The Phantom Zone #1

This 1982 DC mini-series opener dives straight into one of the Superman mythos' most unsettling corners — Krypton's twilight dimension itself. The cover, penciled by Gene Colan and inked by Dick Giordano, splits neatly between two vivid scenes: Superman pointing sternly as he condemns the criminal Quex-Ul to the Zone, while on the other side a chained, desperate prisoner cries out "No… No!" as hooded figures close in around him — ghostly Phantom Zone wraiths looming in the swirling background above. Writer Steve Gerber and artist Gene Colan ask the haunting question right on the cover: is this dimension a humane method of criminal confinement, or simply a place without hope?