Ascender #8

Dustin Nguyen's watercolor cover for Ascender #8 commands attention with a masked, cloaked figure dominating a blood-red background — wild dark spikes radiating from their head like a crown of thorns, an ornate cross gleaming at their chest, and hollow-eyed white mask lending them an unsettling, almost ritualistic menace. Jeff Lemire and Nguyen's sci-fi/fantasy series has always excelled at blending the eerie with the mythic, and this image captures that tone perfectly. If you've been following the series, this 2020 issue looks like a compelling next chapter in a world where magic has overtaken technology.