Detective Comics #805

Part five of "City of Crime" arrives in this June 2005 issue of Detective Comics, and David Lapham's cover sets a brooding, atmospheric tone — Batman surges forward through a tangle of bare, skeletal branches against a deep crimson sky, his cape billowing as a shadowy, monstrous figure looms in the darkness above him. The stark two-color composition makes the confrontation feel genuinely unsettling, all silhouette and tension. This issue also includes the backup strip "MUD" by Kimo Temperance and Zach Howard, making it a solid double-dose of Gotham grit.