Aliens: Music of the Spears #2

Issue two of this four-part Dark Horse series delivers one of the more viscerally unsettling covers of 1994: a bloodied, wide-eyed bald man recoils in horror as a facehugger coils around his hands and chest, its tail wrapped tight and its body pressing toward him with unmistakable intent. The painted detail work by cover penciler Tim Bradstreet and inker Guy Burwell gives the scene a raw, almost photorealistic menace that suits the Aliens universe perfectly. With Chet Williamson's story and Tim Hamilton's interior art, Music of the Spears is shaping up to be one of the franchise's more tension-drenched miniseries.