DC UNIVERSE Month 1, Part 2

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #20 by Steve Orlando and Hugo Petrus. While Vixen battles Prometheus, Ray saves Frost, Canary and himself by shrinking themselves inside Lobo when the bomb goes off. Upon exiting the slowly healing Main Man, the trio joins the fight, eventually defeating Prometheus and Afterthought, complete with Lobo breaking one of Prometheus’ hands. Later, Frost admits to being a killer and how she took it upon herself to feed during a recent mission. Ray heads back to Vanity and reunites with his boyfriend…while a mysterious, but familiar figure watches.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #21 by Steve Orlando and Steven Byrne. While ray wraps up with a villain, Xenos calls him and lets him know he’s leaving. No sooner does hat happen, when Ray is attacked by Aztek.  Aztek chides Ray for deserting Vanity and then tells him of the Sons of the Earth, which leads to them teaming up to defeat them. In the end, Ray tells Aztek that he’s going to stay and help Vanity while, back home, Frost wakes up to reveal to the rest of the team that she is now cured!

NEW SUPER-MAN #18 by Gene Luen Yang and Brent Peeples. While the two Justice Leagues team up to fight the ancient Chinese demons, Kenan visits with Master I-Ching, who tells him his origin. It seems that All-Yang and I-Ching were brothers and I-Ching was the more chaotic of the two, resulting in him eventually losing his sight but instilling the powers of both Yin and Yang upon him. He then transfers those powers to Kenan who faces off with All-Yang, absorbing him in the process. In the end, Zhongdan and Kenan leave Dr. Omen, who finds that the Ministry of Self-Reliance has created their own Corps, leaving Kenan to run with the, now independent, Justice League of China.

NIGHTWING #34 by Tim Seeley and Javier Fernandez. Nightwing teams up with Desmond to battle Raptor and Pigeon on the roof of the Marcus Casino.  Meanwhile, it seems that Orca has developed a permanent cure for the Blockbuster serum, which means the Run-Offs are going to try and save as many people as possible from Raptor’s planned attack. DeFacer heads to the roof and joins in the battle, spraying Desmond with the serum. Despite that, Desmond transforms into Blockbuster and kills Raptor. As he dies, he tells Nightwing that his real name is Richard and he wishes he could have been around for Dick as a young boy. In the end, DeFacer tells Dick that she can always count on him, but they afe through as a couple.

NIGHTWING #35 by Sam Humphries and Bernard Chang. Now that Dick has decided to make Bludhaven his new home, he opens up a cross-training studio. He also meets with Svoboda following a strange murder at the casino and that leads to him meeting with the strange man creature known as Guppy, who explains that a mysterious man who Dick knows as The Judge, is responsible for using some type of mind control. Dick meets with Svoboda and asks if the casino murderer had a gold casino chip on her, which she says she did. Then, without warning, Svoboda shoots Nightwing.

RAGMAN #3 by Ray Fawkes and Inaki Miranda. After defeating the latest demon, Rory meets with Batwoman who explains that she’ll be watching him. Later, he gets attacked by a fellow Marine named Jim Fanshawe who is now possessed by a demon. Etrigan shows up and helps to defeat the other demon, but not until after Rory loses his eyes, meaning now he has only supernatural sight to guide him. He then explains that he is going to need help to defeat the continuing army of demons.

RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #17 by Scott Lobdell and Dexter Soy. The team, along with the Suicide Squad, find themselves in the N.O.W.H.E.R.E. facility, where they separate so they can get their job done and get out of Dodge. Artemis and Harley find a bunch of dead test subjects while Red Hood and Killer Croc find a weapons cache. Bizarro tells Deadshot and Captain Boomerang is forced to leave them, because the power source is designed to hurt Kryptonian clones. In the end, they destroy the power source, Waller and her team, along ith the weapons, go back to Belle Reve and the Outlaws go back to Gotham to continue their plans to end crime their way.

SUICIDE SQUAD #31 by Rob Williams, Barnaby Bagenda and Wilfredo Torres. Rick Flag, now aged because the Red Wave has left him, ends up in the Phantom Zone, where he meets his grandson. On the old Task Force X satellite, Karin gets a phone call from a very much alive King Faraday, who tells her that she must resist the Red Wave monster. She decides to fly the ship she is on into the sun to kill them both. Flag Jr. exits the Phantom Zone and saves Harley, joining up with the rest of the team and head off to save Karin. In the back-up, Faraday, possessed by the creature, wipes out the original Task Force X and Argent and goes off to live his life.

SUICIDE SQUAD #32 by Rob Williams, Scot Eaton and Wilfredo Torres. As the team flies off to save Karin, Rick send them out to physically rescue her, despite the risk, with the threat of setting off their brain bombs.  Croc takes the worst of it, and Rick is prepared to let him die, until Katana thrusts her sword into the Red Wave monster, killing it. In the end, Karin and Faraday end up locked away at Belle Reve, because they still have a piece of the monster inside them. But Karin manages to escape in the back-up story.

SUPERGIRL #16 by Steve Orlando, Jody Houser and Robson Rocha. Strange Visitor is trashing National City and calls out Supergirl, who shows up to stop her. While Supergirl tries to convince Sharon that she died saving people, the DEO shows up and tries to capture her. But Insight helps her escape. Meanwhile, Mr. Bones unleashes Deceilia on a cruise ship, lading to Supergirl to show up and try to rescue the passengers.

SUPERMAN #36 by Patrick Gleason, Peter J. Tomasi and Doug Mahnke. The two armies on Apokolips fight each other while Ardora and the Prophet debate if Superman is their true savior. Lois takes out the Furies by herself while Kalibak almost kills Luthor, but falls into one of the fire pits instead. Superman promises to be their savior if they send him, Lois, Jon and Lex back home, which they do. In the end, an angry Lex rips the S off of his suit.

SUPERMAN #37 by Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason and Jorge Jimenez. Part one of SUPER SONS OF TOMORROW. The Batman of the Future, Tim Drake, breaks into Wayne Mansion and attacks Bruce Wayne. After beating up Bruce, and shooting him, he heads to the Fortress of Solitude, where he dukes it out with the Man of Steel before encasing him in a trap lined with Red Kryptonite. In the end, he tells Superman that his mission is to kill Superboy.

SUPER SONS #11 by Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason and Ryan Benjamin. Part two of SUPER SONS OF TOMORROW. Future Tim has headed to Metropolis to kill Superboy before Hypertime can take him back home. But we learn that Superboy has snuck out to help the Teen Titans fight The Hangmen. Future Tim shows up, convincing Beast Boy and Raven that he must complete his mission. He cover Jon in a back goo which activates his powers and causes him to explode. The blast knocks out his teammates and trashes a good proton of Titans Tower.  Ut that blast has alerted Conner Kent, Cassie Sandsmark and Bart Allen-the future Superman, Wonder Woman and Flash-to Future’s Tim’s presence.

SUPERWOMAN #17 by K. Perkins and Federico Dallocchio. Midnight, in an effort to save Metropolis, offers Lana a way to way-submit to Midnight’s disk drive. Lana refuses and gets saved by Maxima. Later, while she is recuperating at Steelworks, she dreams of a conversation with Superman, where she decides it is worth it to exchange one life for those of the many. She heads into the Void, where she uses her powers to overload Midnight and absorbs her in the process.

TEEN TITANS #15 by Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, Ed Benes and Jorge Jimenez. Part three of SUPER SONS OF TOMORROW. Damian rescues Jon and they escape while the rest of the team debates what to do. Future Tim tells them he must kill Superboy but, he doesn’t get the immediate chance, as Hypertime severs part of his arm…which ends up in the hand of the Titans of Tomorrow. In the end, Aqualad uses his powers to tell his teammates-Starfire and Kid Flash-that he knows where to finds Robin and Superboy.

TITANS #18 by Dan Abnett and Brett Booth. While Donna faces off against Troia, we see that Kid Flash has brought Wally West back to life, allowing him to join the fight too. Roy professes his love to Troia, in hopes it will get her to change her tone, but that only distracts her. Luckily, it distracts her long enough to allow Donna to give a knockout punch, sending Troia back through the Gate. Garth takes down Psimon, while the rest of the Titans handle Mister Twister and the Key.

TRINITY #16 by Rob Williams and V Ken Marion. Deadshot appeals to Batman’s gentler side by asking for help to get his kidnapped daughter back. Superman and Wonder Woman eventually join in after a snake creature arrives at a New Year’s Eve. Party. Deadshot kills the creature and Batman promises that they will find his daughter, although Floyd doesn’t quite have the confidence they will.

WONDER WOMAN #36 by James Robinson and Carlo Pagulayan. While it is revealed to Trevor and Waller that Giganta was collecting artifacts for some mysterious man, Diana is held captive by Jason and Grail. She manages to break free but gets struck down by a teenage version of Darkseid. They battle and then Diana’s lawyer shows up and reveals himself to really be…Zeus!

WONDER WOMAN #37 by James Robinson, Carlo Pagulayan, and Stephen Segovia. Zeus battles Darkseid and Jason, realizing he was wrong, helps Diana with her battle against Grail. A Boom Tube opens and Zeus and Darkseid take their battle to the Phillipines. Wonder Woman attempts to follow, as do Grail and Jason. Darkseid absorbs Zeus' power, which changes him to the classic Darkseid, but also kills Zeus in the process. He and Grail escape just as the Justice League arrives, leaving Diana and Jason to mourn their father.

DC UNIVERSE Month 1, Part 1

ACTION COMICS #993 by Dan Jurgens. As Booster Gold tries to decipher what coordinates Superman used to time travel, The Flash arrives and the pair duke it out. Skeets activates the Watchtower’s defensive program and knocks Flash out, allowing Booster to catch the Man of Steel. They get bounced out of the Tie Stream by a Chronal Storm and realize they have landed on Krypton, where Zod and Jor-El are working together, meaning they have messed up the timeline. Meanwhile, Jon discovers tat his grandfather has been captured in Logamba and is going to be executed.

ACTION COMICS #994 by Dan Jurgens. Booster Gold and Superman are stuck on an alternate timeline Krypton, where Jor-el and Zod have teamed up and send out an army of

Eradicators to take our heroes down. Despite Superman wanting to stay and find out what has gone on, Booster gets him back in the time ship and they leave, even as Superman gets to see the life that would have been. Unfortunately, they end up in the 25^th Century and an Eradicator has followed then there. Meanwhile, ois is gathering intel about her father in Logamba, which means she is going off on her own to try and rescue him.

AQUAMAN #31 by Dan Abnett and Riccardo Federici. Even though Corum Rath has sent death squads to the Atlantean Ghetto to take out the taint-bloods, Aquaman is there to stop them. While he and Vulko talk, we discover that Ondine is actually a double agent for the Widowhood. Arthur has a confrontation with King Shark, who allows Aquaman to pass but neglects to tell him he has captured Mera, who, for some reason, is dying because she can no longer breathe underwater.

BANE CONQUEST #8 by Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan. Despite his best efforts, Bane and company cannot get their hands on the Naja-Naja and Valentina gets away with the child. Meanwhile, Kobra is slowly taking down all of the criminal groups around the world that Bane controls. In an effort to fight back, Bane begins to build an army and goes in search of the assassin formerly known as the KGBeast. Meanwhile, Batman is getting ready to get involved.

BATGIRL #18 by Hope Larson and Sami Basri. Barbara and Frankie go to White Elephant party, which is sharing space with a party by anti-LGBTQ entrepaneur Bradley Burr. Harley Quinn shows up and drops a mystery and a killer virus on the guests, leading Batgirl, Frankie and Alysia to go on a hunt for clues to save everyone. They figure everything out and Harley gives up the antidote before fleeing. Burr’s employees all quit and it’s a Merry Christmas!

BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY #17 by Julie Benson, Shawna Benson and Roge Antonio. The 100-year-old Patient Zero has been watching men make a mess of the world since she was a young child and has decided to take her revenge by killing all the men in Gotham City. Ivy and Leslie Thompkins have come up with a cure. Canary and Huntress have infiltrated the Daughters of Gotham, but Patient Zero and Muir escape to enact Phase Two: killing off all the men they have at Seaside Coliseum, Gotham Girl, at the risk of her own life, flies the cure over the Coliseum, saving all the men there.

BATMAN #36 by Tom King and Clay Mann. It appears Batman and Superman aren’t really best fiends but, after taking out Doctor Double X, they agree to double date with Lois and Selina.

BATMAN #37 by Tom King and Clay Mann. Bruce, Selina, Clark and Lois go out on a double date to a traveling fair, where they have to put on costumes because it is "Superhero Night". Clark dresses as Batman, Bruce dresses as Superman and Lois dresses as Catwoman. Lois and Selina get drunk and Superman and Batman stop a mugger.

BATMAN BEYOND #15 by Dan Jurgens and Phil Hester. Having survived a potential back breaking, Batman battles the new Royal Flush Gang.  He defeats them rather easily, but can’t find out who hired them. It seems that Stalker has also been hired to capture him.  Stalker blows up Dana’s apartment and that means Batman has to save the day. Unfortunately, Stalker has torn his wings and Terry and Dana are left in a freefall. Meanwhile, someone breaks into Wayne Manor and steals a picture of Terry from out of Matt’s room.

BATWOMAN #10 by Marguerite Bennett and Fernando Blanco. Kate, fully transformed by Scarecrow’s drugs, takes on Scarecrow, defeating him easily. He flees which now leave Batwoman free to chase after Fatima. Suddenly, she sees a vision of Safiyah, who she kisses. But this is all part of her dream/nightmare and, when the toxin wears off, she finds that Fatima is also gone. The colony shows up and captures Scarecrow, while also rescuing Colony Prime. Jacob Kane arrives, and he and Kate get into an argument, leading to her telling Colony Prime that they need to destroy the facility. Eventually, she realizes that Safiyah was actually here and that she helped Fatima escape. She finds a fox, a rose, and a letter, which tells her that she must go home to find her former lover.

BLACK LIGHTNING: COLD DEAD HANDS #2 by Tony Isabella and Clayton Henry. Black Lightning finds himself on the run for some deaths which weren’t his responsibility. So, he spends the issue being his alter ego, teaching at school and meeting with his first trainer: Amerjack. In the end, someone with one of those killer guns blows a hole in the tenement he shares with his family and that means someone is dead in the streets below.

BLUE BEETLE #16 by Christopher Sebela and Scott Kolins. Three atomic bombs start this issue, but they are only time-echoes from the past. While Jaime and Naomi are thrilled that they aren’t dead, Jaime is pissed to find that Paco and Brenda are now a couple. He storms away and ends up battling Stopwatch, who reveals he keeps messing with time-travel to try and keep him from being disfigured in his original experiment. But every attempt has been a failure, so he figures that Jaime is the component that will make this time a success.

CYBORG #19 by Kevin Grevioux and Cliff Richards. Cyborg and Sarah are in the Sudan, investigating a series of meteor strikes. It seems the meteors are filed with gems, and that’s when the Guardians of the United Republic show up to claim them. Cyborg stops them and then a Djinn arrives to grant Cyborg three wishes. But each wish comes with a price. Cyborg wishes to be human and then gets shot in the head. While the bullet doesn’t kill him, the human Victor contracts Malaria. Vic goes after the leader of the Guardians, only to find that the leader has been using kids to make the wishes for him, so he doesn’t get hurt by the after effects. One of the children wishes to be free, and they run into a minefield, where a helpless Vic can only watch it happen.

DARK NIGHTS METAL #4 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. Batman is stuck in the Dark Multiverse, aged and having to battle versions of Superman. Dream arrives and takes him away. While the rest of the heroes struggle to find the other bits of Nth Metal, Dream explains that Batman and Superman need to get to the World Forge to keep Barbatos from winning. They get to the World Forge, only to find that Carter Hall has become a servant of Barbatos. That all makes sense, as Kendra reveals herself as Lady Blackhawk to Wonder Woman and Doctor Fate.

DEATHSTROKE #26 by Christopher Priest and Diogenes Neves. As the team tries to figure out what happened to Slade, he is being held captive by a converted Isherwood. Along the way, he reveals that he was having an affair with Jericho, which leads to a knock-down, drag out between the two. Isherwood leaves a defeated Slade, who is stuck there due to an incapacitating implant. At least he is not alone, as a young Wintergreen is there with him. Meanwhile, the team visits the Society's now destroyed meeting room and figure out Ikon is responsible. While an older Wintergreen and Adeline forbid the team to go search for Slade, Kenan Kong shows up with a summons for Deathstroke.

THE DEMON HELL IS EARTH #2 by Andrew Constant and Brad Walker. Etrigan and Jason Blood are now separated, but Jason is more like a ghost than alive. The entire area in Death Valley is now hope to unspeakable evil, except for the little girl who not only can see Jason but mentions that she is Madame Xanadu. But then she says her name is Nimue and she leads them to a mansion guarded by demon Minotaurs. Etrigan defeats all of the evils thrown at him while Xanadu and Jason have a reunion. Nimue explains that she has visions of hell-fire and demons, which causes Etrigan to burn her to a skeleton.

DETECTIVE COMICS #970 by James Tynion IV and Joe Bennett. Tim reunites with Steph, who sees that he has been doing all sorts of planning to make things better and not end up like the future version of himself. Meanwhile, Clayface and Dr. October continue working on the cure, which leads to him visiting Arkham and Glory, who betrays him to the Victim Syndicate. Kate meets with her father, who reveals that Tim has contacted him for hep. We also see that Steph has leaked information from her phone to Anarky, which will lead to problems for the whole team.

DETECTIVE COMICS #971 by James Tynion IV and Miguel Mendonca. A young reporter is allowed inside Arkham to interview the Victim Syndicate, which means she now becomes a hostage. At the Belfry, Batwoman reveals that she knows Tim contacted the Colony while Batman makes the decision to give the First Victim what she wants. Entering Arkham, Batman takes down the Syndicate, which was the First Victim’s plan all along, as she has managed to keep Basil from having the device that keeps him under control. So now, Clayface, the villainous Clayface, is loose.

DOOMSDAY CLOCK #2  by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. In the Watchman Universe, the nukes are falling and Marionette, Mime, Rorschach and Ozymandias make their escape in Archimedes, travelling to the DC Universe. Protests have broken out because of the idea that Metamorpho and Man Bat have been created  by the government. Ozymandias pays a visit to Lex Luthor and convinces him that they are the smartest man from each of their worlds. That is when a hidden assassin, in the form of The Comedian, shows up and tries to kill Ozymandias.  Meanwhile, Rorschach invades the Bat Cave and is confronted by Batman.

THE FLASH #36 by Joshua Williamson and Howard Porter. Barry and Kristen are investigating the death of former Rogue Turbine. Singh shows up and takes them off the case just as Trickster shows up and claims responsibility for the murder. Later, Barry talks to August/Godspeed, who has his own plans. He meets with the Rouges, now run by Snart, and tells them he has a plan to give him The Flash in exchange for making him part of their team.

THE FLASH #37 by Joshua Willaimson and Scott McDaniel. Despite being orderd off the case, Barry and Kristen meet with Trickster, who has been beaten up by the guards at Iron Heights. August manages to hide a clue where Barry can find it, which leads Flash and Kid Flash to stop a shipment of Cold guns being used by Copperhead’s gang. This leads him back to Iron Heights, where the Rogues have managed to team up and leave him virtually powerless in a fight with Captain Cold.

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GREEN ARROW #35 by Ben Percy and Juan Ferreyra. Ollie teams up with his mother Moira to dive down and dig through the wreckage of the Inferno, where they start collecting treasure. Meanwhile, Kate Spencer is still working on Ollie’s case and heads off to meet the “late” Wendy Poole. Unfortunately, there is a crooked cop who has followed her and now knows that Wendy is alive. We also see that Shado and Emiko were involved in faking that death, but also involved with setting Ollie up. This leads to an explosion that apparently kills Shuffleton. In the end, Henry and Black Canary head off to save Ollie, who has been left in the deep by his mom.

GREEN LANTERNS #36 by Tim Seeley and Ronan Cliquet. On Mogo, the Lanterns try to explain what happened when they tried to bring in Bolphunga and Boff, which resulted in Jessica battling Singularity Jain. She gets swallowed by Jain, which Simon gets Bolphunga and Boff to safety. Troubled by nightmares inside Jain, Simon manages to pull her free while Bolphunga kills his father, thus settling the debt with Jain, who escapes. Meanwhile, things look bad for the Molites on Ungara.

GREEN LANTERNS #37 by Tim Seeley and Carlo Barberi. Simon and Jessica get called to Ungara to deal with the unrest caused by the death of Commander Psyt. The Regent informs them that they need to sneak into the Mol-ite refugee camp to rescue some Ungarans who have become hostages. Once there, they discover that the Ungaran’s have been coming here and destroying Mol-ite eggs, which kills the next generation in the process. Podfather confesses to the murder of Commander Psyt, which he did not do. Simon goes to bed with Liseth Vok, who reveals she knows that Podfather is innocent and that Kesh Cur is the one responsible. After al, she reveals that she is the leader of Red Tide-the group responsible for the death.

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #34 by Robert Vendetti, Tom Derenick and Jack Herbert. Somar-Le reveals that the Controllers, Maltusians just like the Guardians, have captured Ganthet, Sayid, and all the remaining Guardians in the Universe. So, John sends Kyle, Guy and Hal to find them. The Controllers are repurposing the Guardians by draining their life energies to resurrect the Controllers.

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #35 by Robert Vendetti, Tom Derenick and Jack Herbert. The Controllers continue to turn Guardians into Controllers while Hal, Guy, Kyle and John band together to fight their way into the compound before they convert Sayid.

HARLEY QUINN #33 by Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Bret Blevins, Otto Schmidt,  and Moritat. After farewells at Mason’s funeral, Harley learns that Ms. Macabre is giving up her business. While a hurricane looms, Harley ends up jumping into a skating match, where she wins the purse and gives it to a homeless person to get new teeth. In the end, Tony and Queenie head to Florida to deliver Mason’s collectibles to some of his friends and Harley and the Beaver hitch a ride. Along the way, they pick up Ivy and it’s off to the South for fun and adventure.

HAWKMAN FOUND #1 by Jeff Lemire and Bryan Hitch. A DARK NIGHTS METAL tie-in. Carter Hall has a continuing dream about being a warrior and marks his days fighting giant hawk creatures. He learns to fly but, each time, his wings come apart and he crashes back to the ground below. One day, after fighting the creatures, he climbs to the top of a cliff and enters a huge spacecraft where he finds his former weapons and makes his way to the Forge of Worlds. He fights a hawk warrior much like himself and it appears he is actually caught in the dream, much like Batman and Superman are, in the Dark Multiverse.

THE HELLBLAZER #17 by Richard Kadrey and Davide Fabbri. John has been captured by the Bardo witches and he tries to explain that he didn’t kill Pirate Jenny. After a trial where they test if he is telling the truth, he takes one of them on a search to find the bad guys and the mysterious ray gun he saw. While they are trying to conduct a spell, the police arrive and Constantine’s companion gets shot. So does John, but he gets shot with the ray gun and ends up in the Bardo Realm.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #34 by Christopher Priest and Pete Woods. While Simon is dealing with a potential alien invasion in space, Superman and Jess are dealing with an earthquake in El Domingo and Batman. Aquaman and Wonder Woman are dealing with a terrorist situation. The invasion gets taken care of, many are saved during the earthquake and the terrorists are taken down, but not before it costs the live of one of the captives. This won’t b good for their public image.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #35 by Christopher Priest and Pete Woods. Wonder Woman is dealing with some of the public outcry from the terrorist incident while an intergalactic bounty hunter ends up teamed up with Cyborg our in space in search of a space cockroach. Apparently one of the creatures ends up on Earth and now the entire planet is in jeopardy, as it breeds and grows, consuming anyone and everyone it can. The team pulls together to stop the creature, but now the footage of the nun’s murder has gone viral and things look really bad for the public face of the League.