Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #52

Tad Williams and Shawn McManus take Aquaman into eerie deep-sea territory in this July 2007 installment of Sword of Atlantis, and Mario Alberti's cover sets the mood perfectly — the orange-haired, scale-armored hero surges forward sword in hand, his hair fanning out in the current as the ghostly silhouette of a sunken city looms behind him in the darkness. Shadowy creatures lurk at the edges of that submerged ruin, making it clear why the cover announces Black Manta's battleground as a sunken city. It's a genuinely atmospheric image that captures both the loneliness and the danger of the ocean's infinite depths.