The Wild Storm #9

Nine issues into Warren Ellis and Jon Davis-Hunt's ambitious 24-part reconstruction of the Wildstorm universe, this cover stops you cold. Davis-Hunt's art depicts a young woman seated cross-legged in a meditative pose, eyes glowing white, her long hair whipping outward as massive mechanical tendrils and cascading machinery erupt in a blazing halo around her — equal parts serene and overwhelming. Steve Buccellato's warm golden palette gives the whole image a charged, almost transcendent energy that perfectly captures the series' blend of quiet human moments and vast, strange forces.