Batman: Shadow of the Bat #6

Against a blazing American flag, a hulking, square-jawed figure gives a menacing salute while Batman lunges forward in the foreground — it's a striking visual tension between patriotic iconography and the Dark Knight's lone-vigilante urgency. Brian Stelfreeze's cover art for "The Ugly American" is confident and atmospheric, pairing rich, painterly colors with a composition that immediately signals conflict between two very different ideas of justice. Written by Alan Grant with interior art by Dan Jurgens and Dick Giordano, this November 1992 installment of Shadow of the Bat is a compelling addition to DC's darker, street-level corner of the Batman universe.