Azrael #11

Part one of "Azrael Rising" arrives in this December 1995 issue, with a cover by Barry Kitson and James Pascoe that drops readers straight into a scene of urgent, unsettling tension. Azrael — robed, armored, and wielding a flame-wreathed gauntlet — stands alongside Batman as the two heroes shield a frightened child from a hostile crowd closing in from all sides, while a prone figure lies in the foreground and a baseball bat swings in from the edge of the frame. It's a vivid, kinetic image that captures the series' willingness to pit its hooded, morally complex hero against something uglier and more human than a costumed villain — with Dennis O'Neil writing and Kitson's crisp linework bringing every anxious face in that mob to life.