Fatale #7

Sean Phillips's cover for Fatale #7 sets an unsettling tone perfectly: a dark-haired woman in white, her expression caught somewhere between shock and desperation, presses herself against an ornate gothic doorway as if something just beyond the frame has her cornered. The desaturated palette — broken only by that eerie teal glow emanating from the ironwork door — gives the whole image a noir-horror atmosphere that Ed Brubaker and Phillips have made their calling card. If "Book Two: The Devil's Business" is picking up where this cover leaves off, issue seven promises to be a genuinely atmospheric chapter in one of 2012's most compelling series.