Superman: The Man of Steel #116

Part of DC's sprawling 2001 "Our Worlds at War" crossover, this issue carries the unsettling tagline "Friendly Fire!" — and the cover delivers on that tension immediately. Superman stands atop what appears to be a massive, cracked stone or armored figure collapsed in ruin, cape billowing against a backdrop of fire and crumbling architecture, the scene rendered with real weight by cover penciller Doug Mahnke and inker Tom Nguyen. It's a striking image of hard-won ground in the middle of all-out war, and with Mark Schultz writing the interior story "Chest Deep in Heroes' Blood," the stakes feel every bit as serious as that title suggests.