Captain Marvel #42

Marvel's self-proclaimed "most cosmic superhero of all" finds himself in serious trouble on this January 1976 cover, as a massive, purple-clad villain — the Stranger — looms over a hard-pressed Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell), swatting away an energy blast while boasting he can't be outfought. Al Milgrom's pencils and Alan Weiss's inks pack the image with kinetic energy, from the crackling explosion at center to the figures scrambling in the background, all set against a sprawling space-station environment. The title blurb — "Shootout at the O.K. Cosmic Corral!" — says it all: this is big, brawling, outer-space action with a gloriously pulpy western twist.