Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #21

Promising something genuinely unsettling, issue #21 of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. heralds "The Horrific Return of Baron Strucker" right on its cover — and the image delivers, with a massive, grey-skinned figure in pink-and-black armor looming over a desperate Nick Fury (eyepatch firmly in place, pistol blazing) and a dark-haired woman crouching nearby, all set against a fiery yellow background splattered with crimson. The cover by Butch Guice is dynamically composed, the cityscape of onion-domed towers lurking in the shadows below as if the whole world is at stake. With a story titled "Der Totenkopf" and this kind of menacing imagery, this March 1991 issue makes a strong case for being one of the series' more atmospheric entries.