Midnight, Mass. #4

Vertigo's supernatural series rolls into its fourth chapter with a cover by Tomer Hanuka that immediately sets an unsettling mood — four large, red-bathed faces loom around a darkened central space where two figures, a woman with her hand raised and a tense-looking man, stand beneath a dangling spider. The composition, with its stark crimson palette and those expressionless surrounding faces staring inward, feels genuinely threatening, hinting at the "Four Sisters" of the story title in the most ominous way possible. Written by John Rozum with interior art by Jesús Saiz and inks by Jimmy Palmiotti, this September 2002 issue is a fine example of Vertigo's mature-readers horror sensibility at the turn of the millennium.