Criminal The Sinners #5

The penultimate chapter of "The Sinners" arrives with a cover that radiates dread — a lone, shadowed man hunched over what appears to be a bound, bloodied body, lit in striking blues and oranges that give the scene an almost nightmarish intensity. Sean Phillips's cover work here is masterfully economical, letting deep shadow and a tight composition do the heavy lifting to suggest violence, guilt, and desperation all at once. Ed Brubaker and Phillips's Criminal was already one of 2010's sharpest crime comics, and this fifth installment looks every bit as unsparing as the arc that preceded it.