Supreme Power #17

Marvel's MAX imprint continues J. Michael Straczynski's mature, grounded take on super-powered beings with this 2005 installment of Supreme Power. Gary Frank's cover draws the eye immediately to a powerfully built man hunched alone at a bar, a near-empty glass in hand, his expression tight with brooding intensity — while a crowded, dimly lit club scene of patrons and a watchful figure in the background suggests a world carrying on around him, indifferent to whatever weight he's bearing. It's a quietly compelling image that captures the series' recurring tension between extraordinary individuals and an ordinary world that doesn't quite know what to do with them.