John Carter, Warlord of Mars #12

Dynamite's John Carter, Warlord of Mars #12 brings the "Lost Empires" storyline roaring into its second chapter, with a cover by Fritz Casas that puts the Warlord himself front and center — sword raised, muscles straining — as he faces down a massive, red-eyed lion-like beast with bared fangs and raking claws. It's a visceral, kinetic image that captures everything Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars is about: one man against impossible odds on a savage, wondrous world. Writers Ron Marz and Ian Edginton, with interior art by Ariel Medel, keep this 2015 series firmly in the pulp-adventure spirit that has made Carter's Barsoomian saga endure for generations.