Spider-Man: Breakout #4

The penultimate chapter of this 2005 Marvel limited series — spinning out of The New Avengers — delivers one of the most unsettling cover compositions of its year: a villain's face fills the frame in extreme close-up, his mechanical targeting lens dominating the image with Spider-Man's masked reflection trapped inside it, tiny and seemingly at the villain's mercy. It's a striking visual that says everything about the power dynamic at play without a single word. Writer Tony Bedard and artist Manuel García bring real tension to this fourth installment, and that cover image alone makes it hard to put down before you've turned the first page.