Superman #66

Part of the "Panic in the Sky!" crossover event, this April 1992 issue delivers one of the most unsettling covers of its era — a skeletal Superman in full costume charges forward, surrounded by a ghoulish parade of DC heroes reduced to rotting, skull-faced figures, including a decayed Batman, Aquaman, and a host of others rendered in vivid, macabre detail against a deep purple backdrop. Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding bring genuine craft to the image, balancing the grotesque with an almost kinetic energy that makes it hard to look away. It's a striking visual statement for the concluding chapter of a storyline that clearly put the entire DC hero community on the line.