Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 #11

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 kicks off its "Guarded" arc with this sharp 2012 Dark Horse issue, featuring a cover by Phil Noto that places Buffy in a dynamic defensive stance — suited up in black and poised for action — while a bespectacled man looms behind her, suggesting she's taken on a bodyguard role. The composition has a sleek, almost cinematic tension to it, with Buffy's arms spread wide as if shielding her charge from an unseen threat. With Andrew Chambliss writing and Georges Jeanty on interior art, this is a confident new chapter in Season 9's ongoing story.