The Shade #2

Spinning out of the pages of Starman, this 1997 DC mini-series turns its spotlight on one of comics' most enigmatic antiheroes. Tony Harris's cover is a gorgeously atmospheric study in crimson and shadow — a terrified figure recoils with hands raised to his face while the Shade looms in the foreground, top hat and eagle-headed cane in hand, surrounded by swirling tendrils of darkness that seem almost alive. With James Robinson writing and J. H. Williams and Mick Gray handling interior art, "Rupert and Marguerite: 1865 & 1931" promises a story as rich and morally complicated as its brooding protagonist.