Star Trek #40

The cover of this 1992 DC issue brings the Tabukan Syndrome arc to a close with a striking space battle above the saucer section of the U.S.S. Excelsior — her registry and name clearly legible as weapons fire erupts across her hull. An angular alien vessel, trailing fire and taking heavy damage, dominates the upper portion of the composition in a cover by penciler Rod Whigham and inker Jerome Moore. Writer Howard Weinstein and artists Gordon Purcell and Arne Starr deliver the conclusion to what looks, from this tense image alone, like a genuinely hard-fought confrontation.