ACTION COMICS #975 is reviewed in a blog for SUPERMAN REBORN.
ACTION COMICS #976 is reviewed in a blog for SUPERMAN REBORN.
ADAM STRANGE/FUTURE QUEST SPECIAL #1 by Marc Andreyko, Jeff Parker, Dan Didio, Steve Lieber, and Phil Winslade. Adam Strange finds himself riding a Zeta Beam into the Lost Valley where he is found by Ug and Todd. Shortly there after, Dr. Quest, Race Bannon, Jonny, Hadji, and Bandit arrive. Slowly, Adam’s fractured memories come back to him and he recalls the battle with Despero and Hawkman, along with events in Ontario with Justice League Canada and also remembers Rann and Alanna. Meanwhile, there are F.E.A.R. Agents stuck here who seem to blame Dr. Quest for their predicament and are trying to catch them in the hopes that Adam’s Zeta Beam could get them out of the Lost Valley. Eventually Birdman shows up and uses his powers to charge up some fallen material that from Strange's Universe, which allows him to go back home. But not before the Agents of F.E.A.R. force them to open a vortex which sends them to the world of the the Herculoids. In the backup featuring Batman meets Top Cat, who tells him who he is and how he and his best friend Benny ended up in Gotham City. Only he can’t find Benny. When Batman leaves Catwoman arrives and offers assistance and a possible job down the road.
ALL STAR BATMAN #8 by Scott Snyder and Giuseppi Camuncoli. Batman battles a Blackhawks team that is using stealth technology to trick him into thinking they are his Bat allies. This leads him to a confrontation with the Mad Hatter, who has affected Batman’s mind and makes him think the doctors trying to help him are actually his Rogue’s Gallery. Ultimately, he breaks free of Hatter’s mind control, who tells Batman who the real mastermind is. In the Cursed Wheel backup, Duke figures out how the Riddler is manipulating things from his cell and that leads to a confrontation with his old friend Darryl.
AQUAMAN #18 by Dan Abnett and Scot Eaton. Although it seems like he’s in Bialya and it is being bombed by Khandaq, Aquaman is actually fighting the battle in his head, thanks to Warhead. Warhead then explains that he was used as a weapon by the Khandaqi army, but was injured and needed to repair himself. But Black Manta’s aquatelepathy woke him from his repair state and Aquaman, feeling sorry, offers him sanctuary in Atlantis.Fellner and his men finally break in and Aquaman explains that Warhead is seeking political asylum. In the end, Aquaman returns to Amnesty Bay and Major Ricoh of the Aquamarines meets with him concerning Dead Water.
AQUAMAN #19 by Dan Abnett and Philippe Briones. Aquaman, Mera and the Aquamarines are on their way to Cape Valez to investigate something involving Dead Water. Once they arrive, they see that Scavenger, who was crippled previously by Dead Water, is running the operation. One by one, people are getting killed by Dead Water, leading to Aquaman to take the fight to the creature.
BATGIRL #9 by Hope Larson and Chris Wildgoose. Batgirl catches a crook in a Pronghorn uniform and using a Faraday Bag which hides all signals and waves, before heading off to teach a coding workshop at the South Burnside Elementary School. There she sees a new app called Doggo, where you get a virtual dog to care for and buy things with real money. In actuality, the app is all about data mining. Barbara goes home to find a crying Alyson, who is having marital problems with Jo. Later, she attends a charity ball with Ethan Cobblepot, where she learns that Doggo is part of Cobblepot’s company. She sneaks away as Batgirl and breaks into Ethan’s office, where she finds The Penguin.
BATGIRL ANNUAL #1 by Hope Larson, Vita Ayala, Inaki Miranda, and Elonora Carlini. Batgirl is in National City, helping Supergirl with a villain calling himself Red Spur. He gets away but Batgirl says not to worry as she hit him with a tracker and can pick him up tomorrow, so they get coffee. Babs agrees to help Supergirl to break into Cadmus lab and help her find a girl named Gayle who is speaking in Kryptonese and asking for her help. They run into a kid named Frostpoint who they take with them as they search. They find Gayle and she declares how she wants to go back to the Phantom Zone, because it’s safer there. Then she disappears. They break Frostpoint out and plan their next move, which will be in SUPERGIRL #9. In the backup, Barbara spend the night hanging out with her best friend Alysia, even though it may interfere with her crime fighting for the night. I the end, they end up on the roof of GCPD and turn on the Bat Signal…because they can.
BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY #8 by Julie Benson, Shawna Benson and Roge Antonio. Oracle and Batgirl are helping Nightwing track down a criminal named Gemini who has escaped from Bludhaven after killing all of her friends. It turns out she is a shape shifter who stabs him while disguised as Batman. The Birds show up and try to help, but Gemini blows up Nightwing’s motorcycle and escapes. Back at the base, Nightwing gets patched up and they all wonder what Oracle’s issue is, especially because we see him talking to himself and popping pills. Black Canary decides to go undercover at a meta-human Fight Club run by Roulette. Meanwhile, Blackbird is happy with Gemini’s advancements…so happy she steals them for herself.
BATMAN #18 by Tom King and David Finch. Besides seeing the parallels between Bruce Wayne and Bane’s youth, including their training, we get a full issue of Bane beating up Batman. When he refuses to release the Psycho Pirate, Bane orders Bird to kill the hostages. But Catwoman has arrived, freed the hostages, and subdued Bane’s men. Our last glimpse is a very angry Bane breaking into Arkham Asylum.
BATMAN #19 by Tom King and David Finch. Bane has entered Arkham and rapidly defeats Batman's Rogues Gallery in short order, leading to a final confrontation between he and the Dark Knight.
BATMAN BEYOND #6 by Dan Jurgens and Bernard Chang. We flash forward decades from now as Curare is being chased through Neo Gotham by the League of Assassins. Back in the present, Bruce comes home to find that Terry, Dana and matt are all in the secret hideout, which makes him a little upset. Barabra learns that Terminal is truly dead and then gets a visit from Curare, who needs Gordon's help to contact Batman. Up on the roof, the League of Assassins attacks them, but Barbara manages to light the bat Signal, much to Terry and Dana’s dismay. Terry decides it is more important to kiss her than respond to the signal.
BATWOMAN #1 by Marguerite Bennett, James Tynion IV and Steve Epting. Someone is out to make a killing selling Monster venom on the Black Market. And Batwoman intends to stop it, along with her version of Alfred: Julia Pennyworth. The hunt leads Kate to return to Coryana, where she was saved from drowning by a woman named Safiyah. Safiyah was the assistant of a man named Rafael and the tow woman ended up in a relationship during Kate’s “missing year”. Arriving in Coryana and meets with Rafael, who collapses with a knife in his back and asking why she had returned.
BLUE BEETLE #7 by Keith Giffen and Scott Kolins.Dr. Fate battles the transformed Scarab, Kent Nelson awakes from his slumber, Ted Kord saves Jamie and Arion is reborn.
BOOSTER GOLD/THE FLINTSTONE SPECIAL #1 by Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, Rick Leonardi, and Pier Brito. Booster Gold has to go back 20,000 B.C. Bedrock to stop Gorak’s invasion in 2472 A.D. Gotham City. Unfortunately, Booster not only breaks his time machine, but he accidentally kills a Gorak here to spread peace in the process. He meets with the Flintstones and they promise to help Booster fix his time machine if he promises to leave. In the end, thanks to the wonders of time travel, everyone ends up in 2472, as does the now living Gorak, who manages to end the war. Of course, Booster finds himself very rich because of a deposit made into his bank account a long time ago. And he also gets to eat big ribs in the future. In the backup, we meet the Jetsons. Judy visits her grandmother who is preparing to end her life at Genysis Hall. In the end, grandma hasn’t ended her life, she has just shifted it somewhere else. Grandma is now Rosie the Robot.
DEATH OF HAWKMAN #6 by Marc Andreyko and Aaron Lopresti. While Hawkman battles Despero, Adam Strange and Thanagarian Green Lantern Kral are fighting the mind-controlled Kaladorians and Rannians. Sardeth is able to get control long enough to tell Adam to shut down the Zeta Beam. Hawkman give Despero his Nth Metal in the form of a spear through the head. Adam uses a spear to disrupt the Zeta Beam crystals and a large explosion kills Hawkman and seems to trap Adam Strange in the Zeta Beam. There is peace between Thanagar and Rann, but Despero lives to crush Hawkman’s bones.
DEATHSTROKE #14 by Christopher Priest and Joe Bennett. Jericho is popping pills and slicing his wrists while on the phone with Etienne, who is having an affair with Slade. In Minneapolis, Hosun is hiding from Deathstroke in a dog house, but joins Rose at a Pawn shop where they find a beat-up sword named Rose. Deathstroke gets hired by the government and runs into Power Girl Tanya Spears in this process. Injured, she takes him back to her lab, where he finds out that he is blind.
DEATHSTROKE #15 by Christopher Priest, Larry Hama, and Carlo Pagulayan. Rose has a premonition that where Jericho is covered in blood and a woman is dead. Meanwhile, Dr. Willhayne and Tanya are trying to find a solution to Slade’s blindness and that leads to her designing glasses that will allow him to see. Later, Tanya and Slade mix it up with an assassin named Deadline. Slade changes up his look and his name, as he now goes by the handle of Twilight and has a viscous dog with him. In the end, Jericho goes to Dr. Willhayne and asks him to bring a corpse friend back to life.
DETECTIVE COMICS #952 by James Tynion IV, Christian Duce, Fernando Blanco, and Alex Sinclair. Many months ago, Ra’s Al Ghul tried to convince Shiva into calling off her war on the League of Assassins. In return, he would tell her where her daughter is. She refused and we know how that goes. Back in present day Gotham, Orphan confronts Shiva on the rooftop and that doesn’t go well as mother beats up daughter. Batman and Batwoman arrive but so do member of the League who get their leader away but not before taking Batwing and Azrael. By the way, Batman is still wanted for the murder of the mayor. Later, Jacob tells Kate to run while Cassandra wants to know why her mother had to be a master assassin.
DETECTIVE COMICS #953 by James Tynion IV, Christian Duce, and Fernando Blanco. Renee arranges to get Jim Gordon out of Gotham for his own safety, but that leads to a meeting with Batman, who explains that the city needs to be evacuated to save lives. After a flashback to Cassandra and the original Orphan, she leaves Clayface…only to have him be attacked by the League. While Batman and Orphan duke it out on the rooftops, Batwoman goes to the Belfry and finds what is left of Clayface. She is captured, brought to where Jacob is locked up and stabbed by the League. While Batman heads to the Batcave, Cassandra goes off and has another losing battle with Shiva. When Batman arrives at the Batcave, he finds Ra’s Al Ghul waiting for him.
THE FALL AND RISE OF CAPTAIN ATOM #3 by Cary Bates, Greg Weisman, and Will Conrad. Captain Atom, with a new “stable” look, and learns that everything from 2012 dealing with the project has been shut down and that his wife dies in 2010. General Eiling takes him back to Mesaplex and fills him in about what happened in 2012, when he lost control. Eiling explains that three people died in 2012 and he could be convicted of manslaughter. So he will reappear but will be rebooted as a new Captain Atom. In the end, Nathaniel finds that he has a seventeen-year-old son.
THE FLASH #18 by Joshua Williamson and Jesus Merino. After a nightmare involving Wally and his father, Wally and The Flash head to Belle Reve, where they break inso Wally can visit his father. Amanda Waller denies that Daniel West was ever brought here. This leads to the two speedsters heading down to Australia to meet with Captain Boomerang. That also leads to them being captured by The Weaver Clan.
THE FLASH #19 by Joshua Williamson, Jesus Merino, and Carmine Di Giandomenico. Flash, Kid Flash and Captain Boomerang are tied up and facing a firing squad. Boomerang convinces them to let them loose so they can test out their gun, made from parademon weapons, that might kill The Flash. It’s a bad idea as Kid Flash gets freed and defeat the Clan. Boomerang then tells Wally how his father died a hero in NEW SUICIDE SQUAD ANNUAL #1. Later, Barry reveals his secret identity which, when he finds out that iris doesn’t know yet, pisses Wally off and he flees. In the end, the REAL Reverse Flash, who was killed by Batman Thomas Wayne during FLASHPOINT, arrives in Iron Heights.
GOTHAM ACADEMY SECOND SEMESTER #7 by Brenden Fletcher, Becky Cloonan, Karl Kerschl, Adam Archer and Msassyk. We find out that imaginary friend Amy is really Amity Arkham and Olive, despite not being aware of it, shoves The Symbolist to his apparent death. Luckily, Tristan has transformed and saved him. While Kyle and Maps search for Olive, Pomeline and Colton find a room filled with treasure, an altar…and the Book of Gotham, which connects the Arkhams to the Silverlocks. Bookworm shows up and knocks her and Colton out. Meanwhile, Batman talks to Professor MacPherson and this sets off Olive’s flaming rage!
GREEN ARROW #18 by Benjamin Percy and Eleonora Carlini. The book is filled with flashbacks of young Roy Harper and how he ended up as Green Arrow’s ward and partner. In the present, Roy makes his way to the Indian Reservation on the Spokane Border, where he reunites with his Native American brother Bird, who plays Roy for his father’s death. The Wild Dogs show up and so does Ollie. That’s when Roy says this entire thing is Ollie’s fault.
GREEN ARROW #19 by Ben Percy and Eleonora Carlini. The Wild Dog Militia is battling Roy, Ollie and the natives when Black Canary arrives to shows up and heps save the day. Ollie learns that Broderick is responsible for hiring the Wild Dogs, which means it is Ollie’s fault after all. In the end, after flashbacks showing Roy’s decent into addiction, Ollie, Roy and Dinah team up to take down the Wild Dogs once and for all.
GREEN LANTERN/SPACE GHOST SPECIAL #1 by James Tynion IV, Christopher Sebela, Ariel Olivetti and Howard Chaykin. Hal Jordan is fighting with Larfleeze when Space Ghost shows up and, feeling that Hal has too much power, begins to find with him. They end up on a planet where the inhabitants do not believe that extraterrestrial life exists except for Mavon and his niece Keila. The army begins to attack so Hal creates a giant Batman construct to scare them away. Mavon has made an illegal spaceship to explore space and that leads to the army coming back. A battle develops and Mavon is critically injured, leading to the heroes to take him to space so he can die at peace as he floats through space. In the end, we see that Keila has grown up and she and her people are ready to explore space. And she wears the logos from both Space Ghost and Green Lantern. In the backup. Cat Russ and dog Reddy deal with their individual comedy career crashes before meeting up and putting their act together.
GREEN LANTERNS #18 by Sam Humphries and Robson Rocha. After the events if GREEN LANTERN #20, Volthoom has ended up in Dead Space with Nekron and he proceeds to tell the story of his ten billion-year life. Starting out on Earth-15 in the year 3079, we see the planet being destroyed and his mother giving him the Traveling Lantern to save his life by getting off the planet. He spends many years travelling through the Multiverse to try and find a way to save his Earth and get home. Eventually he ends up on Earth-0 and meets the race that would become the Guardians of the Universe. A ring got created and it ended up on him, making Volthoom the First Lantern. They inserted the great heart into him and he gave them the technology to make the power rings. He had an attitude turn and the Guardians created the first seven Green Lanterns to stop him and lock him in prison for billions of years. In the end, Volthoom begs Nekron to kill him, but he can’t be killed because he is connected to the Emotional Spectrum. But he sees Rami using the Phantom Ring to flee from the Dominators, and decides that he needs to gain revenge on the Guardians.
GREEN LANTERNS #19 by Sam Humphries and Ronan Cliquet. Dr. Neil Emerson tries to contain the personality of Dr. Polaris but Director Harcourt, the new director of the Suicide Squad, has her own plans for Dr. Polaris. Meanwhile, Simon is dealing with brother-in-law Nazir, who is having a hard time dealing with Simon’s fame. In the end, Polaris gets the upper hand and Harcourt calls the Justice League for help and get Simon and Jessica in return. They have little luck, as he wraps them into a bunch of cars and drops them into a river.
HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #16 by Robert Vendetti and Rafa Sandoval. Off on Planet Heep Arkillo and Guy Gardner are beating on each other. One punch from the Yellow Lantern and he thinks he may have killed Guy, but it leads to a flashback that explains Guy’s attitude and Guy comes back with vengeance. Guy eventually takes Arkillo down and gets him to yield. But it looks like Guy may be dead too.
HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #17 by Robert Vendetti and Ethan Van Sciver. Over on Mogo, the Lanterns have managed to stabilize Arkillo and apparently guy is not as injured as we all thought.. And he has one of Arkillo’s teeth as a trophy. He sits by Arkillo’s bedside, returns that tooth and tells him how he can’t wait to team up and beat up bad guys together. Ganthet and Sayd have sent Kyle off to resurrect the rest of the Guardians and Kyle tries to use Saint Walker to channel his power. But something goes wrong and the White Lantern ring vaporizes and each color goes off to find someone to bear those color spectrums. All but one-the green one. Kyle is now the possessor of a green ring and returns to his classic Green Lantern uniform.
HARLEY QUINN #15 by Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Khari Evans, John Timms, and Joseph Michael Linsner. We begin in Gotham City in 2167 where Devani is training for a fight that will “change the world.” She apparently has an issue with Harley as she blasts it with a ray gun in his finger. Back in the present, Atlee and Harley are getting beat up by Zorcrom. Harley gets Atlee to go find help while she convinces Zorcrom to put on some pants and follow her to Central Park so they can talk about how to slave the human race. He gets to try a hot dog and decides that he needs to needs to spare those responsible for them. That’s when a rabid squirrel bites him and that makes him bleed. Meanwhile, Atlee has convinced Power Girl, the Earth 2 one, to help and Power Girl gets hit in the face by the squirrel. They track the trajectory to Central Park where Zorcrom is wreaking havoc. If that wasn’t enough, Harley Sinn, a hired assassin, sees Harley Quinn on television, and that makes her want to change her plans.
HARLEY QUINN #16 by Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner , John Timms, and Joseph Michael Linsner. Zorcrom sends Harley for a ride and it’s up to Power Girl Karen to save her. Meanwhile, Zorcrom tells Atlee that he wants Power Girl as his queen, so it gets arranged for the pair to go on a date and, since his solar batteries are down, Power girl beats him up. Things get worse when Zorcrom contracts rabies from the squirrel that bit him last issue, gets pushed in front of a bus and a rat takes off with his eye. Meanwhile, we learn the vampires are really just cannibals. And over in Gotham City 2167, Devani Kage wins her fight and that gets her a chance t go back in time to meet her hero Batman.Instaead, she’s going to use that trip back to kill Harley Quinn-the person who killed Batman.
HARLEYS LITTLE BLACK BOOK #6 by Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti and Simon Bisley. We find Harley that, because she used one of the spheres she got from her adventure with Superman, she is on a prison spaceship.Meanwhile, Lobo finds that the ship Harley is on is within his ship’s range and there is a bounty on one of the prisoners. Lobo blows up the prison ship and that means Harley and Lobo get to ride off together. They end up on an island and it quickly becomes an episode of NAKED AND AFRAID, complete with Harley being attracted to The Main Man. They run into a great beast with lots of eyes and Lobo rips it to pieces, making him even more attractive to Harley. A little later, a giant water snake interrupts their love making session by eating Lobo until a naked Harley can get the creature to vomit him out. Soon, Catina Rev, the owner of that prison ship, runs into our happy couple and we find out that she and Lobo have some history together. Harley accidentally blows Rev’s face off and that leads to some pirates showing up and capturing the couple. Luckily Harley knows how to escape and frees herself and Lobo and they make their way back to Coney Island and Lobo figures it’s a cool place to hang for a while.
THE HELLBLAZER #8 by Simon Oliver and Philip Tan. We find Constantine in a holding cell and being interrogated by French police. Meanwhile, has slipped into a portal and Adnan convinces her to betray Constantine, before stepping back into our world and paying John’s bail. They go to a dealer of antiquities named Mademoiselle Misabel Lefebvre and John creates some magic that results in shoes with wings that end up running amok through Paris.
JUSTICE LEAGUE #16 by Bryan Hitch and Fernando Pasarin. The Infinity Corps tell Batman what is going on and how Superman is the key. We bounce through time where Aquaman and the Green Lanterns convince the people in their timelines of their power. Molly sends a message to all the various heroes in their spaces in time making them aware of the upcoming battle. When Superman can’t get an answer to where his wife and son are, or to just about any other question, he finds out where the Timeless' hub is and goes there.
JUSTICE LEAGUE #17 by Bryan Hitch and Fernando Pasarin. Superman demands that the head of the Timeless, Tempus, tells him where Lois and Jon are. Tempus explains that things have changed and that he wants to save the Universe. Throughout the time stream, Wonder Woman makes a deal with Zeus to free his brothers and sisters, while Barry Allen is dealing the The Timeless trying to steal the power of the Speed Force. In Ancient Atlantis, The Timeless is trying to steal the Earth Stones while, in the 26th Century, they are trying to steal the Green Light. While The Timeless continues to steal power, Tempus explains to Superman how he is going to transport Earth's solar system to the edge of the Universe to keep Earth’s heroes from screwing up the Universe. Alexis shows Superman a Supersuit that she claims belonged to her dad and offers it to Batman.
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