Secret Wars #4

The halfway point of Jonathan Hickman's eight-issue saga arrives with an Alex Ross cover that radiates quiet, unsettling authority: a hooded, armored figure — Doctor Doom — sits enthroned amid rocky terrain, flanked by a stern-faced man in dark robes, two women in white suits bearing a familiar "4" insignia, and a luminous figure meditating serenely atop a massive coiled form in the distance. Ross renders the scene with his signature painterly realism, bathing everything in smoldering reds and purples that suggest a world remade by absolute power. Inside, Esad Ribić and colorist Ive Svorcina continue bringing Battleworld to life in this pivotal chapter of Marvel's 2015 multiverse-spanning event.