Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #142

The Joker enthroned — literally — sets a chilling, darkly comic tone for "The Demon Laughs," a four-part story kicking off in this June 2001 issue of Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight. John Cebollero's cover depicts the Clown Prince of Crime lounging on an ornate golden throne atop a stone dais, grinning with gleeful menace while a chained woman lies at the steps below him, the tagline riffing on Shakespeare to punctuate his monstrous ego. With Chuck Dixon writing and Jim Aparo on interior art, this opening chapter promises the kind of tightly crafted Batman storytelling that made this series a reliable home for longer-form Dark Knight tales.