The Authority #15

This third chapter of "The Nativity" arc arrives with one of the most unsettling cover images of 2000: a grotesque, heavily scarred figure — draped in tattered cloth and surrounded by ornate golden machinery — cradles a glowing infant in its gnarled hands, deliberately echoing sacred iconography in the most deeply uncomfortable way possible. Frank Quitely's pencils and Trevor Scott's inks render every texture with extraordinary detail, from the figure's ravaged skin to the delicate vulnerability of the child, making the contrast genuinely hard to look away from. Mark Millar and Quitely were producing some of the boldest superhero work of the era with WildStorm, and this issue's cover alone signals that the team wasn't pulling any punches.