Green Lantern #44

The cover tagline says it all — "Hal and Trapper: Death Match" — and Billy Tan's cover art delivers on that promise with Hal Jordan surrounded by crackling green ring energy and incoming fire while a red-skinned, caped alien adversary looms menacingly above him amid an explosion of blue and orange light. It's a visually charged standoff that captures the high-stakes cosmic tension Robert Venditti has been building across this New 52 run. If you've been following Hal's increasingly dangerous solo odyssey through space, issue #44 looks like a genuinely compelling escalation.