The Dragon #2

The second issue of Image's 1996 series drops Dragon — the green-skinned, fin-headed bruiser — right into the middle of a brutal brawl, trading blows with a skull-adorned warrior while money rains down around the shattered floor and a fallen white-haired figure lies sprawled in the foreground. Erik Larsen handles both the pencils and inks on the cover, delivering a kinetic, bone-crunching scene that wastes no time establishing this series' hard-hitting tone. At just 99 cents, "Baptism of Fire" makes a strong case that Dragon earns every bit of his reputation one fist at a time.