Dark Reign: Sinister Spider-Man #1

Set against the blood-spattered backdrop of Marvel's 2009 Dark Reign event, this first issue of the four-part miniseries wastes no time establishing a delightfully twisted tone. Chris Bachalo and Tim Townsend's cover depicts a hulking figure in a black symbiote-style Spider-Man costume — the menacing, grinning visage of Venom unmistakably peering out — looming over a shadowy cityscape with an air of dangerous confidence. Brian Reed's story title, "Women Love Him, Men Want to Be Him," hints at exactly the kind of darkly comedic swagger that makes Mac Gargan's stint as a very wrong sort of Spider-Man so entertaining.