10 Best Single Issue Comics Ever

7. Action Comics #775 - What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & The American Way?

Action Comics 775
DC Comics

There's an abundance of classic standalone Superman stories worth mentioning, but none were as timely or as rejuvenating as Joe Kelly, Doug Mahnke and Lee Bermejo's What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way? - a comic that looked to address the grim, dark and 'gritty' vibe that had pervaded the medium during the nineties, and why the Man of Steel will always be relevant.

The comic, which was adapted in the animated movie Superman vs The Elite, features the Last Son of Krypton as he encounters The Elite, a team of vigilantes who rise to public prominence thanks to their brutal, albeit efficient approach to fighting crime. Led by Manchester Black, the group eventually stumble upon an invasion Superman is putting to bed, and with the Man of Steel having already gone against the grain and publicly condemned Black and his cronies, a confrontation soon develops.

Though Kelly's comic was written to address a phenomenon that had dominated the superhero genre in the nineties, it hasn't lost any of its salience. Action Comics' 775th issue serves as a timely reminder that Kal-El will always be DC's number one superhero, and that there'll always be a place for heroes without a bloodlust, no matter how drastically times change.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.