Fairest #12

Vertigo's Fairest #12 (April 2013) brings Lauren Beukes and Inaki Miranda's arc to a fever pitch with a cover by Adam Hughes that commands attention — a gaunt, skeletal figure draped in long pale hair looms forward, its bony hand clutching at its own jawbone against a smoldering yellow-green haze that feels genuinely unsettling. The "Battle Royale" subtitle promises the kind of confrontation the Fables universe does so well, filtered here through Beukes's sharp, dark sensibility. If you've been following "The Hidden Kingdom," this is the issue you've been waiting for.