Avengers: The Children's Crusade #8

The penultimate chapter of Marvel's nine-issue limited series arrives battered and breathless — and Jim Cheung's cover (inked by Mark Morales) makes the stakes unmistakably clear. A bruised, bloodied cast of heroes fills the image: a young archer bristling with arrows stands center alongside a fallen, glassy-eyed figure in dark armor, while the faces of Spider-Man, Captain America, and other wounded Avengers crowd the background in various states of distress. Allan Heinberg's story is clearly pushing these characters to their absolute limits heading into the finale.