Astro City #33

Alex Ross's painted cover for this 2016 Vertigo issue sets an immediately tense mood: a silver-skinned, broad-shouldered figure absorbs a barrage of golden energy beams — bullets or laser fire — while shielding a frightened woman behind him, all against a shadowy brick-wall backdrop with a mysterious hat-and-shadow silhouette looming above. The combination of noir atmosphere and superhuman resilience is exactly the kind of street-level tension that makes Astro City so compelling. With Kurt Busiek writing, Brent E. Anderson on art, and Peter Pantazis's colors inside, "Permanent Records" looks like another thoughtful chapter in one of comics' most humane superhero universes.