Hitman #17

Part three of the "Ace of Killers" arc arrives in this August 1997 installment of Garth Ennis and John McCrea's hard-boiled DC series. McCrea's cover pulls you straight into the tension: a pair of hands thrust two pistols forward while a snarling, winged demonic figure looms overhead, breathing a cone of blazing light and surrounded by twisting, claw-like forms emerging from the shadows. It's a striking composition that makes the threat feel genuinely otherworldly and raises the stakes heading into the back half of this story arc.