Venom: Along Came a Spider #3

The penultimate chapter of this 1996 Marvel limited series delivers a cover that puts the tension on full display — Spider-Man lunges toward the viewer in his red-and-blue suit, claws splayed, while the enormous grinning visage of Venom looms ominously in the shadowy background, dripping with the alien symbiote's signature green ichor. Cover pencils by Joe St. Pierre and inks by Chris Ivy give the composition a kinetic, close-quarters energy that makes the rivalry between these two feel genuinely dangerous. With writer Evan Skolnick and artists Patrick Zircher and Greg Adams on the interior, "Cut to the Chase" promises exactly what its title suggests.