The Agency #3

Paul Jenkins and Kyle Hotz's The Agency hits its third issue with a cover that wastes no time delivering on the tagline "Let the Ass Kickin' Begin" — a red-haired figure stands dead center, arms crossed and jaw set, completely surrounded by a menacing crowd of masked, armed, and grotesque characters pressing in from every angle. Hotz's cover art packs the frame with chains, spiked gauntlets, a mace, a top hat, and a dense mob of threatening faces that make the lone protagonist's composure feel genuinely charged. This Top Cow/Image series was clearly leaning hard into gritty, street-level tension by 2001, and this issue looks like a hell of a ride.