What makes the best comic book covers? It’s a great topic for debate. For us as individuals there is no wrong answer, of course. It’s purely subjective. But with a little thought it is frequently possible to explain what it is about a particular image that grabs you. The best ones are the ones that make you stop and check out something you weren’t previously going to purchase – and in some cases, you even end up picking up a title you’ve never even heard of before.

The series that introduced many readers to the artwork of Adam Hughes reached its last Comico issue with Maze Agency #7. While Hughes did not do the interiors on this issue, he did team with regular series inker Rick Magyar for its powerful cover.

The single, strong image is infused with noir sensibilities with private investigator Jennifer Mays posed, smoking gun in hand, in front of the logo of the Central Intelligence Agency.

This was a particularly fertile era for writer-creator Mike W. Barr, the creator of Camelot 3000 and a driving force behind Batman: Year Two and Batman and the Outsiders, and Maze Agency was one of his best creations.

He’s had some fine artists on different incarnations of the series, including Alan Davis and Gene Gonzales – and some terrific covers, too – but the title was at its best when Barr teamed with Hughes and Magyar on art.

The only blemish on this issue’s sterling Hughes-Magyar cover was the revised Comico logo, which replaced their old one for just this one issue. The series moved to Innovation with #8 and this volume ran through #23.

– J.C. Vaughn