Astro City #34

Alex Ross delivers a genuinely unsettling close-up on this 2016 Vertigo issue: a silver-skinned, skeletal figure wearing brass goggles with glowing skull reflections stares outward, one bony arm extending toward the viewer against a turbulent, storm-ravaged background. The image has the eerie, painterly intensity Ross brings to even the strangest corners of Astro City's world, making "The End of the Whole Mess" feel like a story that earns its dramatic title. With Kurt Busiek writing and Brent E. Anderson on interior art, this is exactly the kind of quietly haunting chapter that keeps the series so compelling.