Checkmate #8

Greg Rucka and Jesús Saiz kick off "Pawn 502: Part 1" with a cover that frames the mission's stakes in stark, elegant terms — two masked operatives face opposite directions, their expressions tense and watchful, while a coiled cobra winds menacingly around a black chess pawn between them. The queen and king insignias on their shoulders hint at the organization's rigid hierarchy, and that striking split red-and-blue background reinforces the sense of opposing forces held in uneasy balance. Saiz's clean, confident linework makes this one of the sharper spy-thriller covers DC had to offer in January 2007.