Iron Man #12

Sean Chen and Lary Stucker deliver a kinetic cover that puts Iron Man squarely in the crossfire — crackling blue energy tears through the composition as the heavily armed War Machine looms over a battered Shellhead, while a fierce Warbird, golden hair flying and eyes blazing, charges in from the right. The cover copy promises "Slaughter in the Skies," and with War Machine billed under "The Villainy of…," the tension between these armored allies-turned-adversaries feels genuinely charged. Writer Kurt Busiek, artist Patrick Zircher, and inker Larry Mahlstedt bring their "Spoils of War" story to this January 1999 installment — a solid chapter in one of Marvel's most enduring series.