Doom Patrol #40

Two heavily armored, mechanized figures locked in a brutal grappling struggle dominate Simon Bisley's striking cover — one clad in blue armor mounted on spidery mechanical limbs, the other in gold and deep blue robes wielding what appears to be a large firearm at point-blank range. The tension is visceral and immediate, rendered in Bisley's richly detailed style against a spare pink background that makes the confrontation feel all the more stark. Grant Morrison, Richard Case, and Mark McKenna's "Battlefield of Dreams" arrives in January 1991 as part of DC's mature-readers line, and this cover alone signals that the Doom Patrol remains one of the most visually inventive series of its era.