The Invisibles #5

Brian Bolland's deeply unsettling cover for this January 2000 issue of The Invisibles commands attention immediately: a radial arrangement of human arms and legs surrounds a large insect body, all centered on a single staring blue eye, with honeycomb texture filling the background. The "Countdown to the Millennium" banner and the ticking sequence — "5… 4… 3… 2… 1" — give the whole image an urgent, end-of-days charge perfectly suited to the series at this moment. With Morrison, Phillips, and Stephens driving the "Karmageddon" arc to its fourth chapter, this is one of Vertigo's most viscerally strange entries in a run that never once played it safe.