The Superior Foes of Spider-Man #16

Against a backdrop of a smoldering, apocalyptic cityscape, a hulking, winged figure stands in the foreground — hands cuffed behind his back — while four smaller villains flank him in the haze below, their body language suggesting things have gone very, very wrong for this crew. Steve Lieber's cover composition is quietly striking, turning a moment of apparent defeat into something almost cinematic. Nick Spencer, Lieber, and Rachelle Rosenberg's consistently sharp series reaches issue #16 in fine form, and this image promises the kind of gloriously bad decision-making that has made Superior Foes one of Marvel's most entertaining reads of 2014.