Batman: Shadow of the Bat #86

Part of DC's sweeping 1999 "No Man's Land" crossover, this issue presents a striking cover by Guy Davis that riffs on classic "raising the flag" imagery — a ragged, determined figure hoists a black-and-gold Batman symbol flag above the ruins of Gotham, while Mr. Freeze and the Joker surge up from a crush of desperate hands below, the city's gothic skyline looming behind barbed wire. The tension between those competing forces — hope embodied in that bat-symbol and menace personified by two of Gotham's most dangerous villains — makes for a genuinely arresting image. Writer Lisa Klink and artist Guy Davis bring their talents to bear on a Gotham stripped of law and order, and this cover alone captures exactly how precarious that world feels.