Fatale #21

Sean Phillips's cover for Fatale #21 sets the mood perfectly: a grim-faced man in a tuxedo, leaning on a cane, is pulled close by a dark-haired woman in an elegant dress and long white gloves — revolver raised, her expression coolly determined. The stark, near-monochromatic palette with that single accent of deep blue gives the image a moody, noir-drenched atmosphere that Ed Brubaker and Phillips had been building across the series. If you've been following this Image title into 2014, this penultimate-arc cover promises the same sophisticated tension that makes Fatale one of crime comics' most compelling reads.