The Authority #19

The Authority #19 arrives at part three of the "Earth Inferno" arc, with a cover by Frank Quitely and Trevor Scott that gives the spotlight entirely to a winged figure — serene and barefoot, hovering high above a sunlit cloudscape in a green-and-black costume, great feathered wings spread wide. The quiet, almost devotional composition is a striking contrast to the team-book chaos you might expect, suggesting something weightier is unfolding in Mark Quitely's pages within. With Mark Millar writing and David Baron's luminous colors filling the sky, this 2000 WildStorm issue makes a genuinely compelling case for why The Authority stood apart from the superhero crowd.