Batman #534

Part five of DC's sweeping "Legacy" crossover arrives in Batman #534 (September 1996), and Kelley Jones's cover makes an immediate impression: Batman dives down from above with cape spread wide, bearing down on a masked, knife-wielding attacker who threatens a panicked civilian below, while a pair of menacing red eyes loom ominously in the darkness at the top of the image. The composition crackles with urgency, suggesting that whoever is pulling strings behind the scenes is every bit as dangerous as the threat on the ground. Doug Moench scripts, with Jim Aparo on interior art and Bill Sienkiewicz adding ink muscle — a solid creative lineup for a chapter that clearly has the Dark Knight fighting on multiple fronts at once.