Backlash #23

The contrast of an ordinary roadside tire change with something very wrong makes this 1996 Image cover instantly arresting — a massive, snarling creature looms behind a yellow vehicle while two younger characters look on with alarm, leaving a white-haired man crouching at the flat tire apparently unaware of the threat bearing down. Penciled by Juvaun Kirby and inked by John Tighe, the composition wrings real tension out of the mundane setting, with that burst of light at the vehicle's hood hinting that things are about to go very badly for everyone involved. Backlash #23 delivers the kind of superhero storytelling that keeps mid-'90s Wildstorm fans coming back — danger lurking just outside the frame of everyday life.