Punisher: In the Blood #4

The penultimate chapter of Rick Remender's five-part limited series arrives at a brutal low point, as Jean-Sébastien Rossbach's painted cover shows Frank Castle on his knees, badly wounded with a knife in his back, surrounded by four menacing figures — including a black-suited figure and a bloodied young man — while the title drips in crimson letters across the grimy wall behind them. It's a stark, atmospheric image that captures Castle at his most vulnerable, outnumbered and cornered with Roland Boschi and Dan Brown bringing the interior grit to life. With one issue left, this 2011 series is building toward what promises to be a hard-fought reckoning.