DC UNIVERSE Month 13, Part 2

JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #6 by James Tynion IV and Daniel Sampere. Blue Devil explains to the team that Myrra has been overrun by skeleton soldiers and dragons. This all turns out to be Bobo’s fault. When Nightmaster died and ave Bobo his sword, he felt unworthy and asked Blue Devil to come give him a hand. When he still couldn’t handle the task, Bobo found Nightmaster’s spell book and tried to cast a spell to raise the dead and bring Jim back to life. But he messed it up and brought back all of the dead. After some convincing from the team, he goes back and finds a spell that will actually work. Meanwhile, Swamp Thing, John Constantine, and Phantom Stranger face off against Nabu, who draws Stranger and Constantine into his helmet. Before he goes, John sends a message to Zatanna saying to “find Mordru.” That’s when Swamp Thing shows up at the bar and says they need to go fight to save magic.

NIGHTWING #54 by Scott Lobdell, Fabian Nicieza and Garry Brown. While the new Nightwings continue to fight crime in Bludhaven, Ric Grayson continues to ork through his issues with his new therapist, Dr. Gruidae. Of course, the good doctor is really the Scarecrow and, although he finally dismisses Ric from his care, it’s obvious he still has plans for him.

NIGHTWING #55 by Scott Lobdell, Fabian Nicieza and Chris Mooneyham.  Detective Svoboda shows up to Dr. Gruidae's to question him and he paralyzes her and becomes The Scarecrow. That leads to him unleashing his fear gas on Bludhaven. While Ric does his best to save his friends at the bar, the new Nightwing team jumps into action to confront Dr. Crane’s alter ego.

RED HOOD OUTLAW #29 by Scott Lobdell and Pete Woods. Batwoman and Red Hood team up to defeat the zombie robots, who have been infused with Solomon Grundy’s DNA, they were facing last issue. Her intel leads Jason to a house where he finds the girl from in town who was selling pies. It turns out she is really a construct life the others and is connected to Underlife. She also has all of the children in town held captive, even though Batwoman has already freed them, unbeknownst to her. Red Hood defeats her and blows up the house, but not before finding out the person in charge of all of this is called Solitary. In the end, Jason goes on a road trip with Kate and Rene Montoya.

SHAZAM #1 by Geoff Johns, Mayo ‘Sen Naito, and Dale Eaglesham. After a retold origin for Shazam, we see the tea of six fight crime and deal with the everyday lives as teenagers. Later, in the Vasquez foster home where they live, the teens go a room which transports them to their secret headquarters, where they also discover it is an abandoned train station. Meanwhile, Billy’s father shows up at the Vasquez’ home. In the back-up, we see the awful life Mary led before being brought into the Vasquez home, meeting Freddy and becoming a family.

SIDEWAYS #11 by Dan DiDio and Kenneth Rocafort. Detective Hopkins is rather upset that his files keep disappearing, unaware that it’s really Derek popping in unseen to steal them. Derek is fighting Blot, who is threatening to kill Ernie. Derek gets her free and transports her back to her house while he continues the fight. She calls the Hall of Justice, but gets nowhere, so she calls Hopkins. Meanwhile, Bolt subdues Derek and takes him to Ms. Dominus, who explains her fascination with Dark Matter and how she had to kill Derek’s mom. Hopkins arrives at dark Star Sciences just in time to see an explosion from the place where Derek is being held.

SUICIDE SQUAD #49 by Rob Williams and Diogenes Neves. In the past, Rick Flag makes the decision not to move forward on a mission that would kill his fellow troops. The troops however take matters into their own hands and proceed, at the cost of their lives. In the present, Flag has the opportunity to explode a brain bomb that has been implanted in Amanda Waller. But she has managed to get loose and is on the run from Flag. His fallen troops have been resurrected and are being used to hunt the rest of the Squad, with Croc being roasted in the process and killing the reborn soldiers in the process. Harley gets help from Cosmonaut to try and save the world from nuclear Tunguska. It turns out that Waller’s brain bomb is really a brain magnet and she turns into a Mech version of herself.

SUPERGIRL #25 by Marc Andreyko, Dan Jurgens, Emanuela Lupacchino, Lan Medina, Brad Walker, and Tom Derenick. Supergirl, Krypto and Z'ndr have gone to what is left of Krypton to find the clues to who actually killed Krypton. She battles with a caretaker named Slpyce who takes our heroine to the Vega System to meet Harry Hohum. In the first back-up, we get a tale of Z'ndr Khol, as he scavenges a booby-trapped planet. In the third story, Supergirl tries to enjoy the holiday even though her foster parents have given away the Plourott stuffed animal that was given to her as an infant.

SUPERMAN #6 by Brian Michael Bendis and Ivan Reis. Superman is finally free of the Phantom Zone but is rather upset about it as Zod is stuck there and being destroyed by Rogol Zaar. In the end, a strange visitor greets Superman: a grown-up Jon Kent. But how is that possible?

TEEN TITANS #25 by Adam Glass, Robson Rocha and Max Dunbar. Crush and Djinn steal a motorcycle from beneath their headquarters and head out on the town. After trying to get lunch at a diner, Crush reveals her origin story. She crash landed fifteen years ago at the Burning Man Festival and was saved by a pair of drugged out people named David and Lisa. They also saved her blanket and chain, which was named Obelus. She was also told that she was different because she came from space and her parents where superheroes. One day, after seeing Superman battle Lobo, she realized that she wasn’t the child of a superhero and ran away. When she came back, she found that her parents had been slain, possibly in dealings with drug dealers. From there, she went out on her own, but without Obelus. She and Djinn head out to find Obelus and that takes them to a drug dealer named Exiekiel, who killed her parents and took Obelus. She finally, after battling with it, convinces Obelus that he belongs to her and subdues the bad guy. In the back-up, Roundhouse reveals how he survived his trip into space and did so with the help of his dead sister Claire.

TITANS #31 by Dan Abnett and Minkyu Jung. Lantern Kyle Rayner comes back to Earth with the team as they all try to recuperate from their trip into space. While Donna and Rayner train, Miss Martian helps Raven see where her other self is, revealing it is on Unearth. Gar has a seizure and begins spouting blood, which leads to The Red using him as a vessel to explain what is going on with Mother Blood and the Blood Cult, ho is trying to take over The Red by way of Unearth. That means it’s back on the road again, as the team heads to Unearth, where things are already quite busy!

THE UNEXPECTED #7 by Steve Orlando and Ronan Cliquet. Mandrakk is loose and battles with Hawkman and Firebrand while Alden Quench fights with Neon. After being disrespected by Mandrakk, Quench fights back, ultimately having it cost him his life at the hands of Mandrakk. As the surviving trio fight against the vampire god, Mandrakk sinks his fangs into Omen, apparently killing him.

WONDER WOMAN #60 by G, Willow Wilson and Cary Nord. Wonder Woman battles Ares until she can finally show him the horror of what his actions have done to the civilians in the region. He leaves but then she is joined by Etta who questions Diana before Etta is shot in the chest by soldiers. Diana disarms them, scolds them and then rejoins Ares, who is uninterested in stopping what he started by his actions. Meanwhile, Steve continues on his journey with the mystical creatures: a journey that leads them to Aphrodite.

DC UNIVERSE Month 13, Part 1

ADVENTURES OF THE SUPER SONS #5 by Peter J. Tomasi and Carlo Barberi. Although he tries to escape, Joker Jr. gets captured by Rex.  Meanwhile Superboy and Robin meet the grown-up versions of themselves.  In actuality, the boys had been captured by an entity known as the Wonder Machine and all of this is actually implanted dreams in their head.  In the end, the boys team up with their imaginary selves to get themselves free before trying to figure out how to get to the next place on the planet they are on.

AQUAMAN #43 by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Robson Rocha. Aquaman has lost his memory after the events in THE DROWNED EARTH. He finds himself hunkered down with some folks who feed him and give him a place to stay. Later, he meets with a girl named Caille, who calls him Arausio. She is the daughter of a sea god named Namma, who has apparently polluted their seas because the people Aquaman is staying with sent Namma away but kept Caille. In the end, he sees an image of Mera, who he doesn’t recognize and races to save Caille, who is in danger of being swept out to sea. When he reaches her, the sea parts, meaning the sea has plans for him.

BATMAN #60 by Tom King and Mikel Janin. While Batman continues his rampage through Gotham, beating up criminals to try to get information on Bane, Alfred entertains The Penguin, in an attempt to learn more information about what has been going on.  Commissioner Gordon, frustrated by Batman’s sudden violent inclinations, goes out and destroys the Bat Signal.  In the end, the person who The Penguin has been working for shows up to silence him.  In the process he attacks Alfred.  When Batman returns to the Bat Cave, he discovers that the person who has been pulling the strings, is actually his father: the Batman from Flashpoint.

BATMAN #61 by Tom King and Travis Moore. We find a young Bruce in Crime Alley grieving over his parents. But not to worry as Batman is on the case and goes off seeking the killer of the Waynes while Bruce is at home with Alfred. But this isn’t REALLY Bruce Wayne, but Master Bruce, who is really Matthew Warner and was supposed to be sent to Arkham for killing his parents with the help of his butler, Mr. Taylor. This whole story is taking place in Warner’s head, who continues reliving this. Now he is being sent to Arkham after killing seven people in prison. This will put him in the hands of…Bane.

BATMAN ANNUAL #3 by Tom Taylor and Otto Schmidt. This is a tale which illustrates the love of Batman’s adopted father, Alfred, for his “adopted” son.  With Batman going out and trying to stop a mad bomber, Alfred continues to worry and act as an accomplice for Batman.  After stopping the bomber, Batman gets attacked by a group of street thugs who wind up stabbing him, which leads Alfred to put on another that Batman mask and come to Batman’s rescue.  He eventually manages to get him to Leslie Thompson, who takes care of both men’s wounds.  In the very end, Batman’s decides to take the night off and spend it with Alfred.  Because, after all, it ends up being Father’s Day.

THE BATMAN WHO LAUGHS #1 by Scott Snyder and Jock. The issue begins with Batman chasing a gang of criminals.  When he finally stops them, he finds a coffin, and when he opens it up, he finds the body of Bruce Wayne inside of it.  Later, in disguise at the Gotham Morgue, Batman deduces that the body he has found is actually that of Bruce Wayne.  But that is impossible because Batman is Bruce Wayne.  Whoever this Bruce Wayne is, it is not someone who ended up fighting crime based on the physical features that Batman discovers.  Batman makes his way to Arkham Asylum, where he plans on meeting with The Joker.  Unfortunately, the Batman Who Laughs has gotten here first and puts an ax in the head of The Joker.  What is later discovered is that The Joker who was killed was actually just a henchman made up to appear to be The Joker.  Back in the Bat Cave, The Joker, who has escapes from Arkham, arrives and pulls a gun on Batman which misfires and shoots The Joker.  However, this releases Joker toxin from the villain’s heart and now the toxin has infected Batman.

CATWOMAN #6 by Joelle Jones. Selina has gotten free from her captors while Raina Creel and her family try to have a memorial service for the husband she killed. She gives her son Raymond chemicals to turn him into a monster while Detective Yilmaz tries to stop Selina. He fails which leads to a balcony fight that leaves son Adam dead. Selina escapes, Yilmaz is arrested but being offered a plea deal and Selina promises her sister they can live happily ever after together.

THE CURSE OF BRIMSTONE #9 by Justin Jordan and Eduardo Pansica. Joe continues his solo travels in Florida where he runs into a passing car with a driver who seems to know who he is. This causes Joe to turn into Brimstone and the driver of the car becomes Dr. Fate.  The two of them battle with Joe’s flame power actually burning Dr. Fate’s mask and injuring him, forcing him to flee.  Elsewhere, Joe’s sister shows up at a house in Alabama and confronts Jack.

DAMAGE #12 by Robert Venditti and Aaron Lopresti. After a flashback with a young Ethan watching Superman’s adventures on television and dreams of being a hero. In the present, Superman and Damage fight it out. Batman and Deadman show up, allowing Deadman to take over Damage until the hour wears off. The Justice League take him into custody at the Hall of Justice until they can figure out what to do with him.

DEATHSTROKE #38 by Christopher Priest and Fernando Pasarin. Death Masque pays a visit to Rose’ husband and tries to explain what has been going on.  Joseph has been saved by Wintergreen, who rescued him after being shot by Two Face.  Two Face is out training Rose in Vietnam and their journey leads them to a group of well armed, sword wielding folks.  Meanwhile, Deathstroke is still in Arkham but it looks like he may have a friend in the form of one of the doctors there.  He promises to show her where the mysterious beacon is and that leads to him being accosted by most of the inmates there who take him to Hugo Strange for his final therapy session.

DETECTIVE COMICS #994 by Peter J. Tomasi and Doug Mahnke. Batman is trying to solve the murder of a man and woman found in an aquarium tank that look specifically like the Waynes, right down to their clothing. They apparently were murdered on the anniversary of the Waynes’ deaths. Later, Leslie Tompkins is menaced by a monster wielding the Bat Signal. Batman saves her and defeats the creature, but it appears Leslie has been turned into…The Joker?

DOOMSDAY CLOCK #8 by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. While Ozymandias plots and plans, Lois Lane realizes someone has picked the lock on her desk. She also spies a mysterious envelope on her desk. A news broadcast shows Firestorm losing control in Russia, where he accidentally transforms people in the center of Moscow. Superman heads to Kahndaq, where he meets with Black Adam, with Adam saying his country is a safe place for Firestorm to seek refuge. Superman heads to Moscow and works with Firestorm to be able to use his abilities to transmute a child back to normal. He takes Firestorm back to the square in Moscow and pleads his case, but Putin’s soldiers fire at the heroes, causing unnecessary deaths to the solidified civilians. Superman, despite Batman’s pleading, picks a side and revolts against the Soviets. Firestorm reaches a boiling point, causing an Earth-shattering explosion. Meanwhile, Lois opens the envelope, which reveals a jump drive. On the drive is an article about The Justice Society of America, which she doesn’t recognize as a real superhero team.

THE FLASH #60 by Joshua Williamson and Rafa Sandoval. Gemini has taken over a train in Africa and say they have found evidence to where Flash is going. Over in Corto Maltese, Flash is battling with Fuerza while Iris tries to talk reason to the head of the police, Corozon. Corozon isn’t listening and opens fire on Fuerza, but is saved by The Flash, who flees with Iris in tow. Fuerza goes back to a community she has built inside a mountain to protect her family from the corrupt police. Later, they go to watch a convoy of medical supplies to make sure it goes where it is supposed to when an injured family member shows up and there is an explosion in the mountain hideaway. Flash and Fuerza rce back to find the police holding family and Iris held hostage. Corozon fires a gun that shoots bubbled and those bubbles become monsters. The gun is powered by the Sage Force. Meanwhile, Detective Burns flirts with Commander Cold while the Tricksters watch and wait for their chance.

GREEN ARROW #47 by Julie Benson, Shawna Benson and German Peralta. Citizen has Oliver Queen strapped in an electric chair and is ready to execute him on live TV. Green Arrow arrives, actually Black Canary in disguise, allowing Ollie to escape and come back at Citizen as Green Arrow. He takes down Citizen and later clears his name by having a press conference and producing Kevin’s photographic evidence. In the end, Arrow and Canary head off as a team.

THE GREEN LANTERN #2 by Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp. Evil Star and a gang of bad guys have managed to break out of the secret Green Lantern Corps prison known as the Obsidian Depths. Hal gets assigned to the case while Lantern Volk works on a mystery involving a missing planet. Hal and Lantern Tru interrogates a member of the Spider Guild who was part of the crew that broke out and gains valuable information. Evil Star ends up on the Blackstar Flagship where he loses his Star Band and has his life force sucked out of him. Hal meets with the dying Evil Star on Planet Hippocrates, where he finds that the Star Band which has been keeping Evil Star young, has been sold on the black market to some Dhorians. Hal heads to Earth and discovers that it’s gone.

HARLEY QUINN #55 by Sam Humphries and John Timms. Harley’s family has shown up for Christmas and of course manages to ruin everything. And, to top it off, Mom reveals she has Cancer. After having a heart to heart conversation with Mom, they head back home, where a food fight ensues, and all is right with the world again.

HARLEY QUINN #56 by Mark Russell and Mirka Andolfo. Harley’s allegories are killing her, leading her to go to Monsieur Katz and beg him to get rid of his collection of cats. She proceeds to walk around Coney Island and give them away. But this leads to retaliation by a group that only men should be able to distribute pets, and that leads to the men targeting her apartment like unstoppable zombies. Luckily, they get dispatched by angry cats, thanks to Catwoman.

HAWKMAN #7 by Robert Venditti and Bryan Hitch. In the distant past, Ktar the Deathbringer looks over the piles of the dead that Idamm has ordered be killed. Throughout history, Ktar continues on the mission and continually sees a mysterious woman. He eventually turns away from the mission and destroys the temple. His best friend and ally slays him but Ktar is given a second chance. He will be reborn and continue to be reborn until he can save the same number of people he has slain in his life. Essentially, this means he will live and die forever. In the resent, and now being aware of his past, Hawkman heads to the destination of the weapon to stop the Deathbringers: Krypton.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #13 by James Tynion IV and Guillem March. In the past, we see Luthor meet with Joker and try to convince him to join his Legion of Doom. In the present, we see Lex’ deal with The Batman Who Laugh. There is a roster recruitment going on and no one but the Joker is more upset about it., leading to him battling with Lex, who he captures. Joker reveals he had his own plan and Lex ruined it. So now, Joker is going off on his own to initiate his plan. The other Legion members, who had been gassed and were following Joker, free Lex and he has a plan of his own: fix Brainiac and add him to the team.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #14 by James Tynion IV and Jim Cheung. Batman is trying to gain information from Starman by using Jarro, but is stopped by Wonder Woman and Superman before he goes too far. Over on Thanagar Prime, Martian Manhunter, John Stewart and Kendra meet with Shayera Hol, who informs them that the Martian Elder is dead. They all decide to stay the night and attend a celebration on Thanagar, while Kendra realizes that she and Shayera should be one and the same person. It turns out that the Martian Elder is being kept alive and then our heroes are attacked by a masked winged man. He turns out to be Katar Hol-the Savage Hawkman. Back on Earth, Starman’s power suddenly triples in force and it looks like he is going to explode and take the planet with him.

A new batch of first issues and some last ones

ARCHIE #700 by Nick Spencer and Marguerite Sauvage.  To celebrate a legacy, ARCHIE has again been rebooted and gone back to its’ original numbering. Nick Spencer takes over for Mark Waid and he seems to be willing to tie it closer to the RIVERDALE TV series. There’s a mystery as to what has happened over the summer. Jughead now looks like Cole Sprouse and is working as a writer. Reggie is back and looks like he does on the TV show. Cheryl Blossom is here and even Sabrina shows up. Sauvage’s art is nice and clean and adds to the streamlined, CW look to it. This is fun.

ARCHIE 1941 #1 by Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn and Peter Krause. It’s 1941 in Riverdale and the world is engaged in World War II. The gang is graduating high school and Archie can’t seem to figure out what he wants to do, resulting in his becoming distant. With the fall coming, it looks like America may end up in the conflict. This is an interesting take on the gang by Waid and Augustyn with killer art by Krause. Obviously, Pearl Harbor is coming, and I see the gang ending up in the service.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #1  by Saladin Ahmed and Garry Brown.  Set in the days just after the alien symbiote attached himself to Spider Man, the alien host fights crime while Peter Parker sleeps. In the end, the suit is removed, to much anger from the host, and is locked away in the Baxter Building. This is a long, overwritten look at the early days which does a nice job of adding some back story to that time in Peter’s life. I like adding to the story, but to make it an annual, which DOES have a Legacy number, is just a money grab by Marvel.

BATMAN DAMNED #1 by Brian Azarello and Lee Bermejo. So, this was a major controversy a few months back because, this title which launches DC’s oversized Black Label “adult line” of comics featured a scene where we get to see Batman’s naked butt and…shudder…three panels with his “Batawang”, as it became known, showing. The book sold out in its; first week, commanding ridiculous prices because DC has threatened to censor it in online availability and future printings. Well, two weeks later, dealers got their reorders’ and prices dropped, DC said there would be no second printings and only the online and the collected edition would be censored. Big deal, only if you never read HEAVY METAL or an underground comic. In the story, which is really what matters, the Joker has been murdered and it looks like Batman may have finally snapped. Azarello’s story is captivating but Bermejo’s art is amazing! Can’t wait for #2.

BATMAN/THE MAXX ARKHAM DREAMS #1 by Sam Keith. The Dark Knight teams up with The Maxx to help stop the evil that is coming here from The Outback. Along the way, they end up in Arkham, cross paths with The Penguin and creatures in The Outback. As always, Keith’s writing is a little trippy but his artwork is great! I was always a huge fan of The Maxx and had the opportunity to meet and talk with him in the last year or so and it’s great to see him back in action. This should be a fun ride!

BLOODSHOT RISING SPIRIT #1 by Zac Thompson, Lonnie Nadler, Kevin Grevioux and Ken Lashley. Angelo Mortalli is a Mafia hit man who is getting a new life as Bloodshot. But is he real or just a mental construct? That’s the basic premise of this relaunch from Valiant.  After a lengthy series of titles, Thompson, Nadler and UNDERWORLD actor Grevioux take the genre and twist it sideways. Add it the amazing art by the always amazing Lashley and you have a reboot that is worth checking out.

BOOKS OF MAGIC #1 by Kai Howard and Tom Fowler. A long time ago, Tim Hunter was a young apprentice of magic. Today, it seems his magic ability is gone, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t trying. The newest entry into the SANDMAN UNIVERSE line f titles brings Hunter back to the line and, while weaving a new journey, it does allow readers to catch up on his past run. Howard’s story is nicely done and does a good good of telling DC’s version of Harry Potter to life. And Fowler’s art is clean and does a great job of enhancing the story. A nice first issue that will undoubtedly please longtime fans and hopefully bring in new ones.

CAPTAIN AMERICA ANNUAL #1 by Tini Howard, Chris Sprouse and Ron Lim. Set in World War II, Cap and Bucky meet up with three escaped prisoners and set about trying to get them to safety. It’s a long drawn out tale that could have been told in 8 pages, but goes on for an extended amount of reading time. The art is fine, although it is nice to see Ron Lim back in action. And a guest appearance by Dum Dum Dugan. But, other than that, there is nothing thrilling about this.

DAREDEVIL #612 by Charles Soule and Phil Noto. Soule ends his five year run on Hornhead and does so with a bang. What appears to be the ending of Kingpin’s Mayoral stint turns out to be visions of a dying Daredevil on the operating table. It’s a tale filled with red herrings and makes us wonder how much from recent issues was real versus imagined. It’s a nice closing to this series, which will lead into a mini-series and then a reboot by Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto in February, even if we have seen this plot device used before, specifically in THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST.

DEAD MAN LOGAN #1 by Ed Brisson and Mike Henderson. Old Man Logan has killed Maestro, which gives him revenge for the deaths of his family. But Logan’s healing factor has gone south and he is dying from Adamantium poisoning and has a year to live. Despite that, he is on the hunt for Mysterio, who was responsible for poisoning Logan’s mind in the Wasteland, leading to the former Wolverine to kill the X-Men in his timeline. While he hunts, so does Miss Sinister, who breaks Mysterio out of his incarceration and leads him to the ranks of Neo-Hydra. All in all, this is a great start to what could be the final ride for Old Man Logan.

DICK TRACY #1 by Lee Allred, Michael Allred and Rich Tommaso. First off, let me say that I am a huge fan of Dick Tracy, going back to the last Sixties when I cut out and collected the dailies and Sunday pages. So I was excited to see this newest tale, by the likes of Allred and Tommaso. Set in modern day, Tracy gets fired because of his Dirty Harry themed acts. Sam Ketchem has quit being a cop and is now a journalist. And Big Boy, villain from the Warren Beatty movie, is the bad guy, sort of. Overall, it looks great, even though the story is kid of silly. As a long time fan, I was kind of disappointed.

ERRAND BOYS #1 by D. J. Kirkbride and Nikos Koutsis. Jace Lopez is an errand boy, running collectibles and stuff to various clients. In the middle of it all, he discovers that his father and step-mother are killed in a car accident and he suddenly now has a step-brother in his care. What to do? Well, that means that Jace now finds himself  with an apprentice. It’s a fun little tale, with a nice back-up that gives a bit of history to Jace’ career and relationship.

FANTASTIC FOUR WEDDING SPECIAL #1 by Gail Simone, Dan Slott, Fred Hembeck, Laura Braga and Mark Buckingham. Well, in case you have not heard, Ben Grimm, who we all know and love as the Thing, is getting married.  So this gives Marvel a chance to put out an overpriced one shot featuring stories connected to that wedding.  In the first story, by Gail Simone, we get the bachelorette party and, obviously, some fun things occur in it, complete with Crystal from the Inhumans getting really drunk as the team of superhero ladies end up dueling with The Mole Man or, more specifically, Mole Woman.  In the second piece we have Ben visiting his future father in law in a very touching piece with some amazing artwork by Buckingham that certainly has a callback feel to classic Marvel artwork.  The third tale is by Fred Hembeck…Nuff said.  All in all…this was tons of fun!

FREEDOM FIGHTERS #1 by Robert Venditti and Eddy Barrows. The Nazi’s won World War II, but there is an uprising brewing. On November 22, 1963, the Nazis, with the help of their secret weapon Plastic Man, capture the Freedom Fighters and execute them on live television, causing Uncle Sam to go into hiding. Flash forward to 2018 and the regime is still in power. Time for a new generation of Freedom Fighters. This was such a fun read that I wish it was a graphic novel instead of a 12-month long mini-series. The premise was fresh and fun, and Barrow’s art was great! This has the makings of a classic mini-series with lots of notes to beloved characters.

HARBINGER WARS 2 AFTERMATH #1 by Matt Kindt and Adam Pollina. Valiant’s newest event series has ended and this is the wrap up for it. All the pieces come together here and splinter off to set up Valiant’s next line of titles. Among the threads, Livewire, now the most wanted person on the planet, is looking to disappear and Bloodshot looks to be primed for a reboot. In all, it’s a disappointing epilogue.

HOUSE OF WHISPERS #1 by Nalo Hopkinson and Dominike “DOMO” Stanton. Set in the Bayou, we have a whole different take on life in The Dreaming. It’s a place filled with voodoo, spirit possession and strange new characters. While it puts a whole batch of new characters into Gaiman’s legendary world, and the art is nice, the story itself is a bit weak. Even the appearance at the very end by Cain and Abel don’t help.

INFINITY WARPS #1 by Jim Zub, Ryan North, Mariko Tamaki, Flaviano, Todd Nauck, Ozygur Yildirim, Scott hHanna, Natacha Bustos, and Francisco Herrera. Marvel unleashes another INFINITY WARS tie-in with this anthology title featuring appearances by a bunch of mashed-up heroes and villains. Observer-X, Moon Squirrel, Tippysaur, The Terrific Two, the Green Widow and so many more traipse across this one-shot with less than satisfying results. In my mind, it’s a cash grab.

INFINITY WARPS: ARACH-KNIGHT. #1 by Denis Hopeless and Ale Garza. Gamora has turned the world universe upside down and, unlike her father who once eliminated half the universe, she has just MERGED half the universe together. In this tale, we get a rebooted origin for Peter Parker, who watches his uncle and aunt murdered by a Green Goblin mash-up only to be saved by a spider from the Spider-Verse, which gives him multiple personalities, like our universe’ Moon Knight. Along for the ride is his best friend Harry, bad guy Norman and his best girl Markey Jane. Sure…it’s Moon Knight meets Spider-Man with a touch of Werewolf by Night thrown in. A must for die-hard fans of the old AMALGAM line.

INFINITY WARS: SLEEPWALKER #1 by Chad Bowers, Chris Sims and Todd Nauck. Rick Sheridan is also the superhero known as Sleepwalker. Marvel drags him up from near obscurity to make him a key player in this world turned upside-down. After meeting with more of his ow people, Sleepwalker goes out into the world, where he meets Scott Banner, AKA the Little Monster, Man Thing Thang Thoom, and the Dark Starhawk

INFINITY WARPS: GHOST PANTHER #1 by Jed MacKay and Jefte Palo. T’Challa makes a deal with the Zarathos and becomes a Ghost Rider Black Panther mash up, where he is trying to avenge his father. But in this piece, Killraven may be the hero in the end. This is another INFINITY WARS spin-off and, like many of the others, is a cute concept, but not well executed.

INFINITY WARPS: IRON HAMMER #1 by Al Ewing and Ramon Rosanas. In the new, retooled universe that Gamora has created, Sigurd Stark ends up donning armor and wielding the hammer to battle the Krimson Kurse and, probably in the next issue, Madame Hel. The mash-up is fun, as it touches on bits of the classic origins of Thor and Iron Man and twists them up to fit this reshaped world. Of course, we all know that everything will come back around again, but, for now, this is just dumb fun!

INFINITY WARPS: SOLDIER SUPREME #1 by Gerry Duggan and Adam Kubert. Gamora has reshaped reality, which means we get twisted version of Marvel’s favorite heroes. A female Dr. Erskine uses her experiments to turn Steve Rogers into Dr. Strange. With magical shield in tow, he teams up with Dum Dum Fury and Bucky Wong to form he Howling Commandos of Hoggoth to battle Dormammu Red. All in all, it’s a lot of fun that harkens back to the Amalgam line of comics from back in 1996 when the DC VS. MARVEL series was running. And Kubert delivers on the art. Looking forward to the rest of the crossovers.

INFINITY WARPS: WEAPON HEX #1 by Ben Acker, Ben Blacker and Gerado Sandoval.  A scientist creates a new life and she grows up to be Weapon Hex: a cross between Scarlet Witch and X-23. This is a mess, filled with bad spell names, like Hexual Healing, and clunky dialogue. So far, this is the worst of the INFINITY WARP tales. And there is still one more issue to go!

INFINITY WARS: FALLEN GURADIAN #1 by Gerry Duggan and Andy MacDonald. This epilogue to the INFINITY WARS mini-series follows what caused the death of the “fallen Guardian” of the Galaxy, who gave their life to save two universes. It follows the origin of the character, their heartbreaking death and their “afterlife”. All in all, it works if you didn’t read INFINITY WARS but, if you did, you’ve been here already.

IRONHEART #1 by Eve L. Ewing, Kevi Libranda, Luciano Vecchio and Geoffo. Riri Williams, the former Iron Man and now Ironheart, gets her own regular series. Riri is a genius and a superhero and is trying to combine those two lives into one as she finds herself back at M.I.T. and adjusting to a new life. Yeah, she still is a superhero but she is also dealing with PTSD from the deaths of her father and her best friend back in the day. It’s well written, the art is cool and it fits nicely into the Marvel Universe.

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY: THE BATTLE OF KRAKOA #1 by Dennis Hopeless and Djibril Morissette-Phan. Set in 1945, Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos crash land on an island and, after the team is transformed in zombies by a mysterious chemical, Krakoa is born. It adds some nice color to the legendary creature who is an island, but that’s about all. The art, while very Sixties inspired, is weak in spots and Hopeless story is…well: hopeless.

MARVEL KNIGHTS 20^TH by Donny Cates and Travel Foreman. Matt Murdock is visiting Karen Page’s grave and doesn’t know why. Policeman Frank Castle shows up and kicks Matt’s memory into gear, leading him to find the people in his life from the past. But nine remember him and he finds himself on the run. Meanwhile Kingpin, Bullseye and even Doctor Doom are on hand in this world turned upside down. A nice start to a twentieth anniversary tribute by Cates and Foreman.

MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #12 by ?. Well, the experiment has ended. The FF are back and there is no need for this book anymore. It’s a nice send-off and obviously the characters will continue in FANTASTIC FOUR. But Marvel: could you have at least put CREDITS for the creative team inside the book? Or a story title? Anythng? This feels like a sudden dump with no support.

MILES MORALES SPIDER MAN #1 by Saladin Ahmed and Javier Garron. Well, just in time for his feature film debut, the other Spiderman, Miles Morales, is back in his own title.  For those who are not aware, Miles was the second Spiderman in the Ultimate Universe and when they puts all the universes back together, he ended up in our universe.  So, we have Miles and his family at his friends and, yeah, he gets to go off and do adventures.  The writing is fun and the artwork looks really great.  So, expect fans to be jumping on the bandwagon for this title based on what some are calling the best Spider-Man movie ever made.  For me, it was fun but not something I will pick up on a regular basics.

MOON KNIGHT #200 by Max Bemis, Paul Davidson, Jacen Burrows, Jeff Lemire and Bill Sienkiewicz. Moon Knight’s crazy journey comes to an end in the oversized last issue that ties together two years of plot. All the diverse personalities comes together as Marc Spector deals with those persons in his head. A satisfying end to a wild ride, with great art by some amazing guest artist including legend Bill Sienkiewicz.

MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 THE COMIC #1 by Harold Buchholz, Joel Hodgson, Matt McGinnis, Seth Robinson, Sharyl Volpe, Mary Robinson, Todd Nauck and Mike Manley. The gang on the Satellite of Love are subject to a new experiment that takes them into the world of public domain comics. That results in TOM SERVO TEEN REPORTER. While it’s an interesting concept, I found it hard to embrace as, instead of the characters riffing, they re appearing in a comic. Not to mention that I as a huge fan of the original MST3K crew but not so much about those appearing in the Netflix reboot. While this was a cool concept, it does fall flat.

RETURN OF WOLVERINE #1 by Charles Soule and Steve McNiven. The Ragin’ Cajun is back from the dead, but is being experimented on, having major memory gaps and seeing visions of his former lives. Yeah: it’s a wild, trippy ride with guest appearances by various parts of his past, while trying to deal with being told he is a hero.  This is a long story that will continue for six months while, at the same time, Old Man Logan will spend nine months dying. Soule’s story is disjointed and that is part of the allure to it, as bits and pieces of Logan’s memory pops in. I should note that McNiven is truly channeling his inner Barry Windsor-Smith here with moments that scream about Smith’s run in MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS #72-84.

SPIDER-GEDDON #1 by Christos Gage and Jorge Molina. This sequel of sorts to the SPIDER-GEDDON mini-series from a year or two back features all of your favorite Spider characters from the various universe as they prepare again to fight The Inheritors. That means you’re getting Octavia Otto, Spider-Ham, Spider-UK, Spider Woman, Spider Punk, Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Gwen, The Superior Octopus, Spider-Man, and more. It’s a great big team fight that is crossing over through several one shots and mini-series along with SPIDER-MAN and SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN. Definitely fans for all of this but myself: not digging it, although it looks great!

THE SUPERIOR OCTOPUS #1 by Christos Gage and Mike Hawthorne. Tying into the SPIDER-GEDDON mini-series event thingy, Doc Ock is back with a whole new bag of tricks. Now in a cloned body made up of Peter Parker’s genetic material and his brai, he masquerades as a professor at Horizon University, where many of the former cast of Spider Man characters are also at. This is an essential lead-in if you plan on reading the SPIDER-GEDDON series, but not much ore than that.

UMBRELLA ACADEMY: GAS PANIC #1 by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba. Set several years after the end of the last series, we find the team in disarray. Sir Reginald Hargreeves is dead, Kraken is a big game hunter, Rumor is dealing with the end of her marriage, Spaceboy is in Tokyo and Vanya, who had previously been shot in the head, is still doing physical therapy. And what of Séance? There’s the mystery. If you were a fan of the previous series by Way, you’ll love it! If this is your first dip in the pool, you will find yourself a little confused.

UNCANNY X-MEN #1 by Ed Brisson, Matthew Rosenberg, Kelly Thompson, Mahmud Asrar, Mirko Colak, Ibraim Roberson, and Mark Bagley. Well, here we go again: another X-Men reboot. With multiple variant covers, Marvel seeks to disassemble and reassemble the mutant heroes. The MLF is attacking a research facility that is developing a vaccine to eliminate the mutant gene. Multiple Man is attacking a senator championing the vaccine. And the team finds itself conflicted by it all. Oh yeah: Apocalypse is back too. The four part back-up covers events that leads up to the main story.  Can’t get enough of all of this in this monstrous length book? Don’t worry: it ships weekly for the next 10 weeks.

WEB OF VENOM: CARNAGE BORN #1 by Donny Cates amd Danilo S. Beyruth. Cletus Cassidy is dead and gone. But not really. His corpse has been captured by a cult that is planning on bringing him back from the dead and will help to achieve their crazy goals. But a resurrected Carnage is going to do what he wants. And he wants to track down everyone who has ever been exposed to the original Symbiote and gets those pieces back. What this does is lead into what I’m sure will be future events in the regular VENOM series.

VENOM ANNUAL #1 by Donny Cates, David Michelinie, Jeff Loveness, James Stokoe, Kev Walker, Ron Lim and Tigh Walker. It’s just another night in the villain bar as the bad guys elate various tales of Venom. What it comes off feeling like is a whole bunch of inventory stories that are stitched together by a loose narrative.  In the end, it seems the big bad was hanging around there all along. Kind of a $5 bummer that is only for completists.

X-MEN BLACK: MAGNETO #1 by Chris Claremont and Dalibor Talajic. Marvel ramps up to reboot the UNCANNY X-MEN book by dropping this five-issue mini-series, each highlighting a member of the X-Men’s Rogues Gallery. In this issue, Magneto is in a small town and gets attacked by O.N.E., which is some military group that is holding mutants like terrorists. The real reason to pick up these books is the five-part story of Apocalypse, who is losing his power and becoming human. Told by Zac Thompson, Lonnie Nadler and Geraldo Borges, it’s just okay and, unless there is some great payoff, may not be worth your investment on this series.

X-MEN BLACK: MOJO #1 by Scott Auckerman, Nick Bradshaw and Andrew Lima Araujo. Mojo has got a thing for an Earth woman he lists after ands it takes X-Man Glob to partner with him as his wingman. Later, Sentinels attack and Mojo lends a hand. In wrestling, this would be called a face-turn. It’s a fun tale with a different take on the crazy outer space television programmer. Also, the second part of APOCALYPSE DEGENERATION where the big bad continues to regress.

X-MEN BLACK: MYSTIQUE #1 by Seanan McGuire and Marco Failla. Mystique has a job to do and that means masquerading as many people as she infiltrates Trask Industries. In the process, she meets a young mutant who has been locked up by Trask and that means her conscious kicks in and she also looks to break the girl out in the process. And, in the third part of the Apocalypse saga, he has become a caveman and must battle other cavemen before his intellect goes away.

X-MEN BLACK: JUGGERNAUT #1 by Robbie Thompson and Shawn Crystal. Chrles Xavier’s brother fights against the control of Cyttorak and his inner self. In the third part of APOCALYPSE DEGENERATION, Apocalypse has regressed to an ape before being reborn as his old, mean self.

X-MEN BLACK: EMMA FROST #1 by Leah Williams and Chris Bachalo. Emma meets with Rogue as part of a plan to take down the Hellfire Club once and for all. But that leads to a double cross as she takes out Sebastian Shaw and makes herself the Black King. In the final part of APOCALYPSE DEGENERATION Apocalypse is reborn.

X-MEN BLUE #36 by Cullen Bunn and Marcus To. As Marvel tries to correct what they have done by bringing the original X-Men from the past into the present, part of which will apparently come to fruition in EXTERMINATION, and to do that, along with rebooting the UNCANNY X-MEN book, they are ending this book, along with X-MEN GOLD. So, what we thought would be a final send off back to their own time becomes a continuing run of small episodes as they prepare to time-jump. But, in the end, they see Magento and his new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants attacking the world and decide to stick around for one last battle. We leave this title with the C-Men still here and we PRESUME soon to be heading home. Minus the neat variant cover by Mile Allred, this ends up being a thud instead of being a Home Run.

X-MEN THE EXTERMINATED #1 by Zac Thompson, Chris Claremont, Neil Edwards and Ramon Rosanas.  With the recent death of Cable, Marvel has put out a one shot designed to pay tribute to the fallen hero.  They give us two stories which ties into the legacy of Nathan Summers.  The first one is a loving tribute piece featuring his daughter Hope while the second is narrated by Nathan but is more of a tribute to Scott Summers. But it also works out to be an alternate kind of history.  All in all, it’s a piece primarily for completists, but is also a nice tribute to a character who has played his role in comics and movies.

DC UNIVERSE Month 12, Part 2

NIGHTWING #52 by Scott Lobdell, Fabian Nicieza and Chris Mooneyham. Ric Grayson deals with the repercussions of taking out the guy who tried to rob him last issue and learns that, despite having no memory of it, he has skills from his time as a superhero. Meanwhile, the autopsy of Andrew Wyman, releases a deadly gas that transforms all around it. Elsewhere, Detective Alphonse Sapienza gathers a team to take over for the missing Nightwing, ultimately leading to a confrontation between Grayson and the new Nightwing.

NIGHTWING #53 by Scott Lobdell, Fabian Nicieza, Travis Moore and Patrick Zircher. Ric Grayson meets with Detective Sapienza, who is now Nightwing. Sapienza goes off to save the kidnapped cab driver, which he does, despite some difficulty adjusting to the role of a superhero. Later, he shows up at Malcolm Hutch’ house, where he reveals he has been seriously injured. Meanwhile, a substance abuse session including Ric’s friend Tiny, goes bad when the doctor in attendance reveals himself to be The Scarecrow. Elsewhere, Ric goes on a breakfast date with his friendly neighborhood bartender.

PLASTIC MAN #6 by Gail Simone and Adriana Melo. Plastic Man battles the Durlan who is masquerading as him, leading to the pair ending up in the ocean. Only one comes out, and no one is certain which one, but it seems to be the alien. He heads off with Doctor Psycho, who takes him to his lair with his super-villain minions, leading to the group testing him to see if he is really Eel O’Brien or not. It turns out it IS the Durlan, but Eel has stowed-away inside of Psycho’s brain and now controls him. He negotiates a deal with the bad guys, threatening them if they ever mess with him or his friends again. In the end, Eel is reunited with Doris and the kid, who has revealed he is a boy named Pado Swakatoon. But what of Granite Janet? Well, her revenge is for a later time.

RED HOOD OUTLAW #28 by Scott Lobdell and Pete Woods. After a surprise appearance by Wingman, who was once Jason Todd, we go to Jason Todd in Appleton, where he is attacked and captured by the townspeople. When he wakes, he is forced to face a giant resident that, upon his destruction, turns out to be a robot. Batwoman arrives and they tussle, until more giant robots arrive.

RAVEN DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS #10 by Marv Wolfman and Pop Mhan. Baron Winters and company transport away from their attackers and wind up in San Francisco just after the great earthquake. Raven discovers she has been here before and sees herself helping some children. In Uruguay, Alice turns Skye over to the Shadow Riders and then leaves her there, returning to the present where she meets with Winters and company. She explains that Skye is actually one of the Riders and is known as the First Born. Raven heads back to her family, convinced that she won’t do this anymore and leave the family in a lurch. But she gets a message from Winters, wipes her family’s minds and goes off.

SIDEWAYS ANNUAL #1 by Dan DiDio, Grant Morrison, Ibraim Roberson and Will Conrad. Sideways and the New 52 Superman team up to battle the followers of the Insect Queen. The Unseen arrive and say that with the Insect Queen’s death, Rapid Entropic Decay will destroy their world. They team up to battle Perrus, freeing Superman and Sideways, who help to defeat the giant spiders menacing the Seven Soldiers. After defeating Gloriana, the Seven Soldiers and Sideways transport, leaving Superman to form a new Justice League on this world with The Unseen. In a back-up, the Unseen travel to our world and are met by the Fuginaut, who threatens to send them back to the Dark Dimension. When they reveal they know Derek, he gives them a pass.

SIDEWAYS #10 by Dan DiDio and Kenneth Rocafort. Derek comes back to his house to find it filled with reporters and police. It seems that Derek has been gone for a week and has missed his mother’s funeral, leading to him telling the police that he was with friends in Metropolis. After a confrontation with his father, he meets with Ernie and they transport to Paris for a long chat. In the process, terrorists arrive, and he helps save folks, before heading to the Eiffel Tower, where he sees that Bolt has arrived and threatens to kill Ernie. Also, Bolt knows Derek is Sideways and has been hired by Leto.

THE SILENCER #11 by Dan Abnett and Jack Herbert. Michael, Quietus and Hope make their way past Leviathan guards and inside their compound, where they meet Wishbone. The trio is attacked and discover that all the potential leaders of Leviathan are here just in time to be met by a resurrected Talia. She claims that she orchestrated all of the chaos as a test and that almost everyone assed. She no runs a rebuilt Leviathan filled with followers…mostly all followers.

SUICIDE SQUAD #48 by Rob Williams and Diogenes Neves. Amanda Waller has been captured by an old enemy from The People and had a brain bomb surgically installed. Meanwhile, Rick Flag has been talked into joining the team on a mission to the Eastern Siberian Sea in an effort to save Waller.  In the process, Flag is shown a video that shows him how Waller used him to get him on the team. He is given the trigger for the brain bomb and presented with a captured Waller, giving him the opportunity to kill her.

SUPERGIRL #24 by Marc Andreyko, Evan “Doc” Shaner and Karl Kesel. Kara is in an intergalactic bar asking questions about Rogol Zaar. She finds the person she wants to talk to, but her questions lead to a huge bar fight.  Once the fight has ended, Kara goes back to questioning her suspect when the bartender turns him to ash. She gets another crystal and gets saved by a new ally: a Coluan named Z’ndr Kol. He fixes her ship and they head off into space. Suddenly, she begins bleeding from her nose and passes out. They have ended up in Krypton’s former space and is being poisoned by Kryptonite.

SUPERMAN #5 by Brian Michael Bendis and Ivan Reis. Zod, in his imagination, tries to unite the House of El, the House of Zod and the House of Kandor before seeing the arrival of Rogol Zaar. When he wakes, his son tells him that there has been a message saying Earth was missing. Over in the Phantom Zone, Superman continues to battle Rogol Zaar. In space, Adam Strange encounters Zod, where they find a shrunken Earth, which starts to grow. It seems that The Atom shrunk the planet to allow it to escape from the Phantom Zone. Zod implored atom to fire the Phantom Zone projector at him, which means he is showing up as Superman’s ally against Zaar.

TEEN TITANS #24 by Adam Glass and Bernard Chang. The team is trapped in the rubble following last issue’s explosion. Working together, despite their differences, they get free. In the end, Djinn meets with Red Arrow, possibly in a dream, and tells her that she knows of her secrets, so it is best not to pry in Djinn’s.

THE TERRIFICS #10 by Jeff Lemire and Viktor Bogdanovic. Java has been revealed as Doctor Dread, but he has also unleashed the Dark Elder. The team, led by Mr. Terrific and Tom Strong, defeat the Dark Elder, taking a T-Sphere and escaping back to the Dark Multiverse. In the end, Plastic Man has disappeared, Rex retires, and Mr. Terrific breaks up the team.

TITANS #29 by Dan Abnett and Minkyu Jung. The team’s Boom Room has crashed, injuring many with Ms. Martian being injured the worst.  Steel tries to figure how to fix the broken ship while Ms. Martian flies off, falling due to her injuries and hurting herself even more. While Raven still struggles with having lost her soul self, Donna finds Ms. Martian and brings her back to camp. Steel creates a beacon, which attracts a primitive Beast Boy, destroying the Boom Room in the process. Ms. Martian gets tossed into the jungle and, because she is so weak, transforms to her true image: a White Martian.

TITANS #30 by Dan Abnett and Minkyu Jung. Miss Martian, changed to her true self, use her psionics to stop Beast Boy’s rampage. She then revels that she hid her true self because people have been told to fear White Martians. Steel gets another beacon online while Raven sees a vision of where her soul self is located. Donna explains she is having a hard time being a leader and reveals that Roy Harper as dead. With the beacon up and running, it attracts Kyle Raynor.

THE UNEXPECTED #6 by Steve Orlando and Ronan Cliquet. While Hawkman battles Onimar Synn, Neon and Firebrand are inside of his bones. Firebrand sees a glowing node which, it turns out, is made of Nth Metal and is designed to capture their souls. They encounter Phayde inside a similar node, as Phayde’s soul has also been captured. Our heroes break free and free all the captured, but very angry souls, in the process. Their energy is ready to overload the Nth Metal Isotope, so Neon transports them all away to Castle Frankenstein. They encounter a Tempus Fuginaut and then Mandrakk. Elsewhere, the Bad Samaritan lives again.

WONDER WOMAN #58 by G Willow Wilson and Cary Nord. Over in Themyscara, Ares goads Grail into attacking him with a sword, which leads to them being freed. Meanwhile, Diana has a dream about Steve Trevor and is awaken by a call from Etta, causing her to go off to save him, despite Etta imploring her not to. Steve is somewhere in Durovnia, where Diana saves a child from being shot by troops loyal to the warlord who rules. The child has, unbeknownst to Diana, a group of mythical beings with him. After meeting with an angry Etta, Diana gets into a fight with an armored man with an axe. It turns out to be Ares, who claims he is here to fight tyranny and injustice.

WONDER WOMAN #59 by G Willow Wilson and Cary Nord. We begin with the little boy and his mythical friends going to a ruined temple and reuniting with other mythical creatures, who have captured Steve Trevor. Ares tells Diana he has been given a second chance but, when the pair go to stop a missile, Ares turns it onto a group of civilians, in an effort to stop the tyranny of the ruling party. When she saves a pilot and his aircraft, Ares threatens to kill her, saying she has turned her back on justice. Steve learns that Diana is close by and tries to escape, only to be captured again. The creatures decide to take him to their leader.

DC UNIVERSE Month 12, Part 1

ACTION COMICS #1005 by Brian Michael Bendis and Ryan Sook. Gummy, who works for Red Cloud, is in the process of buying what she believes is the real Dial H for Hero disk from a known associate when The Question arrives to break up the buy. Meanwhile, Clark meets with Melody Moore, who explains that the Mayor has decided not to allow the fire department to continue pursuing the investigation about the rash of fires. Superman goes to meet with the Mayor, who he finds incapacitated. This leads to an encounter with Red Cloud, who manages to chase him off by using her powers. In the end, it is revealed that Red Cloud is Miss Goode.

AQUAMAN #42 by Dan Abnett and Lan Medina. A DROWNED EARTH TIE-IN. Aquaman has been stabbed by Poseidon and that leads Arthur to a symbolic journey through his mind. Young Arthur and his father sail on a blood-filled sea and battle against Orm, before transforming into Aquaman to fight against Corum Rath, the Scavenger’s men and Black Manta. In the end, Mera arrives and gives him Poseidon's trident to use to defeat Manta. Back in the real world, a healed Aquaman takes down Poseidon and prepares to take on the invaders.

AQUAMAN/JUSTICE LEAGUE: DROWNED EARTH #1 by Scott Snyder, Francis Manapul and Howard Porter. While Mera, Flash and Superman fight against the Sea Gods, Aquaman and Wonder Woman show up to help, with Aquaman carrying Poseidon’s trident. Arthur explains that the Sea Gods had been betrayed by Poseidon and therefore they are not really the enemy. He and Mera argue and he decides he needs to talk to them. But that may be too late as they have unleashed the Death Kraken. Cheetah arrives and attacks Wonder Woman but Batman, in one of Luthor’s old battlesuits, arrives and the tide begins to turn. Luthor calls the villains home, as they have secured the Totality. But Manta has thoughts of his own and, just as the Sea Gods realize that maybe they should cease their actions, Manta betrays them and kills two of them, declaring himself the new Sea God. Unfortunately, he can’t control the Death Kraken and begs for Luthor’s help, which he refuses to give. To save the world, Arthur drags Manta inside the Kraken and blows it up, apparently with both dying in the process. In the end, Mera and Tyyde form an alliance, a memorial is built to Aquaman and the League decides to let Mera be a League member in her husband’s place. But it appears Aquaman has survived.

BATGIRL #29 by Mairghread Scott and Paul Pelletier. Barbara shows up at the art museum, meeting with her father and Detective Douglas, who is the new Grotesque. She turns off the lights and changes into Batgirl, where she encounters Douglas, who admits that he is not being controlled by Wyrm but is acting on his own. The pair battle as the sleeper agents hold everyone hostage. She eventually gets through to Douglas, who turns on the sleepers, defeating Wyrm but losing his life in the process. In the end, Barbara gets her operation to fix her issues and Jim Gordon is questioned by the FBI.

BATMAN #58 by Tom King and Mikel Janin. The Penguin gets released from prison, but not until after he has a heart to heart conversation with Bane. Upon release, his crew starts a crime spree while, at the same time, Batman is investigating a series of other crimes, including the murder of another woman in Gotham. Batman goes out to take down Penguin’s thugs, leading to a meeting between the two. Meanwhile, it looks like someone is prepared to kill Alfred.

BATMAN #59 by Tom King and Mikel Janin. Batman interrogates The Penguin, who admits to killing three women but is giving up Bane because he was responsible for the death of Penguin’s wife Penny. Batman breaks into Arkham and beats up a mentally incapacitated Bane. Jim Gordon arrives and demands Batman stops, leading to The Dark Knight punching Gordon. Gordon orders Batman to leave, allowing Arkham’s doctors to treat Bane, who, while critically injured, smiles slyly.

BATMAN BEYOND #26 by Dan Jurgens and Brett Booth. The Joker is back and causing havoc, which causes Batman and Robin to save the day, saving Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson and others in the process. In the end, the Joker revisits an old friend in the form of the crowbar that killed Jason Todd. And he plans on using it on the new Robin.

CATWOMAN #5 by Joelle Jones. Mrs. Creel has killed her husband, which she passes off as a suicide. Meanwhile, Catwoman gets captured while visiting her sister and is brought to meet with Mrs. Creel, whether she wants to or not.

THE CURSE OF BRIMSTONE #8 by Justin Jordan and Eduardo Pansica. Salesman’s agent continues to resurrect the Drowned Dead and turns the townspeople against Annie. To save his sister, Joe runs into Brimstone and kills everyone in the town, leading to his sister driving away from her brother.

DAMAGE #11 by Robert Venditti and Aaron Lopresti. Damage battles member of the Justice League, leading to him defeating Guy Gardener, Vixen, Flash and Green Arrow. But then, Superman arrives.

DEATHSTROKE #37 by Christopher Priest and Fernando Pasarin. Slade is still locked up in Arkham and has not been captured by aliens. Has this all been a dream or not? Meanwhile, Rose and Joey are sent on a mission to kill a prison inmate on Death Row before she is put to death. But things go wrong when she finds that Joey has been murdered and Deathstroke is not who she thought he was and completes the hit on the inmate. Now this fake Deathstroke wants Willow to come out.

DETECTIVE COMICS #992 by James Robinson and Carmine DiGiandomenico. Batman and Two Face take on Kobra while the rest of the Bat Family take on their followers throughout the city. While they take down a lot of the bad guys, Batman reveals to Gordon that Kobra has developed a virus more powerful than Anthrax and they plan on releasing it throughout Gotham.

DETECTIVE COMICS #993 by James Robinson and Carmine DiGiandomenico. Kobra has been defeated and Harvey Dent is dead. How did this happen? Batman and Two-Face went after Kobra and the villain shot the pressure valves on the toxin, leading to an explosion which killed him. In actuality, Harvey survived and had planned a meeting with Leviathan to give them a sample of the toxin. Seeing things go bad, the Fireflies desert Harvey and that leads to a battle between the Dark Knight and his long-time villain.

THE FLASH #58 by Joshua Williamson and Rafa Sandoval. Barry and Iris are in Badhnista in search of the new Forces. After saving some folks and stopping a purse snatcher, they end up crossing paths with a pair of super powered villains called Gemini, destroying a centuries old church in the process. Determined to get answers, Barry and Iris go to Gorilla City, where they find the results of an ape massacre.

THE FLASH #59 by Joshua Williamson and Rafa Sandoval. Barry and Iris are in Gorilla City and witnessing the results of a massacre. They learn, after meeting with a group of gorilla scientists, that Grodd was not responsible for this, but Gemini was. They also learn that the gorillas knew of the fur forces and they were blessed with Sage Force. But the video they are watching has been corrupted, leading Flash to contact Commander Cold and get some technical advice. He finds that there is a huge energy spike in Corto Maltese and that is where Iris and Barry head to. When they leave, Gemini arrives and kills the scientists. In Corto Maltese, Flash encounters Fuerza.

GREEN ARROW #46 by Julie Benson, Shawna Benson and German Peralta. Citizen is still looking to do in Oliver Queen and has had his followers take hostages at a party which leads to Ollie and Canary having to save he day. Later, Dinah investigates the offices of the late Mr. Slade while Arrow visits Kevin Carlson looking for answers, where he learns that Oliver didn’t kill that girl in a car accident, but Brett did. This leads him to meet with the crooked sheriff which in turn leads him to seek out a dirtier cop named Joe Stanz. He investigates Stanz’ home and learns that Stanz is Citizen. After an explosive confrontation, Ollie goes public and holds a press conference, revealing he is not only innocent but going into police protection. As he leaves, he discovers his driver is really Citizen.

THE GREEN LANTERN #1 by Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp. Green Lantern Maxim Tox, with the help of his partner Floozle Flem battles and defeats a member of the Spider Guild. But the leader gets away and, while responding to a distress call, Tox gets killed. The boss reports to his boss, revealing that he only got away because of his having a Luck Dial. The bad guys, thanks to the Luck Dial, manage to escape their bonds and head towards Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, Hal is enjoying some private time with a young lady before he gets into a fight with some aliens passing themselves off as human. After the fight, he finds the downed spaceship and dying Lantern Chriselon inside, who tells him that alien killers have been released. With his last breath, he implores Hal to use his Lantern to fight them. He takes out the villains before being called to New Oa, where he learns that there is a traitor among the Lanterns. In the end, Controller Mu has the Luck Dial and brings it to The Weaponeer, who looks an awful lot like Hal Jordan.

HARLEY QUINN #53 by Sam Humphries and Lucas Werneck. Harley is still trying to earn enough money to pay off her debts and is doing it through wild stunts and broadcasting them over the Internet. Major Disaster’s daughter Penny decides to take on the family name, but her Disaster Disk doesn’t quite cut the mustard, so she renames herself Minor Disaster and decides to publicly embarrass Harley to make a name for herself. After a number of unsuccessful attempts, she finally succeeds by making Harley release a video where she insults her audience, ruining Harley’s Internet career.

HARLEY QUINN #54 by Sam Humphries and Lucas Werneck. Harley deals with the fallout from her video being released with her disrespecting her audience. But Minor Disaster’s plan backfires, as Harley’s fans applaud her for speaking out and being honest. Major Disaster shows up and refuses his daughter’s wanting to team-up. This upsets Harley, who feels bad about it. This also upsets Minor Disaster, who decides to use her power to destroy Coney Island. Harley tries to convince Minor Disaster to stop, while Tina, along with lots of Coney Island residents, team up to keep Coney Island from sinking. Minor Disaster creates a volcano in the ocean, which saves Coney Island. In the end, Major Disaster reaches out to his daughter, who says she will make her own legacy. And Harley: she has her own major disaster as her family shows up for Christmas.

HAWKMAN #6 by Robert Venditti and Bryan Hitch. With Atom fighting the planet Moz-ga in the Microverse, Hawkman digs into the planet to find the source of the Nth Metal. What he finds is his spaceship from another incarnation of himself, where the reactor core is made of Nth Metal. His plan is to use this power to help fight against the Deathbringers.  In the end, Kartar plans on using the Deathbringers to kill Carter Hall.

HEROES IN CRISIS #3 by Tom King, Clay Mann and Lee Weeks. In the days before the massacre at Sanctuary, several heroes find themselves in the Chamber Rooms, where they can work out their problems in a virtual reality setting. Booster Gold has a conversation with himself. Wally West spends time with his wife and kids. Lagoon Boy takes repeated shots from a virtual laser. An alarm is sounded and that brings all the heroes out of their Chambers. Lagoon Boy is killed, falling dead among the bodies of Gunfire, Red Devil and others. Wally finds Roy and then is knocked out, possibly killed, by Harley Quinn.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #12 by James Tynion IV and Frazer Irving. DROWNED EARTH PART THREE. With most of the Earth underwater, Mera, Superman and The Flash are in the Tomb of Arion fighting against Drogue, Manta and their minions. Mera fashions a sword from a piece of the Tear of Extinction and stabs Drogue, which leads to the villains retreating and the flood waters retreating. The Legion of Doom has made their way into the Hall of Justice, with Cheetah and Luthor preparing to grab The Totality, even as Batman confronts them. The pair grab The Totality and teleport away. In the Graveyard of the Gods, Poseidon tells Wonder Woman and Aquaman that Arion wanted to make peace with the Ocean Lords, which didn’t sit well with Poseidon, who had Arion banish them. Poseidon gives Aquaman his trident, so they can fight the Ocean Lords. In the end, Manta meets with the Ocean Lords, who unleashes the Death Kraken. Continued in AQUAMAN/JUSTICE LEAGUE:DROWNED EARTH #1.

JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #5 by James Tynion IV and Daniel Sampere. We begin with the funeral for The Nightmaster, attended by many magical characters including the Phantom Stranger and Blue Devil, before Bobo goes back to the Oblivion Bar, where he gets drunk while Traci 13 runs the bar. Justice League Dark arrives, and Bobo explains how The Nightmaster gave Bobo a magical sword which allows anyone to go to Myrra. The team wants to go, but Bobo is hesitant as he was talked into casting a spell which filled the realm with dragons and undead warriors. They go, but Blue Devil, who runs Myrra, isn’t happy to see them, saying its time for Bobo to pay up for breaking their pact.

JUSTICE LEAGUE ODYSSEY #3 by Joshua Williamson and Philippe Briones. This whole mission began because Starfire and Cyborg stole Brainiac's ship from the Hall of Justice. Starfire wanted to find Tamaran wile Cyborg had the urge to go to the Ghost Sector, both of which were thoughts implanted by Darkseid. After being the in temple, they all decide to hightail it out of there and follow a white noise to another planet, where it seems like Starfire is dying. They meet an alien who explains he was once a medic and can heal Starfire from the plague she is infected with. Jess and Azrael head out to find parts they can scavenge to repair their ship, meeting a creepy alien named Vulg, who is making the last survivors of Colu his slave, leading to a battle.  The team gets reunited with a healed Starfire leading the way.  The freed slaves are thrilled to see Cyborg, saying “all hail the machine.” Vulg contacts Rapture, who believes only Azrael "can lead these worlds to their destiny". But the planet that Rapture is on has a giant statue of Cyborg on it.