This pencil commission by Dheeraj Verma (
Lady Death,
Transformers,
GI Joe) was set up last spring, and finally got completed and sent out a couple weeks ago. (Both Verma's professional work and some personal tragedies delayed the piece unexpectedly.) But as they say, good things are worth waiting for.
This is already set to be inked over bluelines by Drew Geraci, and I may cycle it thru other inkers down the road. But I dare say that even at just pencil stage, this is easily one of the best Batman images I've ever seen. Anything that takes Batman back to his classic, pre-1986 self is always welcome, and "classic" is exactly how I'd describe this.