Nine Volt #4

Top Cow's Nine Volt reaches its fourth issue with a cover that puts its sci-fi action credentials front and center — a towering, green-skinned alien in heavy armor looms behind two armed human operatives, a woman in sleek gold-and-silver combat gear and a man in a red uniform leveling a pistol, all set against a smoldering cosmic backdrop. Anthony Chun's pencils and Edwin Rosell's inks give the trio a bold, kinetic presence that feels right at home in Image's mid-'90s action landscape. If this is the kind of firepower the series has been building toward, issue #4 looks like a satisfying escalation.