Checkmate #19

Cold War tension comes alive in Checkmate! #19 (July 1989), titled "The Dead of Knight," as a lone Checkmate agent in yellow-and-black gear tears through a swarm of Soviet soldiers on a cover penciled and inked by Gil Kane. The dynamic composition sweeps from a fallen red-coated soldier in the foreground — red star on his cap, rifle at his side — all the way back to armed troops closing in from every angle, with sparks flying as the outnumbered operative fights his way through what is clearly a very bad night in Moscow. With writing by Paul Kupperberg and interior art from Rick Hoberg, Steve Erwin, Pablo Marcos, and the full creative team, this issue delivers the kind of globe-trotting spy-action that made DC's espionage titles so compelling in the late 1980s.