Mystique #5

The fifth chapter of "Dead Drop Gorgeous" finds Marvel's shape-shifting antihero pressed flat against a graffiti-tagged brick wall, red-haired and blue-skinned in her natural form, a pistol tucked at her hip and both hands raised in a posture that reads equal parts cornered and calculating. Joseph Michael Linsner's cover art renders Mystique with striking confidence — the red X-symbol scrawled across the wall behind her feels less like a coincidence than a statement. Brian K. Vaughan and Jorge Lucas continue their run on this 2003 series, making this a sharp entry in one of Marvel's more stylish spy-tinged titles.