Batman / Doc Savage Special #1

Doc Savage stands foreground against a moonlit cityscape — a helicopter hovering near a skyscraper, a swarm of bats filling the sky — while a towering Batman looms behind him like a shadow given life. The cover by J. G. Jones beautifully sets up the tension between these two larger-than-life figures, one pulp adventurer, one Dark Knight, sharing the same noir-drenched world. Writer Brian Azzarello and artist Phil Noto's "Bronze Night" kicks off the First Wave initiative with this 2010 one-shot that promises exactly the kind of hard-edged, atmospheric storytelling the pairing deserves.