Squadron Supreme #1

Five powerful figures stride forward with unmistakable purpose on Alex Ross's painted cover — Hyperion at the center, flanked by a chain-wielding powerhouse, a lightning-bolt-costumed woman, a black-suited acrobatic figure firing energy blasts, a masked armored figure, and a sword-bearing woman in the foreground, the full Squad assembled and radiating hard-edged authority. The tagline "Protecting the Marvel Universe by Any Means Necessary" sets the tone perfectly: this isn't your standard superhero team, and Robinson and Kirk's series clearly isn't playing it safe. Ross's lush, painterly work gives the lineup a gravitas that makes GraphicPolicy.com's 2016 pull-quote — "This is one hell of a start" — feel entirely earned.