Sam and Twitch #18

Ashley Wood's hauntingly sketchy cover art gives this 2001 Image series a genuinely distinctive atmosphere — a disheveled man clutching a revolver looms behind a sharp-eyed woman in black who holds her own pistol with cool composure, a shadowy figure lurking in the background and a cityscape rising behind them all. The monochromatic, almost sepia-toned linework perfectly suits the gritty, crime-noir world that writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Alex Maleev built around these two detectives. "Bounty Hunter Wars Part IV" promises escalating tension, and this cover sets the mood with understated, unsettling style.