Batman: Year 100 #2

The second chapter of Paul Pope's four-part 2006 prestige series sets a tense, atmospheric tone right on the cover: Batman's broad, darkly costumed back dominates the foreground while a ghoulish green-faced figure looms behind him against a deep crimson backdrop, their unsettling visage hinting at a confrontation steeped in menace. Pope's raw, kinetic linework — rendered here in cover pencils and inks entirely by his own hand, with colors by José Villarrubia adding that sickly green pallor and blood-red mood — makes even a static image feel charged with motion and dread. At $5.99, this prestige-format series was clearly built to deliver something ambitious, and the cover alone makes a compelling case that it delivers.