Detective Comics #814

Part 12 of "City of Crime" arrives in this February 2006 installment, and the cover by David Lapham makes an immediate impression — Batman is at the center of an absolute melee, surrounded by a chaotic mass of brawling figures, wild-haired combatants, and desperate street fighters set against a fiery orange Gotham skyline. The sheer density of bodies pressing in from every direction gives the scene a breathless, anything-goes energy that suits a story arc with "crime" right in the title. With writing and interior art by Lapham alongside Ramón Bachs and inker Nathan Massengill, this is one of those issues where the cover alone earns its place on the shelf.