Ascender #14

Dustin Nguyen's watercolor cover for Ascender #14 places a lone child at the center of an enormous, fractured throne-like structure — stone and circuitry intertwined, with a tangle of colorful cables snaking through the ruins like veins through a mechanical body. The image carries a quiet, unsettling power: the small figure seated calmly amid so much crumbling grandeur suggests both vulnerability and unexpected significance. Jeff Lemire and Nguyen's sci-fi fantasy series continues to deliver this kind of hauntingly intimate imagery that makes it one of Image's most visually distinctive ongoing titles.