Astonishing X-Men #2

Mike Deodato Jr.'s cover for "Life of X Part Two" delivers an immediately unsettling image: five skull-faced figures seated together, their silhouettes suggesting familiar X-Men — including one with unmistakable wild hair and a powerful build reminiscent of Wolverine, alongside others with distinctive hairstyles and costumes — bathed in a sickly green and crimson light. The effect is deeply eerie, blending the heroic with the macabre in a way that makes you genuinely curious about what threat could reduce mutantkind's finest to this ghostly state. Charles Soule and Deodato are clearly crafting something atmospheric and unsettling with this 2017 series, and issue #2 keeps that tension dialed up nicely.