Swamp Thing #25

Vertigo's Swamp Thing #25 brings together writer Joshua Dysart and artist Dean Ormston for "Meanwhile… In Houma," a chapter that clearly isn't short on dread. Eric Powell's painted cover says it all: a terrified white-haired woman recoils from a snarling, fanged creature lunging toward her with its wide-open jaws, while the imposing, red-eyed face of Swamp Thing looms massively in the background, watching the scene unfold. It's a genuinely unsettling composition that captures the series' mature-readers sensibility with real confidence and craft.