Captain America #41

Ed Brubaker's "The Death of Captain America" arc reaches its fifth chapter of Act 3, and Steve Epting's cover sets the stakes with striking clarity. A battle-ready Captain America — shield in hand, stars-and-stripes suit ablaze against a fiery backdrop — stands at the center of a montage that includes a gun-toting blonde, Black Widow crouching in the foreground, a menacing green-faced villain, armed soldiers, a robot-like weapon, the White House, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. eagle emblem. It's a vivid, tightly composed snapshot of how many moving pieces are converging in this 2008 storyline.