Scarlet Spider #1

The series tagline says it all — "All of the Power. None of the Responsibility" — and this 2012 launch issue makes clear that Marvel's Scarlet Spider is playing by a very different set of rules. Ryan Stegman and Michael Babinski's cover puts the red-and-black suited hero dead-center, crouched low and coiled within a dense tangle of thick, rope-like webbing that fills the entire frame with tactile tension. It's a striking introduction to a Spider-Man corner of the Marvel universe with a noticeably darker, more guarded edge, with writer Christopher Yost along for the ride on a story titled "Life After Death.