Green Arrow #6

Part two of "Gauntlet" arrives with a cover that pulses with street-level tension — a man in a tuxedo and a red-haired woman in a leopard-print jacket are caught in a tense, gun-filled standoff, hemmed in by a crowd of dangerous-looking figures on all sides, with a green arrow piercing the frame from above. Ed Hannigan and Dick Giordano pack the composition with nervous energy, every face selling the danger of the moment. Mike Grell's mature-readers take on Oliver Queen continued to push DC's "New Format" in grittier directions, and this 1988 installment looks like it delivers exactly that kind of hard-edged drama.