The Pulse #1

Marvel's 2004 series The Pulse kicks off its "Thin Air" arc with a cover that frames Spider-Man as front-page news — a colorful, fully rendered Spidey swings dynamically toward us while a grayscale version of the wall-crawler streaks through a cityscape behind him, the whole scene presented as a Daily Bugle special edition. The bold headline "Spider-Man: Hero or Menace?" captures the tension at the heart of this series, which puts journalism and superheroics on a collision course. Cover art by Mike Mayhew makes a strong first impression for what promises to be a sharp, character-driven story from writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mark Bagley.