Mutant X #31

The penultimate chapter of Marvel's alternate-universe series arrives in style, with Michael Golden's cover delivering a striking bird's-eye composition: the series' hero, crackling with bright energy, grapples mid-air with a massive armored figure while a crowd of onlookers and looming cylindrical structures fill the foreground below. That golden burst of power radiating between the two combatants gives the whole image a charged, urgent tension that pulls you right in. With Mackie, Lim, and Pepoy steering the interior, issue #31 is a solid pick for anyone following this corner of Marvel's 2001 landscape.