Superman / Batman #16

Few sights in 2005 DC Comics feel quite as unsettling as Superman and Batman — two of the world's greatest heroes — locked helplessly inside a wooden cage while a whip-cracking blonde warrior stands guard over them. Carlos Pacheco and Jesús Merino's cover makes the indignity complete with a pair of hulking green creatures slumped at the cage's base, suggesting the World's Finest Duo are very much prisoners in someone else's world. Jeph Loeb's "Absolute Power" arc is at its midpoint here, and this striking image promises the kind of table-turning threat that makes the duo's eventual fightback all the more satisfying.