Cable #27

The Sugar Man looms enormous and fang-baring over the cover of this January 1996 X-Men Deluxe title, his massive clawed hands reaching out as Cable and a group of armed allies surge forward through flames below him. Ian Churchill's pencils (inked by Scott Hanna) pack the composition with raw energy, balancing the grotesque menace of the villain against the determined charge of the heroes. With Jeph Loeb scripting "Rebels," this issue promises the kind of high-stakes confrontation the cover so vividly sets the stage for.