10 Criminally Overlooked Batman Comics Fans Must Read

'Here Be Monsters' is the first of two Darwyn Cooke and 'Black and White' stories on this list. If anything, this and his other one later on prove that Cooke gets Batman like no other.

A villain by the name of Madame X poisons Batman with a gas that causes him to lose his sanity. Under its influence he views those around him as monsters trying to take a bite out of him and his own monstrous desires start to rise to the surface.

The thing about Gotham City is that it is inherently corrupting. It's a place that can turn even the best people into the absolute worst in the blink of an eye. Gotham is almost like an entity in itself, exuding madness out of every concrete pore.

There is just something fundamentally wrong about it, yet Batman still fights for it. It's a miracle that he hasn't turned into an absolute monster, something this gas makes him very aware of. He knows just how easy it would be to punch a little harder or squeeze a bit tighter, to not hold back and just let it all out.

What Cooke really nails here is how it is only by sheer willpower that Batman manages to not let himself become what he hates the most. He's stubborn, sometimes to the point of his own detriment, but it's that resolve that makes him who he is.