The Flash #3

Part of DC's 2010 Brightest Day crossover event, this issue carries the unsettling subtitle "Central City C.S.I." — and Francis Manapul's cover makes clear why. The Scarlet Speedster is shown unconscious or worse, splattered with blood and outlined in a crime-scene chalk line, his own lightning bolt symbol turned into grim evidence. Geoff Johns and Manapul were clearly pushing Barry Allen into some very dark forensic territory with this arc, and that haunting image of a fallen Flash is hard to shake.