American Virgin #13

Part four of the "Wet" arc arrives with a haunting Joshua Middleton cover that anchors this Vertigo series perfectly: a young woman in a tiara, pearl necklace, and pageant sash gazes upward with mascara-streaked cheeks, her hair swept wildly as though caught in wind or water. Steven T. Seagle's writing, paired with Becky Cloonan's interior art and inks by Jim Rugg, makes this mature-readers title one of 2007's more compelling ongoing series. That image of fractured pageantry — glamour visibly coming undone — sets a quietly unsettling tone that feels very much at home under the Vertigo banner.