Punisher #10

Part four of Garth Ennis and Leandro Fernández's "Kitchen Irish" arc delivers one of the run's most quietly unsettling covers: a heavyset bald man studies his own reflection in a graffiti-covered bathroom mirror, only to find Frank Castle — skull insignia blazing on his chest, expression unreadable — staring back at him. Tim Bradstreet's photorealistic cover work captures that creeping dread perfectly, with the scrawled names and symbols crowding the walls adding a gritty, lived-in texture to the scene. Under Marvel's MAX imprint in 2004, this is mature-readers Punisher storytelling at its most atmospheric.