Invincible #63

Few covers in 2009 hit with this kind of visceral force — Ryan Ottley's cover for Invincible #63 shows the blue-suited hero absolutely drenched in blood, barely holding himself upright amid a field of broken rubble, his battered face set in grim defiance. The "Invincible War: Aftermath" banner and "Conquest Part Three" banner frame this as a chapter deep in the wreckage of something enormous, and the sheer physical punishment on display makes clear that Mark Grayson has been pushed to his absolute limit. Robert Kirkman and Ottley were consistently delivering some of Image's most intense superhero storytelling at this point, and this cover alone makes a compelling case for why.