S.H.I.E.L.D. #4

Against a blazing cosmic backdrop of swirling reds and golds, an aged, wild-haired figure bound in heavy chains grips a vertical staff or spear — a striking image of power restrained, or perhaps power about to be unleashed. Gerald Parel's painted cover for this 2010 Marvel series captures the grand, myth-scaled ambitions of Jonathan Hickman and Dustin Weaver's S.H.I.E.L.D., where history and the cosmos collide. "The Madness, The Star Child, and the Celestial Madonna" promises a chapter every bit as ambitious as that title suggests.