Animal Man #11

Part of DC's New 52 initiative, this September 2012 issue puts Buddy Baker in a desperate situation that the cover spells out in plain, gut-punch terms: "…First it stole his powers… Now it has his son!" Steve Pugh's cover art captures the raw stakes — a snarling, bark-skinned monster clutches a screaming young boy while a powerless Buddy charges in bare-fisted against a looming rhinoceros-like shape behind them, all rendered against a blazing orange background that radiates urgency. Writer Jeff Lemire, with interior art by Alberto Ponticelli and Wayne Faucher, brings the "Extinction Is Forever" arc to its conclusion here, and the cover makes clear this finale is intensely personal for Animal Man.