Batman Confidential #40

Sam Kieth brings his unmistakably expressive, fluid style to this 2010 issue of Batman Confidential, titled "Ghosts." The cover shows a crouching Batman swathed in a sweeping blue cape, rendered in Kieth's loose, painterly linework, while an older silver-haired man in a suit looms large in the upper corner and a snow-dusted wreckage smolders in the cold distance — all framed by icicles and spatters of blood that give the scene a haunting, wintry atmosphere. It's a striking, moody composition that signals something darker and more introspective than a standard Bat-adventure.