Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #78

Scott Hampton brings his painted-art sensibility to both the story and cover of this concluding chapter of "The Sleeping," and the result is genuinely striking — Batman's grimacing face fills the frame, teeth bared with fierce intensity, while massive dark wings spread behind him against a backdrop of roiling flame. The close-up composition creates an almost suffocating sense of pressure, as if the Dark Knight is locked in a desperate struggle with something just out of full view. This December 1995 issue wraps up Hampton's three-part arc in Legends of the Dark Knight, a series known for giving creators room to tell self-contained, atmospheric Batman stories that linger long after the last page.