Hitman #44

Few comics from 1999 could slap you across the face quite like Hitman #44, "Fresh Meat Part I," and John McCrea's cover makes the title feel alarmingly literal. Tommy Monaghan fires point-blank into the gaping, tooth-lined maw of an enormous dinosaur-like creature, its glowing red eye and dripping green wounds suggesting this beast has already taken some punishment — while at least two other terrified figures scramble desperately within those crushing jaws alongside him. Writer Garth Ennis and McCrea (who both penciled and inked this gloriously unhinged image) were clearly having a tremendous time pushing DC's darkly comedic anti-hero into the most outrageous corners of the DC Universe.