Grifter #9

A jungle-set brawl explodes across this cover, with Grifter trading point-blank gunfire with a hulking, bandolier-strapped opponent while a silver-haired woman looks on from below — all rendered with real kinetic energy by cover penciler Mat Broome and inker Trevor Scott. The tight, overlapping figures and muzzle flashes give the scene a raw, immediate tension that suits the WildStorm universe's grittiest operative perfectly. Writer Steven Grant, artist Michael Ryan, and inker Jason Gorder were steering this series through one of its most intense stretches in 1997, and this cover makes a strong case for picking up the issue.