The New 52: Futures End #5

The cover of this August 2014 installment of DC's ambitious weekly series is a striking piece by Ryan Sook — a figure kneeling at the center of a glowing yellow energy circle, unleashing a torrent of fire and light that billows upward into a massive, screaming face of flame. It's an arresting image that captures the series' sense of barely contained, apocalyptic power. With a writing team of Brian Azzarello, Keith Giffen, Dan Jurgens, and Jeff Lemire, alongside interior art by Jesús Merino and Dan Green, Futures End consistently brought serious talent to its sprawling vision of a DC Universe under siege.