Batman: Dark Victory #8

Part eight of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's thirteen-issue limited series arrives with one of the most unsettling covers in the run — Tim Sale fills the page almost entirely with black, letting a magenta-flushed face and a vast, jagged grin loom out of the darkness with quiet menace. The chapter is titled "Battle," and that leering, monstrous visage sets the mood with remarkable economy. Sale's stark two-color composition is a masterclass in atmosphere, proving that restraint can be every bit as gripping as a crowded action scene.