The Stand: American Nightmares #4

The penultimate chapter of The Stand: American Nightmares arrives with a cover by Lee Bermejo that doesn't flinch — a gaunt, wild-eyed man crouches in anguished desperation in the foreground, while a blood-drenched, long-haired figure looms threateningly from the shadows behind him, cigarette in hand. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Mike Perkins bring Stephen King's post-apocalyptic world to life in this fourth of five issues, and Bermejo's painterly, dread-soaked image sets the tone perfectly. If the series has been building toward darkness, this 2009 Marvel limited series installment makes clear there's plenty more still to come.