In comics there is an established "canon" of the very best works the form has yet produced. Just as with the conventional literary canon, these are the privileged few, the cream of the crop, the limited number of masterpieces against which all future and past comic books are judged. They're not simply good or important due to personal taste and popularity, the criteria instead considering the work's aesthetic and literary value, the cultural and historical impact, and the plain quality in order to decide if they deserve a place in the upper echelons of graphic novels. And in comics, just as in traditional literature, people are always arguing about what deserves to be part of that canon and - if you wanna get really radical with it - whether the stuff that gets promoted to it is even any good. Everything is subjective, this much is true, but there are a handful of comic book storylines and collections out there which have received widespread acclaim and continue to be cited as a benchmark for graphic novels years later. Plus, because everything is subjective, we're well within our rights for calling these stories out for being totally overrated. Bear in mind before you sharpen your deadliest weapons, commenters, that we're not necessarily saying these comics are bad. Many of them aren't - after all, they wouldn't have ended up part of the canon in the first place if they were out-and-out terrible, would they? That doesn't mean they're totally infallible, though, and it's dangerous to think so. If we see certain works as perfect, we build a fence around them, deflecting criticism that they're probably entitled to. So here, True Believers, we are parachuted into a field of comic book sacred cows with...well, not necessarily slaughter on our minds, but certainly some stern words and uncomfortable home truths to share. These are the ten most overrated graphic novels of all time, and just this once, we 100% expect and understand all your insults in the comments.