Four Eyes: Hearts of Fire #4

The fourth and final issue of Four Eyes: Hearts of Fire closes out this gritty Image series on a haunting note, with a cover that speaks volumes before a single page is turned. A young boy wearing a jagged, imposing crown lies cradled in the enormous scaled hands of a dragon, blood pooling beneath them both — an image of fragile humanity and brutal consequence rendered with raw, unflinching detail by the Kelly, Fiumara, and Mauer team. It's a quietly devastating visual that captures everything this 2016 series does so well: the collision of childhood and violence, and the heavy cost of the world these characters inhabit.