Batman: Shadow of the Bat #79

Part of DC's 1998 "Aftershock" crossover event, this issue finds Batman as a solitary silhouette standing at the edge of a rubble-strewn chasm, a harsh searchlight cutting through the murky atmosphere around him. Scattered in the debris below are a joker playing card, what appears to be a crocodilian skull, and other wreckage — vivid remnants of Gotham's devastation bathed in an eerie golden glow, with bats circling in the haze above. The haunting cover painting by Glen Orbik and Laurel Blechman perfectly captures a Dark Knight surveying a city on its knees, while Alan Grant and Mark Buckingham carry the interior story forward in "The Blank Generation Part Two: A Favorable Wind.