The Boys #57

Garth Ennis's unflinching superhero satire reaches issue fifty-seven of "The Big Ride," and Darick Robertson's cover delivers the series' signature discomfort in spades. A costumed superhero — red suit, gold eagle emblem, and a thunderously grim expression — looms over a hospital bed where a woman in a tiara and star earrings holds a newborn, martini glass raised to her lips in a gesture somewhere between celebration and shock. The whole tableau has that perfectly calibrated wrongness that makes The Boys such compelling reading for mature audiences.