Monstress #45

Sana Takeda's cover for Monstress #45 is a haunting, immersive portrait — a young woman's face emerges from a tangle of dark, writhing tendrils, her expression fierce and unyielding even as the vine-like strands coil across her features and trail into a ghostly cluster of half-visible faces below. Glowing red embers drift through the composition like dying sparks, adding an eerie warmth to an otherwise shadowy tableau. Marjorie Liu and Takeda continue to deliver one of Image Comics' most visually arresting series, and this 2023 installment wears that ambition right on its cover.