Legion of Super-Heroes #22

The cover of this May 1986 issue stops you cold: a single face split down the middle, one half showing a wide-eyed human countenance and the other a fractured, mechanical-looking visage rendered in bold yellows, greens, and purples — a striking visual that hints at a collision between humanity and something far stranger. Greg LaRocque and Larry Mahlstedt's cover design is bold and unsettling, using a shattered geometric composition to convey real tension around the story title "Dead End." Paul Levitz, LaRocque, and Mike DeCarlo's Legion of Super-Heroes was consistently one of DC's most ambitious titles in 1986, and this issue's arresting imagery makes a strong case for pulling it off the shelf.