The Boys #36

Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's unflinching series continues with issue thirty-six, and Robertson's cover sets a striking, somber tone: a battered, bloodied figure in a torn t-shirt sits slumped against a graffiti-tagged wall, smoking amid a floor scattered with spent bullet casings, cradling another wounded person in their arms. The image carries a quiet, almost mournful weight — violence has clearly passed through here, and what remains is something rawer and more human. It's exactly the kind of cover that reminds you why The Boys earns its "Suggested for Mature Readers" label, and why this Dynamite series kept readers coming back in 2009.