DC REBIRTH Month 17, Part 2

HARLEY QUINN #29 by Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Mirka Andolfo, Michael Kaluta and Tom Derenick. As Harley continues her campaign for Mayor, the current Mayor enlists the help of Scarecrow to take her out of the game. During a three-way televised debate, Harley gets hit with Fear Gas and begins to hallucinate. As a call for an ambulance is made, Ivy steps up and kisses Harley with her special lipstick, bringing the candidate back to normal.

HARLEY QUINN #30 by Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner and John Timms. Harley has Ivy use her powers to expand Central Park by a few blocks, looking to gain sound ground in the election. The Scarecrow uses his fear gas on the Mayor in an effort to get paid, resulting in a nightmare where he is humiliated by Harley Quinn. Harley meets with Mason and they renew their love interest but, in the end, she is forced to drop out of the race because Mason has been kidnapped.

THE HELLBLAZER #15 by Tim Seeley and Jesús Merino. John dives into a dead body to confront the Nordic dwarf brothers, where he convinces them to let him drink a bottle of mead that lets him remake the world in his image. He finds himself a successful rock star before Superman and the League show up to talk with him. He beats up Superman and finds that, in this reality, Margaret is a drunk. He convinces her to drink the mead, which restores everything to where it was and saves her life in the process. In the end, the two end up together, but he leaves her because it’s the right thing to do.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #30 Written by: Bryan Hitch and Fernando Pasarin. Simon and Diana have been possessed by The Darkness. Meanwhile, Sovereign has arrived and has Aquaman tell Mera how he used parts of Cyborg’s body to recreate himself. Then he takes Sovereign to see not until Sovereign reveals herself as Hippolyta. In the end, she tries to convince Diana to let the Darkness envelop the world and that may just happen.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #31 by Bryan Hitch and Fernando Pasari. As the team and their kids battle the Darkness, the Darkness tries to convince the League why they should kill their kids. Batman arrives just as Mera runs a trident through Future Aquaman and resurrects Simon. Hunter is ready to kill Wonder Woman until he learns that Diana had sacrificed herself in the future to save him. They all figure out that it takes love to defeat the Darkness and channel that feeling to do so. The twins, along with Future Aquaman take the Darkness away by Boom Tube and everyone else go back to their own timeline.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #16 by Steve Orlando and Felipe Wantanabe. Dr. Aut, through his journal, reveals how he got Ray to come to the Microverse and how they made their way to the Ignition point. Once there, he reveals how he knows nothing can save the Multiverse and he plans on letting it die, with or without Ray’s help. He puts Ray in prison and reveals his new persona of The Null. Ray manages to get a message out to Ryan, gets free and uses his Bios Belt to transport Aut away. In the end, and back in the present, Aut reveals himself as The Null and proclaims the end of the world is coming.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #17 by Steve Orlando and Ivan Reis. Aut shrinks the League to smaller than microscopic size while Ray and Ryan fight Aut to save them. Ray manages to restore the League and then shrinks himself and Aut in size, where he tries to shows him that the damage to the Microverse isn’t as bad as Aut believes. That doesn’t work and Ryan leaves Aut shrunk, while enlarging and destroying the machine, thus saving the Microverse. Ray reunites with Preon, but stays behind while telling Ryan that he is truly the Atom now. In the end, we visit the Ghost Zone where Afterthought and an old villain from MIDNIGHTER plot.

NEW SUPER-MAN #16 by Gene Luen Yang and Brent Peeples. Kenan finds himself in Chinatown in 1937 where Slam Bradley shows up to battles “the yellow peril”. His Fu Manchu looking guide explains that really they are just Chinese citizens and their evil look is just an illusion. Kenan takes down Bradley and his guide reveals himself to I-Ching, who turns into All-Yang. Later, they visit a German gentleman and he is incinerated by All-Yang, who explains he was an officer who stole the image of the Red Jade Dragon from the Chinese back in 1900. He sends Kenan back to the real world with instructions to retrieve the Red Dragon and then not only free Master I-Ching but unleash his final super power. He wakes to find himself in a fluid tube where his mom has been letting him heal for the past two weeks. He enlists the rest of the Justice League of China to help him, but they run into the REAL Justice League on the way.

NIGHTWING #30 by Tim Seeley and Miguel Mendonca. Nightwing saves a local Senator from the Kobra cult when Raptor arrives and tries to take the Senator out. Nightwing to the rescue, but Raptor escapes after causes some havoc. The Senators response after it is all settled is to announce he is going to be harder on crime by shutting down the city’s Rec. Centers and shelters. Nightwing means with Detective Svoboda, who tells him she can’t help him anymore because it could cost her her job. In the end, Nightwing meets the Run-Offs, who refuse to help him, so he sells his soul to Blockbuster by promising to leave Bludhaven forever in return for tracking down Raptor.

NIGHTWING #31 by Tim Seeley and Miguel Mendonca. Raptor attacks Desmond, leading to the latter changing to Blockbuster in front of a huge crowd. Meanwhile, Nightwing and Huntress go after the Whale Enders Gang, who are looking to steal horseshoe crabs from a medical supply company. The leader injects herself with the serum from the crabs, turning into a monster and then passing out. Elsewhere, Defacer finds out that Pigeon is working with Raptor. In the end, Dick is back at the casino when an out of costume Raptor steps up to the table.

RAGMAN #1 by Ray Fawkes and Inaki Miranda.  Rory “Twig” Regan and a small group of soldiers enter a tomb in the Israeli Desert looking for treasures and find a mysterious stone container. They get attacked by strange red eye soldiers and killed, except Rory who gets enveloped by rags which have come from the container. Switching to the present day, Rory, who works at a junk shop with his dad, is undergoing PTSD therapy in Gothsam. Back at the store, Rory finds some of the rags he brought back from Israel and he consumed by them. Amidst flashbacks of the slaughter in the desert, Rory finds himself battling another raglike creature. Later, he returns to the shop, to find it in flames.

RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #15 by Scott Lobdell and Dexter Soy. Batman’s team is concerned there has been no crime in Gotham and learn that the Outlaws have handled that. Later, Bizarro, who may be losing his intelligence, allows himself to be captured by Batman’s team. The Outlaws come to his rescue, but still get taken out by Batman’s group. In the end, Batwoman says it is time to call HER.

SUICIDE SQUAD #27 by Rob Williams and Barnaby Bagenda. A killer spider robot shows up at Belle Reve and is taken out by Deadshot. Upon examination, the word ARGENT is found on the robot. After finding out where it came from, the team is launched into space to dock at an old space station. Once there, they face a monster and a robot, under orders by President Truman to protect the craft. The monster is part of the security in place by those living here: Captain Rick Flag and Doctor Karin Grace-the ORIGINAL Suicide Squad. Later, they find a photograph book with a picture of the original leader of Task Force X, King Faraday.

SUICIDE SQUAD #28 by Rob Williams and Elonora Carlini. While part of the team finds themselves being attacked by killer robots, Harley Quinn, Katana, Croc and Boomerang find out the Red Wave monster, a threat faced by the original Suicide Squad in their first adventure, infected them Flag and Karin, but they took the creature’s heart and they ended up being immortal. Flag explodes the brain bombs at 50%, knocking them out and taking them on a flight to the moon to take on the Red Wave. In the backup, set in post war days, Faraday meets the original Suicide Squad and sees a captured Starro the Conqueror.

SUPERGIRL #14 by Steve Orlando and Jose Luis. In events that occur after NEW SUPER-MAN #11, Supergirl meets with Kenan Kong and I-Ching in an effort to get control of her powers. Rocket Red #77 gets shot down over Mongolia, leading to him looking to defend himself. Supergirl and Kenan arrive to calm things down and that leads to a battle. She eventually uses freeze powers to destroy his armor and convince him that he should be helpful. In the end, they all help to fix the damages that were caused. Back in National City, Cat informs Ben and Linda Danvers that it is time for a counterstrike against Supergirl.

SUPERMAN #32 by James Bonny and Tyler Kirkham. With Lois saved, Deathstroke beats a hasty retreat, leading Superman to stay with Lois. She goes to cover a fire at a propane factory and that’s just designed by Deathstroke to bring her and Superman out. Slade is ready to kill Lois when the factory explodes, leaving Superman to save Lois and Slade to get away. He leaves a note saying "Game Over Boyscout", as we learn all of this was set up by Amanda Waller.

SUPERMAN #33 by Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason and Doug Mahnke. While the people of Apokolips are in disarray with no Darkseid to lead them, Superman and Lex take out some crooks together. Later, some denizens of Apokolips try to take Lex back to their planet and he sends out a distress call to Superman just before it happens. But Superman ignores them, as Lex is known for sending out distress calls on the Apokolips frequency before. Lex Bots finally track down Superman and he and Jon make a Mother Box which transports the whole family to different places on Apokolips.

SUPER SONS #9 by Peter J. Tomasi and Jorge Jimenez. Damian and Jon find themselves fighting Ygarddis' army, who plans on defeating them, following them back to Earth and taking over our planet. Kraklow arrives and reveals that Hard Line and Big Shot aren't even real-just clay memories that think they are real. Krakalow. He turns out to be good after all, and defeats Ygarddis, sending the boys back home. In the end, the girls use the clay to create their own mini version of a superhero team to continue the fight against Ygarddis.

SUPERWOMAN #15 by K. Perkins and Sam Basri. As Lana struggles woith her identity, she gets a visit from Lois. Later, Maxima reveals all sorts of Black Holes appearing throughout Metropolis, which seems to be the result of a villain know as Midnight, who absorbs energy and powers from people she consumes. Lois visits Steel and they are attacked by Midnight, leading to Jon being absorbed by Midnight. In the end, Lois arrives back with her friends to inform them that Steel was taken.

TEEN TITANS #13 by Benjamin Percy and Khoi Pham. Kid Flash returns to the team and that leads Damian to declare Starfire the new team leader. But he will only rejoin them if Damian apologizes to him. Meanwhile, Damian tries to get Emiko to join the team and, after she turns him down, they end up trying to stop a huge tidal wave she may have unknowingly caused

TITANS #16 by Dan Abnett and Brett Booth. While most of the team fights Psimon, Mister Twister, The Key and the possessed Gnarrk and Herald, Kid Flash feels th loss of the other Wally West. The teams battle when the mysterious person behind all of this arrives-the Donna Troy known as Troia.

TRINITY #14 by Rob Williams and V Ken Marion. Batman and Wonder Woman are battling against the possessed Superman and Bizarro. Batman leaves with the possessed Jason Todd in tow, so he can perform some tests on him. Meanwhile, Constantine is bleeding out, but Zatanna comes out of her trance to save his life. Circe sends Zatanna into the Pandora Pit, which results in a Demon Zatanna. She arrives at the Wonder Woman battle and drags Wonder Woman, Superman and Deadman back into the Pandora Pits. As Batman fights Bizarro at the Batcave, Circe pushes R’as in to Pits, claiming she can now be whole again.

WONDER WOMAN #32 by James Robinson and Sergio Davila. Wonder Woman, Steve and company have gone to Paria to track down some Parademons. They find them because they give off the same Apokolips energy signatures that was found on Hercules everyone else that Grail has killed. Later, she meets with Hercules' lawyer, who shows her his house and gives him a letter Hercules wrote. It seems she has a twin brother and that leads to her and Blake heading to Greece to find Jason.

WONDER WOMAN #33 by James Robinson and Emanuela Lupacchino. We follow Grail as she moves about the world, killing off the old gods so Darkseid can continue to grow up.

She even destroys the Atomic Knights that A.R.G.U.S. sent to stop her. In the end, she and Darkseid wait to make a move on Jason.