Avengers #29

Tied to Marvel's 2012 Avengers vs. X-Men crossover event, this issue drops readers into what looks like a tense, battle-worn standoff. The cover by Mike Deodato presents a battered Captain America bracing in the foreground — his suit torn and bloodied — while behind him a winged figure hovers in white, the Silver Surfer crouches on his board, and a young woman in a rust-and-gold costume squares up for a fight amid rubble and broken scaffolding. With Walter Simonson on interior art and Brian Michael Bendis crafting "Avengers Ambush!", this issue promises the kind of charged team confrontation that made AvX one of 2012's most talked-about events.