Hitman #55

Part three of "Closing Time" arrives in Hitman #55 (November 2000), and McCrea's cover makes the tension impossible to miss — two furious faces fill the frame nose-to-nose, a woman with wild purple hair baring her teeth against a sunglasses-wearing, stubble-chinned man whose expression is every bit as ferocious, the whole composition drenched in blood-red. It's an arresting, close-quarters composition that conveys raw confrontation without a single punch being thrown. Garth Ennis and John McCrea were doing some of their sharpest work together on this series, and this chapter looks to keep that momentum rolling.