Amazing Spider-Man Presents: American Son #1

This opening chapter of Marvel's four-issue limited series arrives with a cover by Marko Djurdjević that sets a quietly unsettling tone — a cracked, pallid face dominates the left panel while a close-up of Spider-Man's eye, a young man's downcast profile, and a blood-streaked door fragment the right side into a mosaic of tension. The red-white-and-blue star motif threading through the composition gives the whole thing a patriotic unease that fits the story title, "A Patriot Act," perfectly. With Brian Reed writing and Philippe Briones on art and inks, colored by Jeromy Cox, this 2010 series promises a thoughtful, grounded Spider-Man story with something personal — and dangerous — at its heart.