Justice League of America #166

A glowing green statuette with a bird-like form dominates this cover, its energy beams radiating outward to engulf Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Black Canary, and Green Lantern — all reacting in helpless alarm as the cover copy warns of a nameless force seizing their minds and bodies. Ross Andru and Dick Giordano deliver a wonderfully dramatic composition that sells the menace of a seemingly ordinary object laid low the whole Justice League. Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin bring "The Long Way Home" to life in this 1979 issue, and the premise alone — a statuette with the power to destroy the JLA — is the kind of irresistible hook that made this era of DC storytelling so much fun.