Lucifer #45

Vertigo's Lucifer reaches issue #45 in February 2004 with "Neutral Ground," written by Mike Carey with interior art by Ted Naifeh. Tara McPherson's cover is quietly arresting — a young boy with unsettling glowing eyes, hands open at his sides, stands centered between two teenagers in profile: a pale dark-haired girl to his left and a young man with a facial piercing and collar to his right, all set against a deep crimson backdrop with swirling patterns. The trio's composed yet tense arrangement gives the whole image an eerie sense of three very different forces holding an uneasy balance.