The Hood #4

Against a blood-red background, a cloaked, hooded figure looms with glowing eyes, a pistol in one hand and what appears to be a drifting wisp of smoke or magic at the other — it's a striking cover from Kyle Hotz that perfectly captures the ominous, street-level menace at the heart of this MAX Comics series. "Blood from Stones, Chapter 4" marks the penultimate stretch of Brian K. Vaughan's six-issue run, promising the kind of dark, mature storytelling the MAX imprint was built for in 2002. If you've been following this gritty tale, issue four is exactly the moment you'd expect the tension to start pulling tight.