Ultimatum #5

The five-issue Ultimatum event reaches its conclusion with this striking David Finch and Danny Miki cover assembling a battered but resolute Ultimate X-Men roster — Jean Grey stands front and center in her black-and-gold uniform, flanked by Wolverine with claws drawn, Cyclops, Colossus, Storm, Nightcrawler, and a hulking savage figure crowding the frame beneath a storm-charged sky. Jeph Loeb's "The Ugly Truth" promises a fitting title for a finale this intense, and Finch's densely muscled, kinetic linework — colored by Peter Steigerwald — gives the whole image a brooding, storm-before-the-reckoning weight. A satisfying capstone to one of 2009's most turbulent Marvel limited series.