Catwoman #32

Part 9 of DC's sprawling "Contagion" crossover lands here in Catwoman #32 (April 1996), and the cover by Jim Balent sets a genuinely unsettling tone: Catwoman crouches defiantly amid a sea of skulls and scattered skeletons, with a vandalized Gotham City sign reading "City of the Dead" looming beneath her. The ornate border of grinning skulls and ghoulish imagery frames the whole scene with a creeping dread that suits the plague-ravaged Gotham storyline perfectly. Chuck Dixon, Balent, Dick Giordano, and Bob Smith bring their full talents to this chapter of one of 1996's most ambitious Batman-family events.