Nightwing #5

Nightwing's February 1997 solo series hits its fifth issue with a cover by Scott McDaniel and Karl Story that puts Dick Grayson in immediate peril — he's lunging across a burning, debris-strewn surface while shielding a terrified young girl, all while a gold-and-red armored villain bearing twin curved blades dives down from a bridge above. The threat feels visceral and the stakes are refreshingly personal, with Nightwing protecting an innocent rather than simply trading blows. Chuck Dixon, McDaniel, and Story are firing on all cylinders here, delivering the kind of kinetic, street-level tension that made this ongoing series a standout of DC's mid-nineties lineup.