Captain America: What Price Glory #1

The opening chapter of this 2003 Marvel four-issue series poses a pointed question right in the title — What Price Glory? — and Steve Rude's cover sets the tone beautifully: Captain America leaps forward with his shield raised high, defiant and battle-cried, while military jets streak through a blazing sky on both sides of him. It's a striking image that frames the Star-Spangled Avenger as something both powerful and vulnerable — a soldier caught between spectacle and purpose. With Bruce Jones on writing duties and Rude's clean, classically grounded linework throughout, this is a series that clearly has something to say about heroism.