Nightwing #8

This 2012 New 52 prelude to the "Night of the Owls" crossover event puts Nightwing squarely in the path of a formidable Talon — the Court of Owls' deadly assassin — who dominates the cover in full blade-bristling armor, a live owl perched on his shoulder, daggers at the ready. Behind him, Nightwing himself charges forward in his red-and-black suit against a snow-dusted Gotham backdrop, making clear that Dick Grayson is already deep in the fight. Eddy Barrows's cover pencils and inks crackle with menace, and with Kyle Higgins writing and Rod Reis on colors, "Bloodlines" shapes up as one of the New 52's sharpest chapters in this corner of the Batman universe.