Superior Carnage #3

This 2013 Marvel series takes a deeply unsettling turn with issue three, and Clayton Crain's painted cover captures the mood perfectly — a pale, symbiote-wreathed figure hovers in an eerie blue-white light, tendrils of red spreading outward like something being born or broken apart. The composition has a haunting, almost surgical quality, suggesting transformation and loss of control in equal measure. Kevin Shinick and Stephen Segovia bring their talents to bear on one of Marvel's most volatile villains, and this installment looks like it keeps the tension wound tight.