Astro City #31

Alex Ross's painted cover for issue #31 pulls you straight into the deep end — a massive, shadowy creature with blazing eyes and a maw full of fire looms over a lone figure in a red-collared jacket who stares up defiantly, while an array of costumed heroes scrambles into action on either side. The story is titled "Nightmare Life," which feels entirely fitting for this March 2016 Vertigo release, and even fantasy novelist Patrick Rothfuss couldn't resist shouting out Kurt Busiek's singular craft right there on the cover. With Busiek writing, Jesús Merino on interiors, and Alex Sinclair's colors throughout, this is Astro City doing what it does best — finding the very human heart inside something enormous and terrifying.