Dead of Night Featuring Man-Thing #1

Marvel's MAX imprint brought its mature-readers sensibility to the swamp in 2008 with this first chapter of "The Cool Dark," a four-part limited series built around one of Marvel's most unsettling creatures. Kaare Andrews's cover announces the threat immediately — a massive, glowing-eyed Man-Thing looms from the murk, tendrils and claws splayed wide, while portrait medallions on the left introduce the human players: Ted Sallis, Ellen Brandt, and the grim-faced Digger. With Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa writing and Nick Percival on art, this explicit-content series promises a darker, more visceral take on the muck monster than most readers have encountered.