Must-read graphic novels are futuristic classics that shouldn't be missed. Of course, not every must-see is perfect. That's why we've rated them 1-5 on the patented "crunchy goodness" scale.

Title: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Date: 1999-present

Vitals: A bunch of pulpy public-domain characters from 100 years ago form a super team to fight Professor Moriarty, Fu Manchu, and the Martian invaders from War of the Worlds. The result? Manages to be campy and literary. Call it camperary, maybe.

Famous names: Alan "weirdgod" Moore, Kevin O'Neill

Crunchy goodness: 5
Spinoffs/Sequels/Copycats: The 2003 movie starring Sean Connery has been known to cause people's eyeballs to turn into projectile shit. Do not sit in the same room as someone watching this movie, or you'll wind up with shit-splattered clothes while your newly blind friend begs for death. Not nearly as fun as it sounds.

Sights you'll never unsee: Mister Hyde rapes the Invisible Man to death — and the gruesome results will make you wish the invisibility trick kept working posthumously.

The shit: You can literally spend hours poring over all the little in-jokes in the comic itself, while each issue comes with a ton of fake Victorian ads and little prose pieces that immerse you in a bizarre distortion of the era that gave us steampunk.

Notes on League of Extraordinary Gentlemen #1 by Jess Nevins and divers hands

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