Batman: Shadow of the Bat #78

Part of the 1998 "Aftershock" crossover, this issue opens "The Blank Generation Part I: Corporate Nightmares" with a cover by Glen Orbik that captures Gotham at a heartbreaking low. A weary, densely packed crowd streams past a battered sign reading "Now Leaving Gotham City — Forever!" their faces etched with exhaustion and resignation, while Batman watches silently from a ruined rooftop above, the city burning red behind him. Alan Grant, Mark Buckingham, and Wayne Faucher deliver a story that promises to reckon with what happens to a city — and its guardian — when the people give up on it entirely.