Bloodhound #5

This fifth issue of DC's Bloodhound promises a charged crossover as the series squares off against the Nuclear Man himself, Firestorm. Dave Johnson's moody cover does the heavy lifting: a heavily tattooed figure looms in deep crimson silhouette while Firestorm's fierce, flame-etched face blazes across the background in molten orange and gold, the whole image framed by police crime-scene tape that doubles as the book's masthead. With Jolley, Kirk, and Riggs driving the interior, this January 2005 issue looks like a genuinely compelling collision between Bloodhound's gritty street-level world and the raw power of a nuclear superhero.