Flashpoint: Deadman and the Flying Graysons #1

Part of DC's 2011 Flashpoint event, this first issue of three drops Deadman and the Flying Graysons into a world gone sideways — and the cover by Cliff Chiang sets the tone immediately: Deadman hangs inverted, bound in chains above a snapping crocodile, while a medallion portrait of a young man in a colorful acrobat's costume hints at the Grayson connection. The retro-carnival design — complete with a seal, starburst callouts, and breathless copy promising fugitives, enemy lines, and doom — gives the whole thing an unsettling circus-poster energy that fits the Flashpoint universe's twisted mirror perfectly. J.T. Krul and Mikel Janín bring "The Show Must Go On" to life, and with stakes this dire right from issue one, that title reads more like a desperate hope than a confident promise.