Hawkworld #10

Graham Nolan's cover for Hawkworld #10 (April 1991) neatly captures a moment of identity confusion and cultural collision: a bewildered man in a suit stands between two sets of hawk-winged heroes — a brightly costumed, smiling Hawkman and Hawkwoman posed against an American flag backdrop on one side, and their darker, more armored counterparts flanking him on the other, one wielding a mace. The speechbubble "You gotta be kidding!" says it all, and the split-panel composition by Nolan makes the contrast between the polished public image and the grittier reality feel genuinely sharp. John Ostrander, Nolan, and Gary Kwapisz were doing some of their most interesting work on this series, and "Images" sounds like exactly the kind of story that earns that title.