Spawn: The Dark Ages #23

A muscular, half-naked warrior strains against a towering, axe-wielding dark figure looming above him in a blaze of fiery amber light — and clutched in his grip is a grinning skull, lending the whole composition a grim, medieval intensity. This is Spawn: The Dark Ages #23 from 2001, with Ashley Wood's cover art delivering brooding, painterly atmosphere that feels more like a fever-dream than a standard superhero cover. Steve Niles writes and Nat Jones illustrates the interior story, "The Beast," promising the kind of dark, brutal fantasy this series does so well.