Aliens / Predator: The Deadliest of the Species #5

Issue five of this twelve-part Dark Horse series delivers a genuinely unsettling cover by John Bolton: a human woman lies unconscious and vulnerable on the ground while a towering Xenomorph looms directly over her, its skeletal form framed against a moody purple haze and flanked by what appears to be a second alien presence in the shadows. The composition is tense and atmospheric, Bolton's painted linework giving both creatures an almost sculptural weight that makes the threat feel immediate. With Christopher Claremont and Eduardo Barreto driving the story, The Deadliest of the Species continues to be one of the more ambitious crossover series Dark Horse was producing in 1994.