Batman Eternal #52

The penultimate chapter of DC's ambitious weekly series arrives with a cover by Jae Lee that says everything about the stakes: Batman looms as a towering silhouette against a blazing orange sky, his cape spread wide like a dark flame, while a crowd of defeated or struggling figures — including what appear to be several of Gotham's more dangerous villains — sprawls at his feet. It's a striking, almost mythic composition that captures the sheer weight of the year-long Batman Eternal saga as it barrels toward its conclusion. With a writing team led by Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV and a deep bench of artists bringing this fifty-second issue to life in June 2015, this is a fitting penultimate chapter for one of the New 52's most ambitious Batman projects.