Faces of Evil: Deathstroke #1

Part of DC's 2009 "Faces of Evil" event, this one-shot puts Slade Wilson front and center in a way that's hard to ignore. José Ladrönn's cover renders Deathstroke in a striking low-angle composition — his half-orange, half-grey masked face staring down the reader while he grips a gleaming sword in one hand and a pistol in the other, swords crossed at his chest against a near-black backdrop. Writer David Hine teams with artist Georges Jeanty and inker Mark McKenna to bring DC's most formidable mercenary his own spotlight moment.