Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #22

The cover by Butch Guice frames this 1991 entry in the series as a tense game of chess — literally, with figures posed on a checkered board while Baron Strucker's massive, ominous visage looms in the background, one eye glowing with menace. A confident blonde agent in green-and-yellow stands at the forefront, while Nick Fury himself crouches mid-action, cigarette in mouth and weapon ready, flanked by Hydra soldiers and a figure raising fists in defiance. "Pawns of Baron Strucker!" announces the cover blurb, and Guice's composed, cinematic layout makes the spy-thriller stakes feel genuinely gripping.