Enigma #1

DC's Vertigo imprint launched this mature-readers series in 1993 with a cover that perfectly captures its unsettling tone — a masked, dark-haired figure looms in moody purples while a framed inset illustration labels three strange entities: The Head, The Lizard, and The Enigma itself, the last rendered in black-and-white stripes with a small green lizard coiling free. Writer Peter Milligan and artist Duncan Fegredo, whose painterly cover work is complemented by Sherilyn Van Valkenburgh's rich, atmospheric colors, signal from the very first issue that Enigma will be something genuinely different from the mainstream superhero fare of its era. If you have any appetite for surreal, psychologically charged storytelling, this opener is a compelling place to start.