Batman Eternal #31

Part of DC's ambitious weekly series, Batman Eternal #31 arrives in January 2015 with a cover by Rafael Albuquerque that pulls no punches: a massive, masked figure — unmistakably Bane — looms from behind with a gun in hand, bearing down on a defiant, bloodied man who stands his ground fists clenched as a horde of pale, ghoulish creatures closes in from the shadows. The tension radiating from that central confrontation, outnumbered and surrounded, gives the story title "Buried Deep" a fittingly ominous resonance. With a writing team of Snyder, Tynion IV, Fawkes, Higgins, and Seeley backed by the linework of Fernando Pasarin, this weekly saga continues to deliver Gotham at its most desperate.