Nightwing #19

Part of the sprawling 1998 DC "Cataclysm" crossover, this issue finds Nightwing desperately bracing himself atop an overturned Gotham City bus — number 77B — as debris rains down around a collapsing, earthquake-ravaged cityscape rendered in stark black and white behind him. Two civilians trapped beneath the bus reach up in desperation, lending the cover an urgent, visceral energy that captures exactly what's at stake. With pencils by Scott McDaniel and Dave Taylor and inks by Karl Story and Dave Taylor, it's a striking snapshot of Bludhaven's protector pushed to his absolute limit.