Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin #5

Penultimate issues don't get much more charged than this — issue five of six in Marvel's 2008 limited series puts Iron Man face-to-face with a massive, snarling dragon on a cover that crackles with bold graphic energy. The armored hero fires a brilliant repulsor blast directly into the beast's gaping jaws, the two figures locked in a confrontation that practically leaps off the page. Writer Joe Casey and cover artists Eric Canete and Dave Stewart bring a wonderfully stylized, retro-pulp sensibility to this showdown that makes it impossible to look away.