Batgirl #9

Part of DC's 2012 "Night of the Owls" crossover event, this issue of Gail Simone's Batgirl drops Barbara Gordon right into the thick of Gotham's deadliest night. The cover by Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes captures the tension perfectly — a black-clad, sword-wielding Talon looms over a red-haired Batgirl, both figures locked in fierce mid-air combat above a stormy Gotham skyline. It's a genuinely gripping image that makes the Court of Owls feel like a very real and immediate threat to one of Gotham's fiercest defenders.