Suicide Squad #26

A ticking countdown strip runs down the left side of Karl Kesel's cover, and every digit screams urgency — two figures locked in a brutal mid-air collision against a backdrop of fire, debris, and deep crimson. One fighter in black delivers a punishing blow while the blond-haired opponent, gun in hand and a Squad emblem on his chest, takes the hit hard. John Ostrander and Grant Miehm's "Stone Cold Dead" looks like exactly the kind of high-stakes, no-safety-net storytelling that made this 1989 series essential reading.