Detective Comics #7

Part of DC's New 52 initiative from 2012, this seventh issue of Detective Comics delivers a cover by Tony Daniel that crackles with raw energy — a snarling, battered Batman lunges forward through shattering debris, ringed by sweeping red lines that convey both speed and chaos, while bold pink-and-white graphic shapes loom in the background. The distressed lettering of the title and Batman's ferocious expression set a fittingly gritty tone for "The Snake and the Hawk." Daniel and inker Sandu Florea make this one hard to walk past on a shelf.