Batman: Shadow of the Bat #73

Part one of DC's sweeping "Cataclysm" crossover event arrives in this April 1998 issue of Batman: Shadow of the Bat, with a cover by Glen Orbik that delivers an immediate gut-punch: Batman's gauntleted hand, trimmed in yellow, reaches desperately from beneath a crush of rubble while a cracked, dust-choked Gotham looms behind him. The image says everything about the catastrophe to come without uttering a word — helplessness rendered in paint, with a collapsed cityscape sketched in eerie monochrome along the left edge. Alan Grant, Mark Buckingham, and Wayne Faucher bring the story to life inside, and this cover sets the tone perfectly for what promises to be one of the darker chapters in the Dark Knight's world.