Aquaman #22

The cover of Aquaman #22 (November 2004) makes an immediate impression: a black-suited, lightning-crackling villain — "The Eel" — looms triumphantly over a churning whirlpool of waves, arms raised and electricity blazing, while Aquaman in his orange-scaled costume is driven downward and a second figure in green trunks is flung aside. Patrick Gleason and Christian Alamy's cover art captures a genuine sense of power imbalance, with the sea itself seeming to churn at the Eel's command. Writer Will Pfeifer's "With the Fishes Part 2" promises to keep the pressure squarely on Aquaman as this mid-2000s run continues to put its hero through his paces.