American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest #5

The five-issue miniseries reaches its conclusion with this tense, atmospheric finale from writer Scott Snyder and artist Sean Murphy. Sean Murphy's cover pulls no punches — a scarred, bandaged figure stands protectively over a woman against a brooding backdrop of Nazi imagery, a burning castle, tanks, and a fanged, red-eyed creature lurking in the shadows, all rendered in Murphy's distinctively gritty linework. It's a striking sendoff for this WWII-era chapter of the American Vampire saga, and a satisfying capstone to one of Vertigo's most atmospheric miniseries of 2011.