Before Watchmen: Rorschach #4

The final chapter of Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo's Before Watchmen: Rorschach arrives with a cover that pulls no punches — literally. Bermejo's painted artwork depicts a brutal mid-fight moment: a scarred, white-haired man throwing a fist at Rorschach, whose ink-blotted mask is the only calm thing in the composition, while their locked struggle casts a dramatic shadow of the struggle on the warm amber wall behind them. It's a fittingly raw close to a four-issue miniseries that has consistently matched its gritty subject matter with some of 2013's most viscerally compelling cover art.