Black Terror #11

Spinning out of the Project Superpowers universe, Black Terror #11 delivers one of the more quietly unsettling covers of 2010 — a close-up of a child's face looming large in the background as an enormous hand holds up a Black Terror action figure, his skull-and-crossbones costume and blue cape rendered in striking detail, while a second, smaller figure rests in the other hand. Alex Ross's painted cover art gives the whole image a surreal, almost dreamlike tension, making the line between hero and toy feel genuinely thought-provoking. With Phil Hester and Ross co-writing "The Ghosts of the Living Part Two" and Wagner Reis handling interior art, this is a series firing on all cylinders.