Defenders #8

Issue #8 of Matt Fraction's Defenders run puts the team's mission — "Protecting Humanity from the Impossible" — front and center with a cover by Terry and Rachel Dodson that crackles with supernatural menace. Iron Fist, clad in his white-and-gold costume, squares off against a dark-robed, hooded figure conjuring glowing energy, the two combatants locked in a fierce mid-air struggle above a sea of skulls. The crimson backdrop and swirling green mystical energy give the whole image an otherworldly tension that makes this 2012 series feel like essential Marvel storytelling.