Bang! Tango #6

The six-issue Vertigo miniseries Bang! Tango lands its finale with a cover by Howard Chaykin that says everything about the series' hard-boiled attitude: a woman in red stockings and a short skirt stands over a battered man on the floor, a smoking pistol in her hand, while spent brass and tumbling bullets fill every corner of the frame. It's a striking image — power, danger, and a very bad day for the guy looking up — that captures the pulpy tension Joe Kelly, Adrian Sibar, and Rodney Ramos have been building across "Chapter Six: Entregarme." A satisfying close to a stylish, mature-readers crime story from 2009.