Carnage U.S.A. #[nn]

Zeb Wells and Clayton Crain's Carnage, U.S.A. arrives in this 2012 Marvel collection with a cover image that is quietly unsettling in the best possible way — the symbiote villain crouches in a brooding, almost contemplative pose, his red-and-black form wrapped around and consuming a tattered American flag pooled at his feet. Clayton Crain's painted artwork gives the whole image a slick, painterly weight, the stark white background making Carnage's coiled menace feel all the more inescapable. It's a striking package that signals exactly the kind of darkly patriotic chaos waiting inside.