The Ray #9

The title "Out of Time!" sets the stakes perfectly for this February 1995 chapter of DC's The Ray, with Howard Porter and Robert Jones delivering a cover that crackles with urgency. A massive, shadowy flame-wreathed creature looms over a young blond man in a teal suit who backs against what appears to be a United Transit Lines trolley car — a wonderfully grounded, street-level setting for a superhero confrontation. Glimpsed in the trolley window is a ghostly monochrome image of two figures, while additional onlookers react with alarm from the edges of the scene, giving the whole composition a chaotic, time-is-running-out energy that writer Christopher Priest clearly made the most of.