Universe X #X

Marvel's ambitious Universe X saga reaches a dramatic milestone with this special issue, painted by Alex Ross, whose cover assembles an extraordinary sweep of transformed Marvel heroes across a richly golden backdrop. Front and center stands a heavily armored figure bearing Captain America's iconic "A" emblem, flanked by a winged Falcon overhead, a green-clad Jean Grey soaring upper left, a ghostly white figure, and a green-and-purple armored combatant — with still more characters, including a diminutive flying figure and several others in various costumes, crowding the composition with real intensity. With writing from Alex Ross and Jim Krueger and interior art by Dougie Braithwaite and Bill Reinhold, this 2001 issue delivers the kind of sprawling, painted grandeur that made the Earth X line feel genuinely unlike anything else Marvel was publishing at the time.