Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #2

The bold cover tagline "Darkseid's Curse Fulfilled?" sets an ominous tone for this 1986 Legion annual, with Steve Lightle's artwork depicting a dramatic mid-air struggle featuring a large, open-mouthed creature in a purple-and-white costume dominating the foreground, a curly-haired child caught in its grasp, and a blonde Legionnaire streaking upward in the background. The energy-burst imagery and sense of desperate motion make it clear that whatever Darkseid's shadow has cast over the Legion, the stakes feel deeply personal. With Paul Levitz writing and both Curt Swan and Keith Giffen on interior art, this oversized annual promises the kind of ambitious storytelling the Legion's 30th-century setting does so well.