Fantastic Four #21

With the cover tagline warning "While the Parents are Away… the Kids Will Play Deadly Games!", this September 1999 issue makes its stakes immediately clear: a woman clutching a young child, a red-haired warrior woman brandishing a polearm, a young boy, and the FF's loyal bulldog Lockjaw are completely encircled by a gang of hulking, crown-wearing bruisers in purple — and things look grim. Salvador Larroca and Art Thibert deliver a wonderfully kinetic composition, with the surrounded group at its tense center and a spiked mace looming ominously in the foreground. Chris Claremont's "Rascals 4" promises exactly the kind of high-stakes, against-the-odds confrontation that makes Fantastic Four so compelling.