Invincible Iron Man #12

Part five of "World's Most Wanted" arrives during Marvel's Dark Reign era, and Salvador Larroca's cover immediately grabs attention with a stunning aerial perspective: Iron Man in his distinctive dark-red-and-gold armor plunging underwater, locked in a fierce grapple with a dark-clad opponent as churning bubbles swirl around them. The submerged struggle feels urgent and genuinely tense, with Larroca and colorist Frank D'Armata's teal-blue water rendering the scene both beautiful and dangerous. Matt Fraction's run on this title was hitting its stride in 2009, and this issue promises plenty of the high-stakes action its subtitle — "The High-End Technology of Ultramodern Destruction" — so boldly advertises.