The Pulse #2

The second chapter of "Thin Air" arrives with a striking Gabriele Dell'Otto cover that pulls your eye straight into a vertiginous nighttime confrontation between Spider-Man — caught mid-fall against the sheer face of a towering building — and a green-caped, winged figure looming large in the foreground with clear menace. The moody, painterly atmosphere suits a series that fuses superhero action with street-level journalism, and with Brian Michael Bendis writing alongside Mark Bagley and Scott Hanna on interiors, the creative team was firing on all cylinders in 2004. It's a tense, visually arresting package that makes flipping to the next page feel genuinely urgent.