Ultimates 2 #9

The cover of Ultimates 2 #9 tells a quietly unsettling story before you even open the page — a collage of magazine spreads and tabloid headlines surrounds Iron Man and a sleek black-armored figure, splattered with what appears to be blood, while a handgun looms large in the foreground alongside a wedding invitation bearing the names Natasha Romanov and Anthony Stark. Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary's cover design is cleverly layered, folding celebrity gossip culture into superhero tension, with headlines teasing Natasha Romanov's Russian past scattered among the glossy imagery. Titled "Grand Theft America," this 2006 chapter from Mark Millar and Hitch promises that whatever is unfolding inside, the personal and political are deeply, uncomfortably intertwined.