Captain Marvel #28

This September 1973 issue sets the stakes dramatically high: a looming, larger-than-life Thanos — billed right on the cover as "Mad Menace, Overlord of Titan" — towers over a field of fallen Avengers including Captain America, the Scarlet Witch, Iron Man, and the Black Panther, all laid low by his overwhelming power. Standing defiantly against the odds, Captain Marvel faces the cosmic tyrant alone, his speech bubble promising to triumph or die — a cover composition by Jim Starlin (pencils) and Pablo Marcos (inks) that crackles with tension and scale. With Jim Starlin also handling writing, art, and colors on the interior alongside co-writer Mike Friedrich, this is a boldly unified creative vision of Mar-Vell pushed to his absolute limit.