Avengers: The Initiative #16

Tied directly into Marvel's 2008 Secret Invasion crossover, this issue of Avengers: The Initiative delivers a cover — penciled and inked by Mark Brooks — that puts two determined heroes front and center: a heavily armed man in a green jacket leveling a multi-barreled weapon, and a red-costumed hero at his side, both standing triumphant atop a pile of defeated Skrulls while a snarling alien creature crouches nearby. The story title alone — "Skrull-$%#@ers!" — tells you the tone writers Dan Slott and Christos N. Gage are going for. With interior art by Stefano Caselli and colors by Luca Malisan, this is the Initiative at its scrappiest, squaring off against the shape-shifting invasion head-on.