Stormwatch: Team Achilles #22

Two heavily armored soldiers square off against a backdrop of smoldering, fallen bodies — one boasting that he stopped the superheroes, only to be confronted with the chilling reply: "But they were civilians!" Jason Pearson's cover art for this July 2004 WildStorm series captures the moral weight of a team that operates in the uncomfortable space between power and accountability. With "Planting Roots" on the docket, Stormwatch: Team Achilles #22 promises the kind of grounded, morally complex storytelling that made this mature-readers title stand apart from superhero fare of its era.