The Black Hood #1

Michael Gaydos's cover pulls you in immediately — a pair of intense blue eyes staring through the ragged, paint-smeared cutouts of a dark mask, rendered in unsettling expressionistic color that feels as much psychological portrait as superhero image. Dark Circle Comics launches The Black Hood here with writer Duane Swierczynski and artist Michael Gaydos, kicking off "The Bullet's Kiss" with a visual promise of something grittier and more interior than typical cape fare. If that haunted gaze is any indication, this is a hero story with real weight behind it.