Batman #244

This September 1972 issue of Batman delivers one of the most striking desert-set covers of the Bronze Age, with Neal Adams painting a sun-scorched tableau that stops you cold: Ra's al Ghūl stands triumphant in the foreground, clutching Batman's crumpled costume while a battered, cowl-less Dark Knight lies sprawled in the dirt at his feet. An armed rider on horseback looms in the background against a burning orange sky, with camels and silhouetted figures stretching into the distance — the whole scene radiating a sense of high-stakes confrontation far from Gotham. Writer Elliot S! Maggin and artist Irv Novick bring the interior story "The Demon Lives Again!" to this bold Adams-illustrated package, making issue #244 a genuinely compelling entry in Batman's early-seventies renaissance.