Green Arrow #82

Part two of the "Cross Roads" arc puts Oliver Queen in a brutal spot — literally — as the cover by Dan Norton and Gerry Fernandez shows a dark-clad, headband-wearing figure using Green Arrow's own bow as a chokehold against him, pressing the weapon across his throat while a red-tinged shadow looms behind them both. It's a tense, up-close image that wastes no space in conveying just how outmatched and physically compromised Ollie appears, his tattered green costume and desperate expression doing most of the heavy lifting. With the creative team of Kevin Dooley, Jim Aparo, and Gerry Fernandez carrying the interior, this January 1994 installment promises the kind of street-level, hard-edged storytelling that defined the series at its grittiest.