So over on She Has No Head! I mentioned that two categories, “Best Cover” and “Best Single Issue” were incredibly hard to decide this year thanks to an influx of great stuff I had trouble deciding between.  As a result I decided to do a top 25 “Best Single Issues” for 2011 on 1979.  As I noted on She Has No Head! there are some notable absences here, largely due to gaps in my reading. Off the top of my head I’d say the most glaring absences are DMZ, Scalped, and Daredevil, all of which I am significantly behind on. Because I have written about almost all of these issues elsewhere, I’m not going to do paragraphs on each of them.  You can find detailed CBR Reviews for 17 of the 25 below at this link.  And if you have questions about any other titles I didn’t do reviews for, just ask and I’ll be happy to talk about them in the comments.

All that said…these are my “25 Best Single Issues of 2011″…

025.  THE RED WING #1 by Brian Hickman, Nick Pitarra, and Rachelle Rosenberg

024.  HELLBOY: THE FURY #1 by Mike Mignola, Duncan Fegredo, and Dave Stewart

023.  WOLVERINE & JUBILEE #1 by Kathryn Immonen and Phil Noto

022. NEW YORK FIVE #1 by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly

021. BIRDS OF PREY #2 by Duane Swierczynski, Jesus Saiz, and Allen Passalaqua*

*cover above to Birds of Prey #1 (just cause I prefer it!)

020.  ANGEL & FAITH #1 by Christos Gage, Rebekah Isaacs, and Dan Jackson

019.  LOOSE ENDS #1 by Jason Latour, Chris Brunner, and Rico Renzi

018. BATGIRL #18 by Bryan Q. Miller and Dustin Nguyen

017.  NORTHLANDERS #42 by Brian Wood, Paul Azaceta, and Dave McCraig

016.  X-23 #13 by Marjorie Liu and Phil Noto

015.  RACHEL RISING #1 by Terry Moore

014.  SECRET AVENGERS #20 by Warren Ellis, Alex Maleev, and Nick Filardi

013.  GENERATION HOPE #9 by Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, and Jim Charalampidis

012.  SECRET AVENGERS #18 by Warren Ellis, David Aja, and Raul Allen

011.  NONPLAYER #1 by Nate Simpson

010.  DETECTIVE COMICS #881 by Scott Snyder, Francesco Francavilla, Jock, and David Baron

09.  UNCANNY X-FORCE #4 by Rick Remender, Jerome Opena, and Dean White

08.  BATWOMAN #1 by J.H. Williams III, W. Haden Blackman, and Dave Stewart

07.  WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN #1 by Jason Aaron, Chris Bachalo, Tim Tomsend, Jaime Mendoza, and Al Vey

06.  BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: SEASON 9 #1 by Joss Whedon, Georges Jeanty, Dexter Vines, and Michelle Madsen

05.  OPTIC NERVE #12 by Adrian Tomine

04.  SECRET AVENGERS #16 by Warren Ellis, Jamie McKelvie, and Matthew Wilson

03.  ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #3 by Brian Michael Bendis, Sara Pichelli, and Justin Ponsor

02.  WONDER WOMAN #1 by Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang, and Matthew Wilson

01.  DETECTIVE COMICS #874 by Scott Snyder and Francesco Francavilla