Fear Itself #6

The penultimate chapter of Marvel's seven-part Fear Itself limited series arrives with a cover by Steve McNiven and Mark Morales that pulls no punches: a battered, bloodied Captain America crouches alone above the title, his shield cracked and his uniform in tatters, while below him a grimly determined Iron Man, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Hawkeye, and a fifth hero advance through a storm-lashed, lightning-split sky. It's a striking split image — one hero nearly broken at the top, a battered but resolute team pressing forward at the bottom — that captures the desperate, costly tone of this 2011 event series. With Matt Fraction writing and Stuart Immonen, Wade von Grawbadger, and Laura Martin handling the interior art, "Blood-Tied & Doomed" promises the kind of high-stakes Marvel storytelling this series has been building toward all along.