Detective Comics #272

From DC's October 1959 lineup comes this striking issue of Detective Comics, featuring a cover by penciler Curt Swan and inker Stan Kaye that pits Batman and Robin against a towering, multi-faceted crystal creature wreathed in flames. Batman rushes forward clutching what appears to be a device, while Robin stands cautiously in the background — the cover caption ("Almost scorched me!… Our only chance to destroy him is to make this mechanism work!") perfectly captures the desperate urgency of the moment. "The Crystal Creature" promises the kind of imaginative, science-fiction-tinged adventure that made late-1950s DC storytelling so distinctive.