Hitman #19

Part five of the "Ace of Killers" arc arrives in this October 1997 installment of Garth Ennis and John McCrea's Hitman, and McCrea's cover sets a grim, feverish tone — a woman in purple sprawls across rubble surrounded by scattered skulls, while a monstrous, decaying figure looms over her from above, fists clenched against a sickly yellow sky. The ace-of-spades playing card motif anchoring the corner ties the image neatly to the story arc's deadly theme, promising that the stakes in Gotham's underworld have never felt more visceral.