Thor: Vikings #4

Penultimate issue of Garth Ennis and Glenn Fabry's MAX series, and the cover says everything without saying a word — a single powerful arm thrusts Mjolnir skyward against a storm-charged purple sky, lightning crackling in the background. Fabry's painted rendering gives the hammer and the straining, bracered fist an almost sculptural weight, raw and elemental rather than superheroic. If "Fight the Good Fight" is the promise of issue four of five, this cover makes a convincing case that the thunder god is ready to deliver.