Synthetics Volume One #3

The penultimate chapter of J. Michael Straczynski's four-part Dark Horse series arrives with a cover that feels like a fever dream — oversized playing cards tumble across a warm red tableau, each one framing a different figure: a silhouetted woman with glowing eyes on the King of Hearts, an older man splayed across the Queen of Diamonds, a child reaching upward, and a gun-wielding figure caught mid-action. Tony Parker's compositions and Carrie Strachan's rich amber-and-crimson palette give the whole spread an unsettling, almost theatrical tension, as if the cast has been scattered like a dealt hand. With one issue left in Volume One, this 2026 series is shaping up to be one of the more visually inventive sci-fi offerings on shelves.