Batman: Hollywood Knight #3

The concluding chapter of DC's Elseworlds miniseries arrives with a cover by Dick Giordano that sets the stakes beautifully: Batman crouches along a towering film-studio ladder in the shadows above, while down in a single spotlight a menacing, heavyset man looms over a bound young woman on the stage below. The golden-age Hollywood atmosphere — the hanging stage lights, the dramatic contrast of darkness and spotlight — gives the whole scene a noir-tinged urgency that feels right at home in 2001. With Bob Layton writing and Giordano handling both pencils and inks throughout, "Reel Trouble" promises a fitting finale to this stylish trip through Tinseltown's darker back lots.