Synthetics Volume One #2

The cover of this second chapter in J. Michael Straczynski and Tony Parker's four-part Dark Horse series is immediately arresting — a sleek, mechanical wasp rendered in black and gold looms in extreme close-up, its segmented body gleaming with unsettling precision as it grips what appears to be a skeletal hand against a blood-red, crowd-silhouetted sky. Carrie Strachan's coloring makes the creature feel simultaneously beautiful and deeply threatening, with translucent wings catching pale light against the darkness. If issue one left you curious about the world of Synthetics, this cover promises the tension is only deepening.