Bloodshot #41

Valiant's white-haired nanite soldier faces a desperate, knife-wielding opponent in this tense December 1995 installment, with a moonlit tropical backdrop of palm fronds and night sky amplifying the danger of the close-quarters struggle. The cover — penciled by Jeff Johnson and inked by Scott Kolins — captures Bloodshot's glowing red eyes and iron composure set against his adversary's wide-eyed, open-mouthed terror, a knife blade barely separating the two. With a creative team of writer Mark Moretti, artist Paul Gulacy, and inker Randy Elliott, "Arena" promises the kind of hard-edged action that made this Valiant series a standout of the mid-'90s.