The Punisher #24

Frank Castle crouches in brooding stillness against an industrial backdrop of steel towers and murky blue-grey sky, his skull emblem centered beneath a leather jacket — Tim Bradstreet's cover painting capturing the Punisher's quiet menace with remarkable atmospheric weight. Garth Ennis and Tom Mandrake kick off a new arc with "Hidden Part One," promising the kind of tightly wound, street-level storytelling this Marvel Knights run does so well. If you want a 2003 Punisher comic that feels genuinely unsettling before you've even opened the cover, this is a strong place to start.