Detective Comics #224

This October 1955 issue of Detective Comics features a gripping cover promising "The Batman Machine" — a story that clearly has something unusual afoot. The cover shows a strange, masked figure wearing Batman's costume advancing menacingly down a city street while two armed men close in from either side, and the real Batman and Robin swing into action from above, capes billowing against a red sky. With cover art by Win Mortimer and Dick Sprang, and interior work from the classic team of writer Bill Finger, artist Dick Sprang, and inker Charles Paris, this is a fine example of mid-fifties DC storytelling at its most intriguing.