Justice League of America #21

Part of DC's "Sightings" initiative, Justice League of America #21 (July 2008) delivers a tense, fiery cover by Carlos Pacheco and Jesús Merino — a hooded, blue-skinned figure dominates the foreground clutching a staff and a book, while a massive bare-chested villain looms in the background amid a raging inferno, a feathered hero fallen at his feet and a red-costumed archer scrambling nearby. The scene radiates the sense of a team caught badly off-guard, with writer Dwayne McDuffie steering "The Gathering Crisis" into what promises to be a genuinely dangerous chapter for the League.