Fatale #12

Sean Phillips's cover for Fatale #12 says everything about this series' dark, genre-blending soul: a dark-haired woman bound with rope cries out as flames lick up around her, while two hooded, stone-faced figures flank her against a cold stone wall — the image carries the weight of a witch-trial nightmare filtered through noir. Ed Brubaker and Phillips were already deep into one of 2013's most compelling creator-owned runs, and a story chapter titled "A Lovely Sort of Death" promises the kind of poetic dread this team delivers so well. If you've been following Josephine's centuries-spanning ordeal, this issue belongs on your pull list without question.