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.