Green Lantern #25

From December 1963, this Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson cover crackles with the kind of imaginative mischief that made Silver Age DC irresistible. Green Lantern surges forward in the foreground, firing a blast from what the cover's speech bubble identifies as a tuning-fork gun, while a costumed villain above him wields the stolen power ring — weapons swapped, the playing field suddenly and deliciously uneven. Bystanders scatter on the street below as Gardner Fox's "War of the Weapon Wizards!" promises exactly the sort of clever, high-stakes role-reversal that Hal Jordan fans of 1963 would have snatched right off the spinner rack.