Five cool comic-book covers by painter Alex Ross

Painter Alex Ross redefined the market for fully painted comics with his work on 1993's "Marvels." He followed that with 1996's "Kingdom Come," a story of the fate of the DC Comics universe.  Since then, he's crafted covers for most of comics' most notable characters.  

In this gallery, we bring you five covers by painter Alex Ross.  Click through to check out five dynamic covers. 

Alex Ross crafts a heroic Superman on the cover of Superman #675.

This Alex Ross cover marked the final issue of "Marvels," a collaboration with writer Kurt Busiek.  In this, the final issue, Busiek and painter Alex Ross chronicle what probably marked the end of Marvel’s Silver Age, as the death of a key character maybe indelibly darkened that comics line. Photographer Phil Sheldon, the POV character for the entire series, is there, and what he learns and realizes may likely resonate with the reader, as well.

The apocalyptic Kingdom Come heavily influenced the DC Comics characters.  The look of this cover was replicated in some of the marketing for the "Justice League" film. 

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Longtime writer, interviewer and author George Khoury takes a look at the era of comics that made him a fan with his recent book "Comic Book Fever."

The book, subtitled "A Celebration of Comics 1976 to 1986," looks at a decade of comic books near and dear to many Gen Xers. Painter Alex Ross ("Kingdom Come") provides the cover and the introduction to the book.

Slight asterisk here as this isn't technically a comic book cover, but there is a JSA cover at the top of this post if you want to get technical about it...

Alex Ross again collaborated with Busiek on "Astro City," for which he's been the series cover artist.   

This issue is written by Kurt Busiek with art by Brent Anderson. It's a really fantastic single issue, featuring Busiek's hero the Samaritan.

The issue is a real "day in the life" story, in which Samaritan, a superpowered hero, uses his day job at a newspaper to find out about crimes he needs to stop. Despite his amazing powers, Samaritan can't seem to find a way to take time out for his own desires. This examination of superpowers, their responsibilities, and their potential downsides, is one of the best first issues I've ever read. There’s probably a correlation most of us can find with our jobs or other parts of our lives — there’s the reason we enjoy doing it, but sometimes it’s a battle against the “busy-ness” of our lives to find time for the part we actually enjoy. And in the Samaritan’s case, lives are literally at stake.

Ross' cover provides a great entry point for the story and for the series as a whole.