Spawn #85

Spawn looms in full hellish splendor on this 1999 Image cover, his massive crimson cape spread wide like wings while chains coil around his fists and a swarm of bats darkens the twilight sky above him — skulls and horned creatures crushed beneath his feet complete the portrait of barely contained menace. Greg Capullo's pencils and Danny Miki's inks combine to make this one of the series' most dramatically composed covers, perfectly suited to a chapter titled "Endgame." With Todd McFarlane and Brian Holguin scripting, issue #85 promises the kind of dark, high-stakes storytelling that kept Spawn at the forefront of independent superhero comics throughout the late 1990s.