Checkmate #21

This 2008 installment of DC's espionage series carries the story title "La Vie en Sang" and the arc banner "The French Resister," setting a sharp, spy-thriller tone right from the cover. Kalman Andrasofszky's artwork places a steely woman in a red beret and trench coat — armed and commanding — at the center, flanked by a looming crimson-masked figure and a blonde operative in tactical armor firing bursts of gunfire near a sign reading "Paradise is… Biyalya." Writers Greg Rucka and Eric Trautmann, with interior art by Chris Samnee, bring their signature blend of geopolitical tension and action to this series, and this cover promises exactly that kind of high-stakes intrigue.