Daredevil #25

Chris Samnee's cover for this 2013 issue delivers a gut-punch image: a bloodied Daredevil on hands and knees, barely holding himself up, while a looming, dark-robed figure stands over him with blood dripping from both fists. The composition — hero defeated, threat dominant, faces hidden — says everything about the desperate stakes without showing a single word of story. Mark Waid, Samnee, and Javier Rodríguez were consistently delivering some of Marvel's most compelling work at this point, and issue #25 looks like no exception.