John Byrne's Next Men #1

John Byrne revives his cult superhero team at IDW with this 2010 relaunch, and the cover sets an unsettling tone immediately — five figures lie sprawled and scattered across a stark black-and-white checkerboard floor, each pinned beneath or tangled with massive chrome cylinder-capped weights, as if the team has been utterly overwhelmed by some unknown force. The disorienting, fragmented checkerboard pattern extending into the background gives the whole image a dreamlike, reality-bending quality that feels entirely fitting for a series built around the idea of the next stage of human evolution. Byrne handles both pencils and inks himself, while colorist Ronda Pattison brings the cast's vivid costumes and that gleaming chrome machinery to life against the high-contrast monochrome setting.