Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicle #4

Yukito Kishiro's *Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicle* continues its Martian saga with this fourth volume, and the cover sets an immediately gripping tone. Two young girls — one in a flowing white outfit with a purple scarf, the other in a gothic black dress with blonde braids and a mechanical arm — are caught mid-flight before an enormous, skull-faced figure in a wide-brimmed hat that dwarfs them completely. The contrast between the children's vulnerability and that looming, skeletal presence makes this 2018 volume a genuinely compelling entry in Kishiro's expanding universe.