Batman: Gotham Knights #33

Brian Bolland's cover for this November 2002 issue puts Bane front and center in an unsettling close-up — masked, red-eyed, and eerily composed in a suit and tie while a suited gunman levels a shotgun directly at him. The contrast between Bane's almost businesslike stillness and the tension of that leveled weapon makes for a genuinely gripping image. Inside, Scott Beatty kicks off the "Tabula Rasa" storyline with art by Mike Collins and inks by Bill Sienkiewicz, promising dark Gotham intrigue to come.