Mara #4

Ming Doyle's cover for Mara #4 is a striking face-off between two figures — one bathed in cool blue, the other in fierce red — locked in a tense, close-quarters confrontation against a world-map backdrop dotted with targeting circles. A volleyball floats overhead, a quiet reminder of the athletic world at the heart of this series from Brian Wood, Ming Doyle, and Jordie Bellaire. The bold two-tone color work by Bellaire gives the whole image a charged, almost political intensity that makes this 2013 Image series feel genuinely distinctive.