The Names #5

The fifth chapter of Peter Milligan's Vertigo thriller finds a crouching figure gazing up at a woman in heels who stands precariously above him — her stiletto pressed against his hat brim in a charged, ambiguous moment of tension and control. Celia Calle's cover art gives the composition a voyeuristic, noir-drenched energy, with wires and circuitry scattered at the figure's feet hinting at something more calculated beneath the surface. With Leandro Fernández and colorist Cris Peter bringing the interior to life, this penultimate stretch of The Names promises the kind of smart, adult thriller that made Vertigo's mature-readers line so compelling in 2015.