Supreme Power: Nighthawk #4

The penultimate chapter of this MAX Comics limited series arrives with a cover that pulls no punches: a menacing clown figure with bright red hair and unsettling white face paint carries the armored, limp form of Nighthawk effortlessly through a dingy, green-tinged doorway — a striking image of the hero at his most vulnerable. Daniel Way and Steve Dillon have crafted something genuinely dark and atmospheric throughout this six-issue run, and this fourth installment, "The Joke's Over," promises the tension has reached a breaking point. Dillon's cover linework is gritty and assured, perfectly suited to the adult-oriented tone Marvel's MAX imprint brought to the Supreme Power universe in 2006.