DC UNIVERSE Month 2, Part 2

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #22 by Steve Orlando and Neil Edwards. Frost has been cured because she made a wish and Tsaritsa, the Queen of Fables, answers it. Frost passes out, and that frees Tsarita, allowing her to run wild. Frost is at a cross-roads, knowing if she helps the JLA defeat Tsarita, she will end up with her powers again. They all fight, during which Sanctuary is destroyed and it appears Mari is killed. Meanwhile, in Vanity, Ray continues his fight with the Three Devils.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #23 by Steve Orlando and Neil Edwards. Tsaritsa was once the Queen of Fables, until she was turned into a story by use of a spell. This caused her sister Freya to starve herself and that meant Tsarita wants revenge. She sees Frost as the incarnation of her sister and tries to convince her to rule the world together. While Tsaritsa plans to create Immateria, Ray heads to help while Mari regenerates herself thanks to the Red. They all battle Tsarita’s followers, who is then confronted by someone who tells her she must pass through fire first. That person is Promethea.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA/DOOM PATROL SPECIAL #1 by Steve Orlando, Gerard Way, Hugo Petrus and Aco. Part One of MILK WARS. Retconn fires off a missile that turns everyone in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island, including the JLA, into 1950’s characters. This is maintained by a character known as Milkman, who is really a transformed Superman, who provides the residents with mind controlling milk. The Doom Patrol arrives and get into a fight with the JLA, now known as the Community League of Rhode Island, we have some good and weird high-flying action. Retconn explains that superheroes descend from the god of superheroics, Ahl and Superman is a direct descendant. Crazy Jane whips up some art and shows everyone that they are all subjects of comic books. This changes all of the JLA back, except for Siperman, who is revealed to be the child of Casey Brinke and Terry None. Cave Carson arrives and tells the heroes they need to meet with him and Swamp Thing, which will continue the story in CAVE CARSON/SWAMP THING SPECIAL #1. The back-up features the origin of Formless Girl, which feels a lot like the origin of Elastic Girl Rita Farr.

NEW SUPER-MAN #19 by Mariko Tamaki and Brent Peeples. Taking place around issue #7 of this series, it focuses on Laney Lan as she tries to get information from Kenan and Baixi regarding what is going on at the Ministry of Defense, while also dealing with her confusing family life.

NIGHTWING #36 by Sam Humphries and Bernard Chang. Nightwing continues his desperate search for The Judge, who continues to affect the lives of those in Bludhaven with his powers. Meanwhile, The Judge pays a visit to the Mayor, who commits suicide, leaving behind a whole series of revelations regarding corruption and the casinos.

NIGHTWING #37 by Sam Humphries, Klaus Janson, and Jamal Campbell. While Lucy Weatherton deals with the dramas about the casinos in Bludhaven being shut down, we get a flashback to the first days of The Judge. Dick was still Robin and Lucy was a vigilante known as Baby Ruthless. In the present, Guppy is still dealing with his father’s illness and, thanks to The Judge’s casino coin, he may soon eliminate dad…permanently!

RAGMAN #4 by Ray Fawkes and Inaki Miranda. While Etrigan trains Rory to use his powers, Fanshawe and his minions are targeting Frank’s house, where his wife and child are. That leads Ragman to the house where he battles, and slays, some of Fanshawe’s minions. He finds Frank’s wife and asks about his son. It seems that Frank Jr. has been possessed.

RAVEN DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS #1 by Marv Wolfman and Pop Mhan. Raven is hanging with her friends at a bonfire and she reveals some parts of her past: how she was part of a cult with no TV or Internet. Meanwhile, Baron Winters predict that Raven must die, because that’s how it is written. She dreams of a meeting with Trigon and then ends up trying to help a girl known as Azure, who is being hunted. She saves the girl and, after believing the girl is really Trigon, discovers the girl is really someone with a huge head and big eyes. What is the connection between this character, Azar and Trigon?

RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #18 by Scott Lobdell and Sergio Sandoval. Red Hood is taking on the H.I.V.E. Queen and gets some help from Artiemis and Bizarro, even if they are above the whole incident. Bizarro is losing his intelligence and needs more Kryptonite to maintain it, something he is being told by his imaginary Superman creature named Pup-Pup. Jason goes to visit Ma Gunn, who is mysteriously off on family business. It appears that she has been shrunk down by Bizarro and he is now keeping her in a house inside a bottle. In the end, The Creeper shows up and he is looking to settle a score with Artemis.

THE SILENCER #1 by Dan Abnett and John Romita Jr. Honor Guest is a retired assassin trying to live her normal life as a wife and mother. But she gets attacked by someone and that leads to her forming a bubble that silences everyting happening in it, allowing her to dispatch the killer in silence. She goes home and gets a visit from Talia Al Ghul, who tells her that there are peple coming to kill them. Before they get a chance to figure things out, the killers ambush Honor and Talia. This leads to Talis giving Honor a device to allow her to suit up in her old gear and fight back.

SUICIDE SQUAD #33 by Si Spurrier and Fernando Pasarin. New recruits, including Juan Soria, head off on a mission to an amusement park called Dozey Land. During the mission, the new recruits are all slaughtered by alien monsters, except for Jose, who loses a hand during the battle and may next lose his life.

SUICIDE SQUAD #34 by Si Spurrier and Fernando Pasarin. Most of the new recruits on this mission have been killed. Juan is about to be killed by an alien, but Croc saves him, basically because he wants to eat him later. After a time, he volunteers to go meet with the queen alien and is prepared to sacrifice himself, but manages to kill the creature because of his negative attitude. In the end, it is revealed that Waller set them all up to be able to use him to defeat this creature. He gets a reduced sentence, new cybernetic hands to replace the ones Katana cut off, and a new cell mate-Killer Croc.

SUPERGIRL #17 by Steve Orlando, Jody Houser, Robson Rocha, and Julio Ferreira. Deceilia Starshame was banished from her planet as a young child and has a bone to pick with Supergirl and the whole human race. While they decide if the people of Earth are worth the fight, Starshame slices the cruise ship they are fighting on in half, leading Supergirl to give up the fight to save the passengers. Kara breaks Starshame out of her mind-controlled state just as the DEO arrive, meaning Supergirl must melt their weapons to save herself. Elsewhere, Veritas is talking to Cameron Chase, who promises that Bones’ days are numbered. That night, there is a school dance and a big, bad villain arrives, threatening to kill everyone is Supergirl does not reveal herself.

SUPERMAN #38 by Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason and Sergio Davila. Part Four of Super Sons of Tomorrow. Aqualad, Starfire and Kid Flash go to Robin and Superboy’s Fortress and that leads to a battle between the five of them. Once they settle down, Jon convinces them all to go to the Fortress of Solitude, where he frees his father from the Red K. With the help of Future Tim’s severed hand, the Titans of Tomorrow exit Hypertime and arrive at the Fortress. They all can’t control Future Tim, but he absorbs Superboy’s out of control powers to save them all, sending himself back into Hypertime.

SUPERMAN #39 by Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason and Barry Kitson. After defeating the Demolition Team, Superman takes a group of kids with cancer into space, so they can meet the Justice League and visit the Watchtower. Eventually, they all end up on the moon, where they write their names on rocks and leave them there as a lasting memory that they were there.

SUPER SONS #12 by Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason and Tyler Kirkham. Finale of Super Sons of Tomorrow. With Future Tim racing through Hypertime, and the crisis averted, the Titans of Tomorrow head back to their future. Superman has a chat with Damian and Jon about the future of the Super Sons and they convince him to let them continue. At a Teen Titans meeting, Damian suggests they vote in Jon as a member, and that gets turned down, because of his erratic powers. In the end, Jon thanks Damian for being his friend.

SUPERWOMAN #18 by K. Perkins and Max Raynor. Lana saves Metropolis by allowing Midnight to occupy her brain and feel the emotions Lana feels. After several moments with her friends, Midnight decides that she needs to be free and Lana allows that, even though it costs her the role and powers of Superwoman.

TEEN TITANS #16 by Marv Wolfman and Tom Derenick. After the team defeats Mammoth, Kori takes offense to being left out of a conversation because she is old and storms off. She ends up in a battle with the Psions who have mentally corrupted many people including Raven and Gar. She uses her powers to defeat the Psions and free everyone. In the end, she learns that all Gar was doing earlier was asking Raven for advice regarding his dating profile.

TITANS #19 by Dan Abnett and Paul Pelletier. Roy is off in New York searching for the manufacturers of the drug Bliss, which leads him to involvement by Intergang. The Justice League shows up at Titans Tower and criticizes the Titans for the way they handled the Troia incident, which leads to major infighting between the two teams. In the end, Dick decides to shut down the Titans until the Justice League can figure out  a solution to their ills.

TRINITY #17 by James Robinson and Patrick Zircher. Batman and Superman agree to help Diana find Themyscira. In the process, they come across a ship being sucked into a whirlpool and that sucks them in too. When they wake, they are in a land filled with lizard men and the remnants of an old SR-71 fighter. Because of the magic present, Superman loses his powers and Wonder Woman goes blind. They defeat the lizard men nd Diana declares that they are lost in the land known as Skartoris. At this point they are greeted by Travis Morgan, former U.S. Air Force pilot who now goes by the name of… The Warlord.

WONDER WOMAN #38 by James Robinson and Emanuela Lupacchino. Sometime in the past, Wonder Woman saves young Vanessa Kapatelis during a fight with Major Disaster. She suffers injuries that may keep her from ever walking again, but she saw Diana as a role model and even drew illustrations with her as a flying character known as the Silver Swan. She undergoes a procedure using nanites which allow her to walk again.  But she is also upset that Diana no longer spends a lot of time with her and didn’t visit when Vanessa’s mother died. This angers her and she plots to become a villain instead. In the present, while visiting with Jason, Diana goes off to check in on a family she recently saved. When she arrives, she finds the family dead and Silver Swan standing over them.

WONDER WOMAN #39 by James Robinson, Emanuela Lupacchino, and Carmen Carnero. Wonder Woman battles Silver Swan, who wants to kill her for abandoning her.  Jason sees the battle on the news and comes to his sister’s aid, which only results in his throat being slashed by Swan’s wings.  A huge explosion follows and Diana and Jason seemingly fall to their deaths.  Meanwhile, Darkseid is with Grail in the Amazon Jungle, where he dispatches a team made up of the Female Furies and Deep Six, to retrieve the missing artifacts he needs to fully become Darkseid the ruler of Apokolips again.