Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #8

Bill Sienkiewicz brings a raw, painterly intensity to this 2001 installment of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, and the cover delivers an immediate gut-punch: a brutish figure has Spider-Man pinned in a dangerous grapple in the foreground, while Daredevil crouches watchfully in the rain-slicked shadows above. The story teams up Spider-Man, the Punisher, and Daredevil — a trio whose wildly different moral codes make for compelling friction — and Sienkiewicz's moody, textured linework sets exactly the right gritty tone. If you appreciate street-level Marvel storytelling rendered with genuine artistic muscle, this one earns a spot on your reading stack.