Velvet #2

Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting's spy thriller from Image continues with this 2013 second issue, and the cover makes an immediate case for why the series turned heads. Velvet herself looms large — dark hair streaming, tinted goggles blazing, pistol leveled — while a high-speed chase between muscle cars erupts in the dust below her, the whole composition radiating cool, controlled danger. It's the kind of cover, rendered with real craft by Epting, that earns its place in a long-running spy-fiction conversation.