Punisher War Journal #17

This 2008 installment of Punisher War Journal carries a cover by Alex Maleev that's impossible to look away from — a raw, scratchy ink portrait of Frank Castle lunging forward with a pistol in each hand, skull emblem front and center, blood-red splatter bleeding into the stark black-and-white composition. The intensity of Maleev's linework gives Castle a barely-contained ferocity that feels almost uncomfortably close. Tied into Marvel's 2008 "Secret Invasion" crossover event ("Who Do You Trust?"), the issue — written by Matt Fraction with art by Howard Chaykin and colors by Edgar Delgado — offers a fine entry point into the War Journal run.