Thunderbolts #21

Songbird strides through a field of shattered rubble on this striking December 1998 cover by Mark Bagley and Scott Hanna, her spiked black costume and pink-streaked hair cutting a commanding silhouette against a smoky, debris-choked sky. The cover tagline — "Songbird: Berserk!" — and a cheeky corner cameo teasing Hawkeye's involvement make this issue feel like a genuine turning point for the series. Writer Kurt Busiek's Thunderbolts had already earned the 1998 Wizard Fan Award for Favorite Writer, and "Decisions, Part 2: Trust" sounds like exactly the kind of morally charged storytelling that won the book those accolades.