Final Crisis Aftermath: Escape #2

Part two of DC's post-Final Crisis miniseries keeps the dread dialed up, with Scott Hampton's cover painting a deeply unsettling picture: a desperate, wide-eyed man is seized and restrained by featureless, expressionless figures bathed in an eerie green light, a single red badge the only vivid accent in the composition. The stark palette and oppressive body language communicate a story about psychological pressure and loss of control far more than any caption could. Iván Brandon and Marco Rudy are crafting something genuinely tense in this six-issue series, and this August 2009 chapter — subtitled "Pawns" — promises the paranoia is only deepening.