Doctor Strange #181

A vast, skull-like yellow visage dominates this striking 1969 cover, its hollow eyes radiating menace against a stark black void — and cradled within its massive hands is a crystal sphere containing Doctor Strange himself, cape billowing as he conjures mystic energy in desperate defiance. The tagline "If a World Should Die…!" sets the cosmic stakes with admirable economy. Cover art by Gene Colan, Frank Brunner, and Tom Palmer delivers a composition that perfectly captures the blend of supernatural dread and heroic resolve that defined Marvel's mystical corner of the late Silver Age.