Batman: Secrets #4

Two faces emerge from near-total darkness on this arresting 2006 cover — Batman's cowled visage shadowed in cool blue on the left, and the Joker's pale, grinning countenance lit in eerie green on the right, the two figures rendered as unsettling mirror images of one another. Sam Kieth's artwork, colored by Alex Sinclair, strips the composition down to something almost psychological, letting shadow do most of the heavy lifting. As the fourth chapter of this five-part series, it promises the kind of intimate, tension-charged confrontation between Gotham's greatest nemeses that the stark cover design practically radiates.