Azrael: Agent of the Bat #58

Part of the sprawling "No Man's Land" crossover event, this November 1999 issue carries the chilling subtitle "The Haunting of Saint Dumas!" — and the cover by Roger Robinson and James Pascoe delivers on that promise in spectacular fashion. A towering, skull-faced specter wreathed in roiling flames looms over a comparatively tiny Azrael, who stands his ground sword in hand amid a fiery industrial ruin. Denny O'Neil's "Ghosts" looks to be exactly the kind of confrontation — hero versus something far larger and far stranger than himself — that makes this ongoing series such a rewarding corner of the Batman universe.