Hawkman #9

The stakes couldn't be higher — the cover tagline says it all: "If Hawkman loses… so does the Earth!" This April 1987 issue puts the winged warrior front and center, his powerful frame straining against a mass of enormous purple tentacles that coil around him as he fights to break free, a spiked ball-and-chain weapon gripped in his fist. In the lower corners, small figures watch from what appears to be a gleaming interior space, hinting at a world-threatening confrontation brought vividly to life by cover artists Ed Hannigan and Jan Duursema.