V for Vendetta #3

The third chapter of Alan Moore and David Lloyd's ten-part series arrives with a cover that stops you cold: a solitary silhouette — nude, unmasked, utterly exposed — stands framed in a shattered opening, facing a blazing explosion that lights the orange sky with violent intensity. Rubble, wreckage, and the skeletal remains of structures surround this stark human figure, rendered in David Lloyd's hauntingly atmospheric painted style. "Europe After the Reign" continues here, and this image alone makes clear that V for Vendetta was operating on a completely different dramatic level from anything else on shelves in November 1988.