The Batman Chronicles #4

Part of the sprawling 1996 "Contagion" crossover event, this issue of The Batman Chronicles presents a haunting cover — Batman stands with cape billowing, his back to us as he surveys a devastated Gotham City landscape strewn with skulls and rubble beneath a blood-red sunset, a green-clad figure visible just over his shoulder amid the ruins. The border of skulls, bones, and grim imagery framing the scene makes the scale of the catastrophe feel viscerally real, with cover pencils by Jim Balent and inks by Kelley Jones lending the whole composition a brooding, apocalyptic weight. Inside, Chuck Dixon scripts "Hitman" with art by Frank Fosco, making this a solid chapter in one of DC's most ambitious mid-nineties Batman storylines.