Red Robin #23

Red Robin stands at the center of this striking 2011 cover, cape spread wide and two smoking pistols held at his sides — the guns clearly not his own, positioned as if freshly disarmed from someone else. Below him, a chalk body outline surrounds a pool of blood, setting a hard-boiled crime-scene tone that feels unusually grim for a Batman Family title. Writer Fabian Nicieza and artist Marcus To (with inks by Ray McCarthy) bring a confident, noir-edged sensibility to this opening chapter of "7 Days of Death.