Chain Gang War #5

This November 1993 DC series keeps the intensity dialed up with issue #5, "Reunion," as the cover by Dave Johnson and John Dell throws two battered combatants into a savage, close-quarters brawl — a white-haired, bearded figure in a yellow jacket grapples desperately against a hulking, snarling opponent, weapons and chains tangled between them against a vivid red-and-green splatter backdrop. The raw physicality of the composition practically leaps off the page, making clear that whatever reunion this issue promises is anything but a warm one. With John Wagner writing and Johnson's gritty linework inked by Dell, Chain Gang War continues to deliver hard-edged action that earned DC's grittier corner of the early '90s its reputation.