This been a week full of mystery in the Semantink blogs. What will we watch now that LOST is over? What was the real identity of William Shakespeare? When will the weekend finally get here? With all these mysteries being thrown around, I thought that I should scour the world of comics for the best of the best when it comes to solving tough to answer questions. So, without further ado, lets look at the best detectives in comic books!

1) Batman  (DC)- The creme de la creme of comic detectives. The Batman has mad crime solving skills and mind boggling array of gadgets to augment his keen wit. Batman is meticulous, calculated and methodical, and his utility belt always has ample plastic baggies for evidence. If you need to solve a crime, from “Who burglarized the jewelry store?” to “What killed this New God?” Batman is the man to turn to.

2) Elijah Snow (WILDSTORM)- Elijah Snow has been solving mysteries for over one hundred years, so you have to imagine that he is pretty good at it by now. Specializing in the most obscure and whispered of mysteries, Snow has found hidden jungle cities, Hong kKong soul engines, and alternate universes, just out of curiosity. And if that isn’t enough for you, he was trained by none other than Sherlock Holmes.

3) Vic Sage (DC)- While the excellent Mr. Sage is now deceased, this detective didn’t just look to solve crimes, he sought answers to philosophical questions as well. Who else could figure out who shot JR and what is the meaning of life in the same afternoon?

4) Jamie Madrox (MARVEL)- What the multiple man lacks in deductive reasoning, he more than makes up for in personnel. Madrox’s ability to make an unlimited number of duplicates that he shares knowledge with means that he can comb a whole city for clues faster than anyone else could.

5) Sam Noir (IMAGE)- A detective and a ronin samurai, Sam is the complete package. His crime solving abilities are second only to his sword handling skills. And he has cool hair.

6) Simon Archard (CROSSGEN)- This Sherlock Holmes look-alike is a master sleuth with an eidetic (photographic) memory that serves him quite well in his detecting. If that isn’t enough for you, he is constantly able to evade attempts on his life by The Consortium of Aggrieved Man Servants without losing his cool.

7) Tony Chu (IMAGE)- Mr. Chu is cibopathic, which means he picks up mental images from whatever he eats (except for beets). Tony has used this ability to great effect when it comes to hunting down wrongdoers or finding the whereabouts of missing people.

Bigby Wolf (VERTIGO)- This wolfman knows his stuff. He actually tasted each fable in Fabletown to see if they were a spy, and has a keen ability to smell liars. Add to that several thousand years of life experience and you have the makings of a great detective.

9) Michael “Desolation” Jones (WILDSTORM)- Anyone who is able to solve the case of Adolf Hitler’s missing sex tapes deserves a spot on this list. It doesn’t hurt that Jones is ex-MI6 and even government operatives come to him when they need something found.

10) Detective Chimp (DC)- How smart is Bobo the detective chimp? So smart that Batman will hit him up for ideas when he’s stuck. Seriously, they do it in an internet chat room. I swear I couldn’t make this stuff up.

That;s it for this week folks. I will be out in Phoenix this weekend with Semantink for the Phoenix Comic Con. If you are going to be in the area, drop me a line! Thanks for stopping in folks, see you next week.

Happy Friday all,

So, for anyone that hasn’t heard yet, MYTHOI #1 has been released and is on sale now! If you are looking for a copy in your local comic store, but can’t find a copy, it is because MYTHOI isn’t in stores… yet. Have faith though, because you can buy it here.

In honor of the release of MYTHOI’s first issue, I am going to be doing a special top 10 list today. This is actually two top 10 lists, a best and worst. The category? The best AND worst first comic book issue #1s that I have ever read. Let’s get started:

THE BEST: Some comics just suck you in. They exceed your expectations, or come out of nowhere to surprise you. These comics make you wish it was next month already so you can grab issue two. These are my 10 favorite premiere issues of all time.

1) PLANETARY: From my first meeting with Elijah Snow, to having my mind blown by the idea of a multiversal supercomputer, PLANETARY had rocked me like a hurricane. The art, the story, everything about this book was perfect.

2) POWERS: This was my first exposure to Brian Bendis and Michael Oeming, and they left a very good impression. The idea for the story was fresh (at least to me) and Oeming’s angular, shadowy work complimented Bendis’ writing perfectly.

3) NEGATION: This was the first Crossgen title that really clicked for me. Paul Pelletier’s are was expressive and easy to read. It was like THE DIRTY DOZEN in space. It was a great read, and had me hooked until the series’ end.

4) NEXTWAVE: Bar none, the funniest book I have ever read. The first issue put me right in the middle of the action, and left my robot brain craving beer.

5) WILDCATS 3.0: This one might not have made the list if I hadn’t read the previous iterations of this book. Joe Casey took previously one dimensional characters and fleshed them out immediately. Dustin Nguyen’s art was a perfect fit, and the first issue, which took superheroes and put them in a corporate setting, intrigued and excited me. A great first issue.

6)BATMAN– THE LONG HALLOWEEN: Tim Sale’s dark and moody art set the tone for this book from the first page. The (much maligned) Jeph Loeb not only did a sparkling job on dialogue, but crafted a murder mystery that had me guessing whodunit right away.

7) THE ULTIMATES: The other Ultimate universe titles hadn’t done much for me. Spider-man was a teen again. Big whoop. The X-men were teens again. Big whoop. Then came the ULTIMATES. The first issue was only about Captain America, but I knew it was special. After all, it made me think Captain America was cool (no easy feat). The action was akin to a summer blockbuster movie. This showed how great the Ultimate universe could be.

ASTONISHING X-MEN: No one has ever gotten the X-men so completely right as Joss Whedon. Having John Cassaday on art didn’t hurt either.

9) THE INHUMANS: This book caught me by surprise. I had no idea who Paul Jenkins was. I knew Jae Lee was the guy who couldn’t draw Namor a few years earlier. I knew the Inhumans only from my Marvel Universe Handbooks. I had no idea upon picking this book up that I would get such a beautiful family story, or that the art could make me flip through the book so many times that the corners of the book would fray. I love surprises.

10) TOM STRONG: How can you go wrong with Alan Moore? The constant art changes on this title caused me to drop it after a dozen issues or so, but I loved the first issue of this great pulp character.

THE WORST: So everyone knows, I grew up mainly in the 1990’s. Why do I bring that up? I just wanted to apologize ahead of time for bringing up the bad memories that are to follow.

1) FORCE WORKS: When I was young, I liked the Avengers West Coast. When the AWC disbanded, and reformed into a proactive super-team (a concept that always spells comic book disaster) I was excited. My excitement lasted until the U.S. Agent got his cool new laser shield. Sigh.

2) Urth 4: A sad sad knock off of the fantastic four. Please note that the Air elemental guy has a porn star mustache.

3) ANNEX: In the early 1990’s Marvel comics had an event where they introduced a brand new character into each of their summer annuals. This event gave us characters like Bantam, a chemically enhanced Latino boxer, and Annex, a war vet with a missing leg, who had a suit that could make legs, and weapons. When Annex got his own series, I thought he was cool, until I opened the book, and realized I couldn’t care less. The art was serviceable, but the story was so bland, at one point, I threw pepper on the book in an attempt to spice it up.

4) BLOODSHOT: The man has a target on his chest, need I say more?

5) THE COMET: Just look at the cover. Tom Lyle has done some good work over the years, but this was not one of his finer moments.

6) BRIGADE: The first time I read this, I thought I had accidentally bought a second printing of YOUNGBLOOD (eeeeep!), then I re-read it, and it was worse than YOUNGBLOOD. WORSE THAN YOUNGBLOOD! Oh, and is that Booster Gold in the bottom left corner?

7) SLUDGE: I really like a lot of the Ultraverse titles. PRIME was great. THE STRANGERS was a fun read. SLUDGE, however, was a boring, sloppy mess. The main character gets shot, blown up, and has toxic waste thrown on him. Even at 10 years old I was able to recognize overkill when I saw it.

COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS: 52 was such a great series, I was all set for the next weekly comic from DC to be equally fantastic, especially since this series had Paul Dini involved. Sadly, this first issue was everything that 52 was not, which is to say, this issue (and all the other issues in this series) was bad.

9) RAVAGE 2099: The first new Stan Lee creation in years wasn’t very good. In fact, it was downright hard to read. The art was lackluster as well. This book stood out as extra bad to me because of how good the other 2099 titles were.

10) ARMAGEDDON 2001: I was lost from page 1 and it never got better. That takes skill. Not a skill anyone wants, but it does take skill.

Well folks, two lists for you all in honor of MYTHOI. I hope you enjoyed them, and as always, let me know if you disagree (or agree for that matter).

I will be up at the Long Beach Comic Convention all Weekend with James Ninness, the man who wrote MYTHOI, helping to introduce people to our company and our comic. If you are in the area, stop by and say hello, chat us up a bit, or get your copy of MYTHOI, as we will have a few on hand. I will be putting updates on the site nightly as to our Semantink shenanigans, so feel free to tune in if you are interested.

Thanks for stopping in, See you all next time.