The Brave and the Bold #86

Few team-ups in 1969 carry the dramatic charge of this Batman-and-Deadman pairing from The Brave and the Bold #86. Neal Adams's cover pulls no punches: a battered Batman reels in free-fall while Deadman — shown both possessing a figure above and confronting the Dark Knight directly — delivers the chilling declaration, "We were friends, Batman… but you must die… so I can live!" The ghostly red-clad specter looming in multiple forms across the composition gives Adams's linework a kinetic, almost haunted energy that perfectly captures the eerie tension of this supernatural team-up.