Marvels #1

The opening chapter of Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross's four-part miniseries arrives with a cover that stops you cold: a figure completely engulfed in living flame strides through a period city street, while terrified onlookers scramble back in shock and disbelief. Ross's painted artwork — all warm amber light and photorealistic detail — captures the exact moment an ordinary world collides with something it has no framework to understand. It's a gorgeous, unsettling image that sets the series' central tension beautifully before you've turned a single page.