Immortal Sergeant #9

Ken Niimura's cover for issue nine is quietly striking — a blue-tinted teenager with oversized glasses and a star-printed hoodie dominates the foreground, smiling with easy confidence, while a small, solitary white figure stands far off in the golden-yellow distance. The visual contrast between the two figures, one close and vivid and one tiny and uncertain, gives the image a bittersweet, contemplative pull that feels earned rather than showy. Joe Kelly and Ken Niimura's Immortal Sergeant continues to be one of 2023's most visually distinctive Image series, and this cover is a fine reminder of why.