Punisher #4

Part four of Garth Ennis's "In the Beginning" arc finds Frank Castle at his most quietly menacing — Tim Bradstreet's painted cover shows a stone-faced Punisher looming in a doorway behind a visibly rattled man in a suit, the tension between the two figures doing all the talking. Bradstreet's photorealistic style, all muted reds and deep shadows, gives the scene the uneasy atmosphere of a confrontation that's already been decided. With Lewis LaRosa and inker Tom Palmer handling the interior art, this 2004 MAX Comics chapter is mature-readers storytelling at a genuinely compelling pitch.