Sin City: Hell and Back #7

Frank Miller's Sin City: Hell and Back reaches its penultimate stretch with issue 7 of 9, and the cover perfectly captures the series' darkly comic soul — a battered, gun-wielding brute crouches under a hail of Cupid's arrows while a swarm of cherubs surrounds him, one tauntingly declaring "Face it, big fella — you're screwed" as he growls back "Shut up!" It's a genuinely funny collision of mythological whimsy and hard-boiled menace, rendered with Miller's characteristically bold linework. With the nine-part love story nearing its close in 2000, this issue promises the same volatile mix of romance and brutality that defines Sin City at its most inventive.