Ever wondered what ComicsOnline’s internal rating scale has been all along? Well wonder no more, as it’s now available here! We’ve been using this scale since about 2008 or so. This was written toward our reviewers, so the “you” is us. Enjoy…

5 stars: everything to everyone. Anyone who would come to ComicsOnline.com would definitely want to purchase this release without question. It is so close to flawless that any flaws are completely eclipsed by its awesomeness. This is something you want to own forever and re-watch, re-play, or re-read over and over anytime.

4 1/2 stars: nearly perfect. This rating is like a 5-star rating, but there is at least one flaw that cannot be overlooked. All or almost all of the ComicsOnline audience would want to own this release.

4 stars: excellent. This indicates a solid release. Most ComicsOnline readers will want to own this, pretty much all will see it. It may not completely thrill all, but practically all will enjoy it. You personally would want to watch/play/read this again indefinitely.

3 1/2 stars: great. Most of our audience will enjoy it, but there are enough factors against it to keep it from getting four or more stars.

3 stars: strong. This release has some combination of a narrow audience or some significant problems, but is still judged as a good release and worth owning for many of our audience.

2 1/2 stars: good. Release is worth seeing, but most would not find it worth buying. For games or movies, this is a rental recommendation; for comics or books, this is a warning that this is something to wait till it’s on sale, cause this is bound for the quarter bin. This is also part of the range for those releases that are “so bad they’re good”.

2 stars: flawed. While some might find this worth buying or renting, most are going to acknowledge that this release is obviously flawed. Few would find this worth buying, but many would see it as a rental or on cable. This also can refer to a decent release that has an extremely narrow audience.

1 1/2 stars: seriously flawed. Most people aren’t going to bother even renting this. This is something you might watch on cable, but probably not. You can’t think of anyone you know that would like this unless maybe it’s a property that they already love due to previous releases, possibly in other media.

1 star: BAD. You can’t imagine anyone liking this release. You want compensation for having sat through it. You’d frankly never like to think about it again, but you’ll talk about it only to warn others against it.

1/2 star: Horrible. You are violently opposed to this release existing in the universe. No one at ComicsOnline can think of anything good to say about this release. We will not post a review of this.

0 stars: worse than Vogon poetry. Nothing on earth is this bad. If they gave us a case for free, we would destroy each one before putting them in the recycling.