The Ray #5

The penultimate chapter of DC's six-issue miniseries arrives with a gut-punch of an image: Joe Quesada's cover depicts a screaming figure whose mask and skull are literally shattering apart, raw energy and debris exploding outward in a blaze of light and chaos. It's a visceral, unsettling portrait of a hero — or perhaps a villain — pushed to an absolute breaking point, perfectly suited to a story titled "Emerson Must Die." Writer Jack C. Harris and artist Joe Quesada have been building toward something intense all series, and this fifth issue makes clear the stakes are as high as they get.