The Spectre #48

Few covers from 1996 so viscerally capture a sense of dread as this one: the Spectre — battered, bloodied, and clad in his green hood and gloves — is crushed flat beneath a curb, trapped in the gutter while an ordinary shoe steps indifferently overhead. It's a stunning, almost painfully ironic image of DC's all-powerful spirit of vengeance brought utterly low, rendered with remarkable painterly detail by cover artist Hermann Mejia. John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake's run consistently found fresh ways to humanize the inhuman, and "Beyond the Grave" promises another unflinching look at what it costs to be the Wrath of God.