Flashpoint: Batman Knight of Vengeance #3

The concluding chapter of Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso's three-issue Flashpoint tie-in arrives with a haunting cover by Dave Johnson: a caped Batman and a green-haired woman in a suit hold hands on a cobblestone circle, their gazes cast downward toward a chalk outline of a small child clutching roses — a quietly devastating image that says everything about the grief driving this alternate-universe Dark Knight. The muted, near-monochromatic palette makes those red roses the only real splash of color, lending the scene an elegance that feels more like tragedy than triumph. It's a striking close to one of 2011's more emotionally charged corners of the Flashpoint event.