The Savage Hawkman #17

Hawkman crouches in his gleaming gold armor, taloned gauntlets raised and wings spread wide, while an enormous dark silhouette looms behind him with grasping clawed hands — a threat that lives up to the cover's own warning: "Beware the Shadows!" Part of DC's New 52 initiative, this April 2013 issue delivers that sense of mounting dread the series does so well, with cover art by Joe Bennett and Art Thibert that makes the contrast between Hawkman's ornate, sun-bright gear and the encroaching darkness genuinely striking. Tom DeFalco's story title, "Like a Shadow in the Night!," promises exactly the kind of tension the cover image sets up so effectively.