Captain Midnight #51

Few comic covers from 1947 capture sheer kinetic daring quite like this one — Captain Midnight dives headlong past an erupting volcano, his red-and-blue uniform a blur of motion as molten rock and a billowing smoke cloud erupt just behind him, while an aircraft streaks across the sky above. The cover tagline promises he "Defies Disaster in the Skyworld," and the image delivers on every word. With Bill Woolfolk on writing duties and the interior story titled "Captain Albright's Treachery!," this Fawcett issue blends natural catastrophe with high-altitude adventure in a way that makes it hard to put down before you've even opened the cover.