Animal Man #23

A horned, caped figure dominates this unsettling New 52 cover, arms outstretched over a grotesque landscape of monstrous, writhing forms as crimson drips cascade around him — all under the ominous banner "Reign of Blood!" Francis Portela's cover art captures a genuinely menacing sense of dark power that fits perfectly with the concluding chapter of "Splinter Species." Jeff Lemire and artists Steve Pugh and Francis Portela have been delivering some of DC's most viscerally imaginative horror-tinged superhero storytelling in 2013, and this issue looks to bring that arc to a striking close.