Ultimate Spider-Man #65

The cover of Ultimate Spider-Man #65 is a striking, intimate composition — a young blonde woman dominates the foreground, her wide eyes gazing upward with quiet unease, while Spider-Man clings to a wall just above her, masked head tilted down as if watching over her shoulder. The story title "Detention" hints at confined, tense circumstances, and the moody, warm-toned lighting by this creative team gives the whole image a surprisingly emotional weight. Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley — who handles both pencils and inks on this cover — were firing on all cylinders in 2004, and this issue looks like a fine example of their character-driven approach to the Ultimate universe.