Army@Love #5

Vertigo's sharp-edged satire of war and desire rolls on with issue #5, and the cover by Rick Veitch and Gary Erskine captures the series' tone perfectly — a battle-worn soldier in full combat gear, a "Hot Zone Morale" patch on his chest and a weapon in hand, holds a glamorous blonde woman close against a blood-red sky, oil derricks silhouetted on the horizon beneath a pale moon. The image blends romance-novel longing with the grim machinery of modern conflict in a way that feels both seductive and deeply uneasy. Entertainment Weekly's verdict of "amazingly racy and ruthless" is right there on the cover, and nothing about this image argues against it.