JLA: Year One #9

The ninth chapter of this 1998 retelling of the JLA's formative year puts the team "Under Pressure!" — and the cover by Barry Kitson makes that title literal, showing Aquaman and Green Lantern engulfed and crushed by a writhing mass of deep-sea creatures, their expressions caught between struggle and desperation. Fanged fish, monstrous leering faces, and grasping alien limbs crowd every corner of the composition, creating a genuinely unsettling sense of being overwhelmed from all sides. Written by Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn, this installment — "Change the World" — promises the kind of high-stakes pressure-cooker storytelling that made this maxi-series a standout of its era.