Squadron Supreme #5

The fifth chapter of Marvel's ambitious twelve-issue limited series raises the stakes considerably, with a cover by Bob Hall and Bob Layton that drops readers into a tense hostage standoff. A defiant villain in pink-and-black commands the center of the image, brandishing a weapon before a wire-mesh barrier holding a crowd of imperiled civilians, while a dark winged figure swoops overhead and members of the Squadron Supreme look on in alarm from the foreground — the speech bubble making the threat unmistakable: mess with the Institute of Evil and loved ones die. Mark Gruenwald's "Turn-About" promises exactly the kind of moral complexity this series built its reputation on, and this cover makes a compelling case to turn the page.