The Punisher #226

Few images in 2018 Marvel comics hit as hard as Clayton Crain's cover for The Punisher #226 — a massive armored figure, purple-helmeted and battle-worn, clutches a blood-soaked Punisher skull chest plate in its gauntleted hands, smoke curling around the wreckage behind it. The sheer physicality of that image sets a grim, high-stakes tone for "Punisher: War Criminal Part Three," written by Matthew Rosenberg with art by Stefano Landini and colors by Lee Loughridge. If you've been following Frank Castle's increasingly dangerous path, this issue promises the kind of brutal confrontation the cover is practically daring you to open.