Ultimate Spider-Man #3

This 2009 installment of Ultimate Spider-Man opens with a genuinely unsettling cover by David Lafuente — a massive, shadowy figure looming in close-up, a glowing energy device clutched in both hands and blazing with blinding white light, an ornate necklace hanging at the chest. The mood is deliberately ominous, shifting the tone well away from standard superhero fare and signaling that "The New World According to Peter Parker" has some real menace brewing in its third chapter. With Brian Michael Bendis writing and Justin Ponsor's coloring deepening that dramatic contrast between darkness and radiant energy, it's a compelling reason to keep following this arc.