Detective Comics #719

Detective Comics #719 serves as the prelude to DC's sweeping "Cataclysm" event, and Bill Sienkiewicz's cover sets an appropriately ominous tone — Batman stands drenched in a crimson downpour, his cape billowing into jagged, almost monstrous shapes as streaks of what might be blood or rain blur the deep red background. The Dark Knight's posture is tense and brooding, one fist clenched, conveying a city on the edge of something devastating. With Chuck Dixon writing and a powerhouse artistic team including Jim Aparo, Flint Henry, and Mark Buckingham, this March 1998 issue is a compelling entry point into one of Gotham's most turbulent chapters.