The Invisibles #12

Brian Bolland's cover for this April 1999 Vertigo issue sets an immediately arresting tone: a faceless, blur-headed figure draped in royal ermine robes and a jeweled crown stands before the Egyptian pyramids and Sphinx, clutching a bejeweled scepter in one hand and a small rectangular object in the other. The tagline "The Countdown to the Millennium Begins" gives the image a suitably grand, unsettling weight — power and anonymity fused into one enigmatic silhouette. With Grant Morrison writing and Philip Bond on interior art, this "Satanstorm" arc promises exactly the kind of mind-bending, culturally charged storytelling The Invisibles does so well.