Runaways #7

This striking issue opens the four-part "Teenage Wasteland" arc from Brian K. Vaughan, Adrian Alphona, and Craig Yeung's acclaimed Marvel series. Jo Chen's cover is a beauty — rendered in deep crimson against black, a young girl sits curled and contemplative at the center of an elaborate, swirling dragon motif, its fanged jaws looming large above her with an almost protective ferocity. The elegant contrast between the girl's quiet stillness and the fierce decorative beast surrounding her captures something essential about Runaways in 2003: youth caught between innocence and something far more dangerous.