Aliens: Survival #2

The penultimate chapter of this three-part Dark Horse series puts the tension front and center — Tony Harris's cover depicts a terrified, bespectacled figure desperately grappling with a Xenomorph at close quarters, the alien's sleek carapace and claws filling the foreground against a claustrophobic industrial backdrop bathed in sickly green and red light. The raw desperation on the human's face says everything about what "Survival" means when you're face-to-face with one of science fiction's most relentless predators. With James Vance writing and Guy Davis on interior art, this 1998 series brings a distinctly gritty sensibility to the Aliens universe.