Superman #197

Superman #197 brings an unsettling, horror-tinged energy to the November 2003 lineup with a cover by Scott McDaniel and Andy Owens that's genuinely hard to look away from. The Man of Steel is depicted in silhouette, his face replaced by a grotesque, decaying skeletal mass while his eyes blaze with eerie red heat-vision energy — the familiar "S" shield visible on his chest making the contrast all the more striking. Titled "Diseased!" on the cover, with the interior story "Air Borne" from writer Steven T. Seagle and artist Scott McDaniel, this issue promises something far darker than your typical Superman adventure.