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.