Detective Comics #778

A massive, grotesquely textured purple creature dominates Tim Sale's cover for this March 2003 issue, a silver coin balanced on its monstrous hand while the Joker's unsettling half-face looms at the left edge — and a grim, watchful Batman stands caged in the background, hemmed in by iron bars. Ed Brubaker continues "Dead Reckoning" with art by Tommy Castillo and inks by Wade von Grawbadger, promising the kind of moody Gotham tension this creative team delivers so well. Bonus backup "Spore" by Nancy and Michel Gagné rounds out a genuinely compelling package.