Secret Invasion #5

Halfway through this eight-issue Marvel limited series, issue #5 arrives with one of 2008's most unsettling cover images: a Skrull's green, battle-worn face filling the frame almost entirely, its jagged teeth bared in a cold, confident sneer beneath a purple battle helmet. Gabriele Dell'Otto's painted cover work gives the creature a photorealistic weight that makes the threat feel genuinely visceral. With Brian Michael Bendis writing and Leinil Francis Yu on interior art, the series is in skilled hands as the Skrull invasion reaches its midpoint.