Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 #5

Season 9 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer continues with issue #5, subtitled "Slayer, Interrupted," and Steve Morris delivers a striking cover that places Buffy front and center in a swirling, colorful dress — her expression wide-eyed and unsettled — while a swarm of ghostly and monstrous faces, scaly creatures, and grasping hands press in around her from the shadows. The fragmented title treatment, with "slayer, interrupted" broken across the image, perfectly echoes that sense of a life coming apart at the seams. With Andrew Chambliss writing and Karl Moline on interior art, this 2012 Dark Horse installment looks like essential reading for fans who've followed Buffy into her newest chapter.