Batman: Gotham After Midnight #3

Issue three of this twelve-part 2008 limited series pits Batman against one of Gotham's most unsettling villains, and Kelley Jones's cover makes the threat viscerally clear — a massive, dripping Clayface towers over the city, police blimps spotlighting the confrontation as a determined Batman braces himself against the creature's hulking form. The speech bubble's grim taunt — "You're gonna die in the living cemetery of Clayface!" — sets a wonderfully macabre tone that fits perfectly with Steve Niles's horror-tinged take on the Dark Knight. Jones's expressive, grotesque linework gives Clayface a genuinely monstrous weight here, making this one of the more visually striking installments in the series.