One of the beautiful things about the comic book medium is that it is one of the few art forms that allows readers to both literally and figuratively judge books by their covers. The work of a cover artist is not always to encapsulate the plot of the issue; in fact, most times the cover is completely unrelated to the content inside. The primary job of the artist is to make the book stand out - to grab readers by the throat and force them to take a look at the issue, even as it's speckled in with dozens of other books on the shelf, Wednesday after Wednesday.

It is entirely possible to purchase a book based on its cover and find the content inside to be complete drivel, or worse yet, with art that pales in comparison to the work of the cover artist. Alternatively, a poor cover could potentially lead readers away from books that are otherwise goldmines. There's a lot riding on that cover, so CraveOnline is taking it upon ourselves to take a look at the covers and artists that made us stop dead in our tracks for the month of June 2009.

June was certainly the month of the Batman: this month saw the return of the long running Bat-books as well as a plethora of brand new ones, all of which made the cut this month with some truly gorgeous cover work.

5. Batman #687 Cover by Tony Daniel and Sandu Florea

Admittedly, this is the one Batman book that came out in the flurry of "Batman Reborn" that I did not pick up, and it was entirely due to my utter disdain for everything writer Judd Winick touches. However, this awesome cover from "Batman RIP" artist and "Battle for the Cowl" auteur Tony Daniel did one hell of a job nearly convincing me to not only spend $3.99 on a comic book, but $3.99 on a Judd Winick comic book. Daniel composes the image cleverly, using Batman's imposing figure and wingspan to form the shape of his iconic Bat symbol, if one were to blur their eyes just a tad, or catch this image from a distance.

Daniel places new Batman Dick Grayson on what looks to be the figurehead of a ship - a ship that seems to not be in such great condition, much like the Bat-family. With Dick taking the place of Bruce Wayne in light of his apparent "death", who better to save a sinking enterprise from complete disaster than one of the few people that were there since nearly the beginning. I'm honest when I say I have no inkling of what the interior of this book contains, but one can judge by Daniel's work here that Dick Grayson is taking the wheel, whether he's prepared or not.