Lucifer #54

Mike Kaluta's cover for this November 2004 Vertigo issue is striking in its mythic scale — a winged, sword-wielding figure battles a snarling wolf atop an enormous, bleeding hand, while a colossal face looms in the background against a star-scattered void. The imagery perfectly captures the high-stakes, cosmic tension of the concluding chapter of "The Wolf Beneath the Tree," the fourth and final part of this arc. With Mike Carey writing and Peter Gross and Ryan Kelly on interior art, this is the kind of Vertigo storytelling that earns its "Suggested for Mature Readers" label.