The Brave and the Bold #172

This March 1981 team-up puts Batman in an agonizing spot, as Jim Aparo's cover captures him watching a blazing, clearly weakened Firestorm dissolving inside what appears to be a nuclear reactor — with Batman's own caption admitting he can't survive long enough in there to save him. The raw tension between a hero who can punch through almost anything and a problem his fists simply can't solve gives this issue an unusually emotional charge for a team-up book. Bonus points for a Nemesis backup story rounding out what looks like a genuinely satisfying package.