all comic books, This story centers around The Flash aka Barry Allen. In a nutshell the story can be summarized as The Flash goes back in time to save his mother from being murdered by the Reverse Flash/ Professor Zoom, aka Eobard Thawne, but when he does so, he comes back the "present' being extremely different than the one he knew. Due to Barry's actions the present day is in absolute chaos and turmoil. This story includes many bizarre changes to fan favorites such as Batman, superman and The Flash himself. The biggest problem is this world is in the middle of a gigantic war between Wonder Woman and the Amazonians vs Aquaman and the Atlanteans. This war could destroy the whole planet unless Barry can fix his mistake. This is without a doubt the most brutal, emotional and gut-wrenching comic book I've ever read which is why it's my favorite one.