Just out of interest, I was wondering what basis you all use for rating comics. The most obvious criteria, would be something along the lines of:

This is the best comic I've ever read, so 5 stars...
TO
This is the worst comic I've ever read so 1 star

BUT

if we use the example of Fantastic Four #1, then maybe we should also consider the context i.e. what were all the other comics like at the time? We might therefore rate this comic more highly on this basis.

Maybe there are other factors you consider, or perhaps you just go by what your gut says.

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"My senses are so ultra-keen that I can do anything a man with eyesight can...and do it better!!"

for me:
basic is 3 - control number
5 - great, just amazing, wonderful job there at marvel, Love You guys + essential + breakthrough
4 - great, just amazing, wonderful job there at marvel, Love You guys
3 - 'i've read it and it's regular Marvel
2 - I've read it and it bored me to the point where i've wanted to stop reading but i've managed to end it
1 - it bored me to the point when I was going to shoot myself (example - almost every tales to astonish with Ant Man)
or
1 - i've read it to the end, it was mainly not bad, but there was that one thing for which they (people in Marvel) should burn in hell (ex. rape on ms Marvel)
or
1 - almost every issue with Mole Man in it

check also what other people think here: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=537

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I go with what is par for the course for that era. I'm not going to take a look at something from the 60's and compare the art to something contemporary. Likewise, I can't compare the stories, either, because the industry today is a lot different than it was back then. Continuity is a lot more important now then it was back then (looking at you Hulk v1).
The most important thing to me is the plot, character development, and all the other things that make a great story. I like the way fragsel rates things, that seems to be pretty close to what I do. I really only give out 1 star if it is just either horrible (ToS 43) or the plot is really far out of line with continuity (X-Men 18 (Magneto hypnotizing with magnetism, and Xavier reading Magneto's mind through his helmet)).
I find I have more 3's than anything, which is good because 3 is par for the course, and I actually have more 4 stars than 2 stars, and more 5 stars than 1 stars.

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'The soul knows no greater anguish than to take a breath that begins with love and ends with grief.'- Steven Erikson

my thoughts are close to fragsel's. but i have given ALOT of 2 stars, because even if i think about the era as jfpj talks about, there are alot of bad issues in the early 60's. so far i have 200 2stars and 200 3stars rated, and only 16 5stars

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Issues to read till I get to Giant-Size X-Men #1 = 300

This is where I stand as of 267 issues read (and some of these lower ratings may seem low, but I skipped all Ant-Man, and the Strange Tales before Dr. Strange was added)

1 star: 2
2 star: 42
3 star: 133
4 star: 73
5 star: 17 (4 of these are from the original Wolverine 4 pt miniseries, which I just found incredible)

I like a lot of the early work, because it's just an entertaining read sometimes.

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'The soul knows no greater anguish than to take a breath that begins with love and ends with grief.'- Steven Erikson

And that's bad? I've read 1695 issues and gave 5stars only... 4 times.

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I was thinking the same thing. I have 2050 comics rated and only 9 5 stars

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hehe. ok maybe i have been nicer then i thought

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Issues to read till I get to Giant-Size X-Men #1 = 300

No kidding. I feel like I'm being way to generous with my scores, now.

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'The soul knows no greater anguish than to take a breath that begins with love and ends with grief.'- Steven Erikson

Well, you are also including books much later in the order then the rest of us are (since the wolverine 4 parter is in the 4000s)...quality goes up in the later years.

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