Gotham City: Year One #6

The penultimate chapter of Tom King's noir-drenched miniseries arrives with a cover that says everything through shadow and symbol: a weary detective in a fedora dominates the foreground, a silhouetted Batman crouching amid a swarm of bats at his chest, while a hospital scene — a figure hooked to an IV — looms ominously in the background. Completing the grim tableau, a revolver and a broken string of pearls rest at the lower right, weighted with unmistakable Gotham tragedy. Phil Hester and Eric Gapstur's cover art captures the series' hardboiled atmosphere perfectly, with Jordie Bellaire's muted, smoky palette pulling every element into a cohesive vision of a city where violence and grief are never far apart.