Thunderbolts #121

Warren Ellis's "Caged Angels" arc reaches its sixth chapter here, with a Marko Djurdjević cover that crackles with menace — a grinning, masked figure in black looms over a chaos of fire and fallen bodies, one clawed red hand raised triumphantly while Venom lurks in the shadows at the edge of the frame. Mike Deodato Jr. and colorist Rainier Beredo handle the interior, and the brooding, firelit atmosphere of this 2008 issue promises the kind of dark, morally complicated storytelling that defined this era of the Thunderbolts. If you've been following this arc, issue #121 looks like a suitably intense payoff.