The Vigilante #13

Against a blood-red background, Gil Kane's cover for Vigilante #13 (December 1984) crackles with high-altitude danger — the costumed Vigilante plunges downward, machine gun in hand, while a suited man in an aircraft seat recoils in desperate terror. The story title "Murder in the Skies!" sets the tension perfectly, promising a white-knuckle confrontation somewhere between earth and sky. Marv Wolfman and Kane make a sharp creative pairing, and this issue looks like a taut, grounded thriller in the middle of DC's 1984 lineup.