Red Lanterns #26

The cover's sardonic tagline — "They came as Liberators… How's THAT working out?" — sets a deliciously grim tone for this New 52 chapter from writer Charles Soule and artist J. Calafiore. A group of Red Lanterns in their signature crimson-and-black uniforms stands in defiant formation, including a blue-skinned female Lantern with clawed energy constructs, a masked male Lantern at center, and two more corps members flanking them, while a towering, skeletal armored figure looms ominously above from a raised platform. Alessandro Vitti's cover art bathes the whole scene in smoldering reds, with chains visible and tension crackling — a striking visual promise that good intentions and rage-fueled power don't always lead where you'd expect.