The Boys #49

Darick Robertson's cover for issue #49 presents the series' superhero cast rendered as retro action figures — a caped strongman in blue, a sword-wielding woman in a blue corset, and a helmeted green-armored figure posed atop a sleek black military jet bearing a familiar corporate logo — while a limp red-costumed figure tumbles helplessly below. It's a sharp, deadpan visual gag that captures everything Garth Ennis and Russ Braun's "Proper Preparation and Planning Part Two" is likely about: the gap between the shiny, packaged myth of superheroes and something far messier underneath. Published by Dynamite in 2010, this mature-readers series continues to find fresh angles on its thoroughly irreverent premise.