Alpha Flight #7

The penultimate chapter of this 2012 Marvel limited series arrives with a cover question that's hard to ignore: "Can Guardian survive against the Wolverine?" Penciled by Carlo Pagulayan and inked by Jason Paz, the image puts Guardian front and center — grimacing through a cracked surface as a snarling, clawed Wolverine looms behind him in his gold-and-black costume. Writers Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente, with interior art by Dale Eaglesham, have been building toward exactly this kind of clash, and issue seven of eight makes clear the tension between these two has reached its breaking point.