Mage #7

The cover of this 1998 Image series puts four very distinct characters front and center: a bearded man in a black shirt reacting with wide-eyed alarm, a bespectacled figure behind him, a companion with dreadlocks and tinted shades, and a white-bearded elder in a striking purple top hat who appears to be making a cautionary point with one raised finger. Matt Wagner's linework gives the whole group a wonderfully expressive, almost theatrical energy that perfectly suits a series called The Hero Defined. "Infirm of Purpose" sounds like exactly the kind of chapter where things get complicated — and this cover makes it irresistible to find out how.