Sheriff of Babylon #10

Two armed, masked figures dominate John Paul Leon's stark cover — one looming large in the foreground wrapped in a keffiyeh, the other standing at a distance with a rifle silhouetted against empty white space — conveying an atmosphere of tension and moral ambiguity that defines this Vertigo series. Tom King and Mitch Gerads's critically praised exploration of post-invasion Baghdad reaches its tenth installment with "The Founding Fathers," and the cover's minimalist restraint feels entirely in keeping with the series' reputation as serious, grounded war fiction. With Vulture calling it "the most comprehensive war fiction of our generation," this November 2016 chapter is exactly the kind of comics storytelling that earns that praise.