Impulse #71

The cover of Impulse #71 (April 2001) crackles with lightning as a red-suited speedster and a blue-and-white-clad hero sprint in tandem — one of them quipping "Whadja say to get him STEAMED??" — while a massive, smoke-belching steam-powered machine looms menacingly overhead. It's a kinetic, humor-laced image that perfectly captures the book's mix of action and personality, rendered here by cover penciler Ethan Van Sciver and inker Wayne Faucher. With Todd DeZago writing and Carlo Barberi on interior art, this first chapter of "The Return of Lucius Keller" has a lot of fun energy to live up to — and that cover suggests it's more than ready.