Punisher #18

The concluding chapter of "Mother Russia" arrives in this 2005 Marvel MAX installment, with Tim Bradstreet's photorealistic cover setting an appropriately tense, cold-war-tinged mood. Two armed figures crouch on opposite sides of a bullet-scarred doorway — Cyrillic writing on the peeling walls leaves no doubt we're deep in Russian territory — their weapons raised in a standoff that crackles with quiet menace. Garth Ennis and Dougie Braithwaite bring their six-part arc to a close, and this gritty, atmospheric cover promises a finish as uncompromising as everything that came before it.