Spawn #193

Part nine of "Endgame" arrives with one of the series' most unsettling cover images: two rough-looking men in trench coats — one cigarette dangling from his lips — lean in close around a snarling, red-eyed creature with a gaping maw full of jagged teeth. Greg Capullo's pencils and Todd McFarlane's inks give the trio a gritty, almost grotesque energy that feels genuinely threatening against the stark circular spotlight background. If this is where "Endgame" has brought us by chapter nine, Spawn's 2009 run is clearly not pulling any punches.