Detective Comics #232

A clever mid-1950s premise leaps right off this Curt Swan and Stan Kaye cover: the real Batman crouches behind a movie camera crew while an impostor in a Batman costume swings overhead, secretly plotting to use the role to "pull the biggest job of the century." The speech bubbles — the unsuspecting cameraman praising the actor's performance, the costumed crook gloating in his thought balloon — set up a deliciously deceptive scenario without giving away a thing. At just a dime, Detective Comics #232 captures everything that made 1956 DC storytelling so appealing: a sharp visual hook and a premise that makes you want to flip the cover open immediately.