Vanguard #5

Angel Medina and Jim Sinclair's cover for this April 1994 Image title puts the action front and center: the blue-suited Vanguard clashes violently with a massive green-skinned powerhouse, debris and energy bursts exploding outward around them, while a smaller robotic or armored figure watches from the background. The raw physicality of the collision — fists connecting in a flash of impact energy — gives the cover real kinetic punch. Gary Carlson's series was clearly swinging for big, high-stakes confrontations by issue five.