Invincible Iron Man #515

Among the most emotionally striking covers of 2012, this issue finds Iron Man kneeling amid a field of rubble and debris, cradling the battered, unmasked form of what appears to be another armored figure — their silver War Machine-style suit shattered and scattered across the devastated ground. The muted, storm-lit sky behind Tony Stark gives the whole scene a somber, almost elegiac weight that the story title "Demon 6: Fall" only deepens. Fraction, Larroca, and D'Armata bring a quiet devastation to this cover that makes you want to turn the page immediately.