Nightwing #87

A masked, black-and-gold-clad female warrior armed with blades dominates the foreground of this January 2004 cover, her claws literally shredding through a tender moment between Dick Grayson and a glasses-wearing woman rendered in moody purple tones behind her — a striking visual threat aimed squarely at Nightwing's personal life. Patrick Zircher and Andy Owens deliver a cover with genuine menace and visual flair, balancing intimacy and danger in the same frame. Writer Devin Grayson's "Snowball" chapter promises the kind of complications that don't stay neatly contained — much like the claw marks tearing across this cover.