Venus #9

Venus soars dramatically in her flowing red gown across this striking 1950 Marvel cover, caught between two men calling out to her from below and a sinister, caped devil-figure flanked by green creatures on a rainbow bridge above. The cover's packed speech bubbles — pleading with her to save a world even at the cost of herself — set up the book-length feature "Whom the Gods Destroy!" with genuine urgency, billing Venus as "the most unusual heroine in the world." At 52 pages for just 10 cents, this is a generous slice of Golden Age fantasy and imagination rendered with real energy.