Orion #17

Walter Simonson's Orion #17 presents one of the most arresting cover images of 2001: the New God himself spreadeagled and straining against otherworldly chains, energy bolts radiating outward as alien script swirls around him in rings — the single word "SACRIFICE!" at the bottom making the stakes unmistakably clear. Simonson's bold linework captures Orion in a posture of agonized defiance, his red-and-grey armor vivid against a churning purple void, with what appears to be a vast crowd rendered below. Paired with the interior story title "Being and Nothingness," this issue promises a deeply mythic chapter in Simonson's ongoing exploration of Jack Kirby's Fourth World.