Batman: Gotham Knights #21

A young dark-haired man in a denim jacket lunges forward with a gun raised while a figure in a hat and coat recoils — a cane snapping between them and venetian blinds shattering in the chaos — making for a genuinely gripping Brian Bolland cover on this November 2001 installment of Batman: Gotham Knights. The raw physicality of that confrontation sets a tense stage for "Retribution Part 2 of 2: Contested," crafted by the creative team of Devin Grayson, Roger Robinson, and John Floyd. It's a sharply composed issue that captures the book's street-level intensity at its best.