DC UNIVERSE Month 15, Part 2

JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #8 by James Tynion IV and Alvarez Martínez Bueno. The team members are all over trying to stop the various events connected to Otherkind, Meanwhile, Man-Bat is in the basement of the Hall of Justice, trying to find a way to free Khalid Nassour from the urn he took from Dr. Fate’s tower. At the Oblivion Bar, the place is filling up with magic types rescued from Otherkind. The Upside Down man shows up and Bobo has to open a portal to Myrra to get everyone away from him. Zatanna and Wonder Woman have gone to Papa Midnite’s bar to gather intel about the location of Mordru. Man-Bat succeeds in saving Khalid, who warns that Dr. Fate is looking to kill magic and restore order. That’s when Fate shows up with the Lords of Order.

JUSTICE LEAGUE ODYSSEY #6 by Dan Abnett and Carmine di Giandomenico. Darkseid is on the planet Aeolon, where he is using the inhabitants to help him find a site for a new Apokolips. They turn on him, as they had been programmed by Brainiac to stop Darkseid. Meanwhile, the team heads to Tamaran, where they crash land and find the planet as all but been destroyed. Blackfire arrives and explains that this is Darkseid’s doing after he reneged on a deal to spare their planet from the effects of the Ghost Sector. To make sure his plan fails, Blackfire’s army must kill the Odyssey team.

NAOMI #2 by Brian Michael Bendis, David F. Walker and Jamal Campbell. Naomi continues to try and get information from Dee, who gets upset and tosses her out of his shop. Baack at home, Naomi questions her adoptive parents about her true parents and gets nowhere. Later, while talking with Annabelle, she learns that Dee was once in Iron Heights. That night, she sneaks out to go to Dee’s place and finds a photograph of a bearded man, presumed to be Dee, with a woman bearing a resemblance to Naomi.  

NIGHTWING #57 by Scott Lobdell, Zack Kaplan and Travis Moore. Ric sends some quality time with Bea before she heads off to meet with Barbara Gordon. Later, Councilman Pollard is attacked and kidnapped by Duela Dent, who trusses him up with a bomb and sends him off to a restaurant filled with people. Elsewhere, Ric seems to like the idea of working, as needed, with Sapienza’s team.

RED HOOD OUTLAW #31 by Scott Lobdell and Pete Woods. Jason has been captured by

Solitary, who reveals he was responsible for teaming Bizarro and Artemis with Jason. He is also the man behind Underlife and is responsible for creating all of the genetically altered Solomon Mondays. During their fight, Bunker gets free. Jason and his dog head off to track down Solitary and comes across Wingman in the process, who rumbles with him and tries to get him on his side. Jason eventually finds Solitary, who reveals he was working for the government, who strapped people up to a machine to mine their minds. Lex Luthor authorized a massacre of the lab and, in the process, becomes merged with the other two inmates on the machine. Solitary says that he is creating an empire to give to Jason, his son, when Jason realizes this is a FAKE Solitary and throughs a crowbar through it, before escaping. In the end, Jason and his new friends visit Roy’s grave and head off to Gotham.

SHAZAM #3 by Geoff Johns and Dale Eaglesham. King Kid hosts a party in Funland and declares that he is to be the seventh member of the Marvel family. Mary is suspicious of everything, but King Kid says they can leave…before he has his followers attack the kids. Eugene, Billy and Pedro transform into their Marvel selves while trying to save their friends and not cause too much destruction. In the process, Eugene and Pedro end up in Gameland while Darla and Freddy end up in The Wildlands, where they are going to be taken to the tigers.

SIDEWAYS #13 by Dan Didio and Kenneth Rocafort. Tempus reveals to The Giver how he found Derek, gave him his powers and sent him back to Earth. Meanwhile, Derek tries to get acquainted with his biological mother, when his father tells him there is a break in the case involving the death of his mother. Derek meets with Detective Hopkins, who tells him a security guard named Jimmy was involved. Derek tracks down Sandy Bridwell: his mother’s assistant. It seems she was looking for a promotion and, with Jimmy’s help, they knocked out Derek’s mom. But the hit to her head was too hard and that killed her. He uses her powers to send her somewhere. In the end, he finally replies to his mother’s text from before she died. And, unbeknownst to him, someone answers…

THE SILENCER #14 by Dan Abnett and V Ken Marion. Brought back through the Lazarus Pit and now a devoted follower of Talia, Hope goes out on her first mission. After the mission is completed, Hope reveals she is not under Talia’s control. She gets called to a meeting with Talia and is told that she was used as a child in an experiment by Talia’s father to produce genetically altered children. Two died and the other two are Raze and Hope. She sends Hope off to find Splycer, the architect behind this, and take out him and any other children. Meanwhile, Hope’s husband and son find out that Hope wasn’t the simple housewife they thought she was when they find a secret buried in their backyard.

  

SUPERGIRL #27 by Marc Andreyko and Eduardo Pansica. Zn’dr is on a warship with his adoptive mother while taking care of an injured Krypto. Mom is upset that her son disobeyed her and is convinced that Supergirl is here to destroy her. The two argue and Krypto leaps off the table, destroys the mother’s hand and allows the pair to escape. Back at the prison, Supergirl is in a fight with Splyce, which is being watched by Harry Hokum,. During the fight, a young female prisoner is killed in a crossfire, which leads to Kara erupting and using her powers to take out Splyce. Two aliens are analyzing Zaar’s axe, which flies off and goes straight to Kara, who wants to kill Splyce but decides against it. The Omega men arrive and help the wounded prisoners, where Kara meets Starfire’s brother Ryand’r. Hokum is pretty pissed at the outcome of the battle and has decided to his new army on them-an army of Supergirl cones. While checking the prisoners, Kara notices a strange scar on their necks, which she recalls is Kryptonian cloning tech.

SUPERMAN #8 by Brian Michael Bendis, Ivan Reis and Brandon Peterson. While Jon is being healed by Kelex, Superman goes off and fights Mongul. Upon returning, it is revealed that Jon is normal 17-year old Kryptonian. Jon continues his tale of being with Jor-El, wile meeting some of the Green Lanterns in the process. Later, as Jor-El is prepared to send Jon home, their ship is attacked and Jor-El disappears, leaving Jon alone with a vary angry and confused looking group of altered Justice League members-members from another Earth.

TEEN TITANS #27 by Adam Glass and Bernard Chang. Red Arrow spends some time consoling and bonding with Crush while Roundhouse takes Kid Flash to his house for dinner with Roundhouse’ mom.  D’Jinn reveals to Robin how she had betrayed her evil brother and ended up trapped in the ring as punishment, who was then used over the centuries to do unspeakable things. Just when they are about to kiss, Damien gets notification that Deathstroke has escaped from Arkham.

THE TERRIFICS #13 by Jeff Lemire and Joe Bennett. Java and his team attack Mr. Terrific and his wife from another world. Leading to them jumping through a bunch of Earths in the Multiverse to escape, before ending up on Earth 30. Java and the Dreadfuls arrive and just when things look the worst, the rest of The Terrifics arrive: Metamorpho, Element Dog, Phantom Girl, Plastic Man, his son Luke…and Tesla Strong.

TITANS #34 by Dan Abnett and Bruno Redondo. Mother Blood is interrogating Steel and Kyle Rayner, to use their information to get The Bleed into the entire multiverse. She reveals that Raven has been split in two, with a good self and the bad self being Commander Lenore. During this, Ernest realizes that this isn’t right and tells Lord Travesty he is sorry for making him this way and will fix it. But when Hinton goes to help Steel and Kyle, Travesty betrays him and seemingly kills him. Meanwhile, the rest of the tem fights and defeats their enemy, but then Raven sees Lenore and that turns the tide against the Titans. In the end, Beast Boy is infected with the Red.

WONDER TWINS #1 by Mark Russell and Stephen Byrne. Zan and Jayna start their day at school with Zan giving an embarrassing report about how their race deal with the onset of puberty. Later, they are at the Hall of Justice, where Zan doesn’t quite understand what it’s like to be Justice League members and get to babysit the Hll while the League takes on Mxyzptlk. Later, during track practice, Zan experiences Thunderlust for the first time, resulting in a new nickname for him. In the end, Mxyzptlk shows up in the Hall and Jayna gets the supercomputer to say his name backwards, sending him packing.

WONDER WOMAN #64 by G. Willow Wilson and Jesus Merino. Veronica Cale, who is convinced that Olympus and Themyscira have been destroyed, is talking with an imprisoned Nemesis. Meanwhile, Diana is taking care of the wounded Steve Trevor and Aphrodite. Cadmus the Pegasus arrives and takes Diana to Washington D.C. , where she finds a huge crater and Nemesis, who reveals that Cale is behind everything. The pair fight and Cale shows up to frame Diana for attacking her employee. Cale insists that it might be time for heroes to be registered to stop this kind of trouble. Then she reveals that Themsycira has been destroyed, which leads to Diana leaving in despair.

WONDER WOMAN #65 by G. Willow Wilson and Jesus Merino. Diana meets with Steve and Aphrodite before heading out to find Nemesis. She finds her in a cave that she has made into her lair and Nemesis attacks. Diana gets bit by Nemesis, who reveals that she has used her power to control Cale, not the other way around. Diana realizes that Cale is in trouble and she buries Nemesis in her cave. Meeting with Cale in the end, Diana reveals that Nemesis as controlling her and promises to find her daughter if Cale backs off on her lawsuit and plans to have superheroes be registered.

YOUNG JUSTICE #2 by Brian Michael Bendis, Patrick Gleason and Emanuela Lupacchino. Robin is teamed up with Amethyst in Gemworld while, back on Earth Wonder Girl meets Jinny Hex and Teen Lantern. Cassie reveals that she met with her grandfather a few weeks ago and he gave her an amulet that is part of the Trinity of the Gods and it is her duty of follow her destiny. Back in the present, she transports Hex, Lantern and herself to Gemworld, where they meet up with Robin and Amethyst. And that’s when Lord Opal of the Gemworld shows up.

DC UNIVERSE Month 15, Part 1

ACTION COMICS #1008 by Brian Michael Bendis and Steve Epting. Adam Strange goes to the D.E.O. and meets with Director Bones, which is a short meeting as the big blue light from last issue shows up and destroys the D.E.O. and almost all within it. Elsewhere, Amanda Waller meets with Sam Lane, before they encounter the mysterious blue light. When they awake, Waller shoots Lane. Lois Lane finally makes her way back to the Daily Planet, here she finds her old desk occupied by Robinson Goode. In her new space, she and Clark find a scared Jimmy Olsen, who is still suffering from the blue light attack that wiped out Kobra. Amanda Waller arrives and declares that Leviathan has arrived.

ADVENTURES OF THE SUPER SONS #7 by Peter J. Tomasi and Carlo Barberi. A captured Joker Jr. is being interrogated about the location of the Super Sons by two other prisoners: Rex and Grundette. Flashing back a week, we see that Jon was being held in solitary confinement to dampen his powers. Robin is out in Levitztown, looking for Jon, beating up some villains for answers. AL-X, a Green Lantern in training, sends Robin off to meet Gizmo, who Joker Jr. had previously met with. Gizmo sends Robin off to an obvious trap, where Rex and Grundette are waiting. Just as things look grim, Jon appears, having gained his strength back from a stray ray of sunlight in his cell.

AQUAMAN #45 by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Robson Rocha. Andy and Caille take a boat ride, where Caille explains how the world  was created by the gods known as Father Sea and Mother Salt. When the gods killed Father Sea, Mother Salt killed all the new gods, became Namma, creating the sun and humans in the process. Namma was then separated into seven parts and sent around the world. She has been able to assemble six of them, needing just one piece to be complete. It turns out that Caille is not Namma’s daughter, but the last part she needs to become a restored Namma.

BATGIRL #32 by Mairghread Scott and Norm Rapmund. Batgirl has made her way into the Gotham News Service where Cormorant is poised to kill Alejo. This leads to an uneasy alliance between Batgirl and Bard. Cormorant makes his way into the live interview and Bard takes a bullet to save Alejo. Just as he is ready to kill her, Batgirl shows up and cripples him, but he still manages to take her hostage. Batgirl tries to make a deal with him but Bard assassinates him before things get out of hand. Alejo is saved, ut Batgirl still doesn’t trust Bard. And who is the person behind Cormorant anyway?

BATMAN #64 by Joshua Williamson and Guillem March. Part One of THE PRICE. Batman is still troubled by the massacre at Sanctuary, that resulted in the deaths of Wally West and Roy Harper, among others. Over at the Flash Museum, there is an attack, which leads to Batman and The Flash teaming up to save everyone. Batman reveals this is just another calculated attack by Gotham Girl, designed to hurt Batman. Gotham Girl has been busy: she has resurrected her brother. Continued in THE FLASH #64.

BATMAN #65 by Joshua Williamson and Guillem March. Part Three of THE PRICE. Gotham Girl relates her origin story, which isn’t the real story. She monologues that she needs a real origin. Meanwhile, Batman and Flash continue their fight with the clones, who eventually burn themselves out by using their powers. At Central City Police Department, Gotham Girl and the Flash fight, but the Hank arrives and beats down The Flash. But Hank’s powers burn out and he dies again. Batman arrives and that leads to a distraught Gotham Girl powering up.

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THE BATMAN WHO LAUGHS #3 by Scott Snyder and Jock. Batman and Gordon meet with James Jr., trying to convince him to go back to his murdering ways to defeat the Batman Who Laughs. James Jr. declines but then the Grim Knight shows up and kidnaps Gordon. Elsewhere, the Batman Who Laughs meets with Penguin, kills an elderly Bruce Wayne and tells Penguin to look for a traitor in his organization named Matches Malone. Batman again meets with James Jr., but gets a call from Alfred saying the Joker made his y off the table, attacked Alfred and escaped. In the end, Alfred goes in the Bat Cave and finds that Batman has embraced the Dark Side.

BATMAN BEYOND #29 by Dan Jurgens and Brett Booth. Joker has captured Robin and is prepared to kill him with a crowbar on live tv unless he reveals who the mysterious “Bruce” is.  Batman shows up to rescue him, but finds he is not there. In actuality, Joker has made his way to the Batcave, as Robin gave up Bruce Wayne’s secret. The former Batman and The Joker duel with crowbars and, just before the clown is ready to kill his long-time enemy, he has a heart attack and dies.

CATWOMAN #8 by Joelle Jones and Elena Casagrande. Mrs. Creel meets with a mysterious woman who has a special elixir she needs. She also sees an artifact which the source of the elixir is. Penguin hires Catwoman to obtain the artifact while Creel uses the elixir to resurrect her dead son. Catwoman makes her way through the stronghold of the guardian of the artifact, fighting with her to obtain it. Although she is beaten badly, Catwoman gets the upper hand and is given the artifact, despite the warning that it will only bring problems. Catwoman takes it back to the Penguin, who apparently has double crossed her.

THE CURSE OF BRIMSTONE #11 by Justin Jordan and Denys Cowan. Annie and Joe battle the Salesman’s followers, leading to the rift being opened. In the end, Infernal crosses over, stating that it’s a pleasure to finally meet Brimstone.

DAMAGE #14 by Robert Venditti and Aaron Lopresti. Damage fights his way through Monster Island before finally getting saved by Congorilla. When his human host wakes up, he tells his story to Congo Bill. Bill locks himself into a special cage as his mind is transferred into Congorilla, who proclaims that they’re all monsters here.

DEATHSTROKE #40 by Christoper Priest, Fernando Pasarin and Carlo Pagulayan. Two-Face has helped Rose get free and now sends her home. Deathstroke continues to try to break out Arkham and that means fighting a true Rogue’s Gallery of villains, ending up with him facing Hugo Strange, who shoots himself in the head. Deathstroke remarks how the gun which was used to kill Two-Face was actually filled with non-lethal gel bullets. Devon shows up and they make heir way out to go battle aliens, complete with a Fourth Wall break involving Rob Liefeld. They take down the aliens and shut the portal down, which is an old television set. In the end, Robin and Kid Flash investigate the Arkham breakout, which will lead to a crossover between this title and TEEN TITANS.

DETECTIVE COMICS #998 by Peter J. Tomasi and Dough Mahnke. Battle battle Strange for answers into the mysterious events of the recent past, which leads the Dark Knight to tell a tale of teaming up with Etrigan to fight demons. That leads him to meet with Cyborg’s father, who turns out to be an illusion. It looks like the real villain here…is a younger version of Batman himself.

DETECTIVE COMICS #999 by Peter J. Tomasi and Dough Mahnke. Batman faces his younger self, which turns out to be, just like everything that has happened over the past few issues, a self-immersive computer program called 2.1 Landscape. Batman runs it every year on his birthday to make him a better detective and crime fighter. In the end, after his team gets him out of the machine, he goes out to dinner with Leslie and Alfred.

THE FLASH #64 by Joshua Williamson and Rafa Sandoval. Part Two of THE PRICE.  Gotham Girl is with her brother, who may be resurrected, but is looking ill. Behind her is a mysterious figure who apparently is behind it all. Meanwhile, Batman and The Flash are investigating the attack at the Flash Museum, before heading off to the Caribbean, where they investigate a castle filled with articles about the Justice League. Heading into another room, they find the lab filled with clones and Venom, meaning Bane may be the mysterious figure back Gotham Girl’s actions. Barry finds Psycho Pirate’s mask and asks Batman if he ever sent Gotham Girl to Sanctuary. Gotham Girl shows up and inserts another dose of Venom into the machines, bringing the clones to life. Gotham Girl reveals her next target is the Central City Police Department, before heading out and leaving Flash and Batman to deal with their attackers. Continued in BATMAN #65.

THE FLASH #65 by Joshua Williamson and Rafa Sandoval. Batman and the Flash battle Gotham Girl to try to save her. Troubled by Wally’s death, Flash is determined to save her life when she is in danger of dying from using her powers and being affected by the Venom Toxin. Iris is there and she tees off on Batman for letting Wally die at Sanctuary. Gotham Girl, who has no memory of what she has done, is put into stasis until she has been cured. Flash and Batman get into a fight over the whole Sanctuary thing, which leads to Flash racing out of the Batcave. In the end, set in the future, Batman has a discussion with Batman concerning events we have yet to see and asks if we can trust Barry. The Year of the Villain is coming…

GREEN ARROW #49 by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing and Javier Fernandez. Count Vertigo continues to demand Roy Harper so he can have his revenge for being imprisoned. The two battle until finally Ollie tell him that Roy is dead. Vertigo, upset that his revenge can’t be obtained, tells Ollie that Roy is another citizen that he couldn’t save, which causes Ollie to snap and he prepares to kill Vertigo until Canary intervenes. In the end, a mysterious robot arrives to meet with Canary with orders from the government to destroy Green Arrow.

THE GREEN LANTERN #4 by Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp. In a space bar, a Blackstar tells a tale of how one of her people saved a planet that was threatened by sun-eaters. A four-armed space man tells a tale of how three Green Lanterns actually went to another planet that had been threatened by sun-eaters. Jordan’s plan is to get some good deeds done before being taken into custody for killing a prisoner. A Green Lantern that is a sentient star arrives and diverts the sun-eater so it can be taken into custody. It is revealed that Jordan was taken into custody by the Guardians and was taken away for mental therapy. Jordan is then revealed to be the four-armed space man and the Blackstar is really Countess Delzebeth. Jordan is here to join th Darkstars and is offering a power ring in exchange for his admission to the team.

HARLEY QUINN #58 by Sam Humphries and John Timms. The Harley/Batman team-up continues as they try to find who killed Dr. Regelmann. Along the ay, she stops a wife beater. Batman brings her to Arkham, even as she admits to knowing ho did this. It turns out Lord Death Man as responsible, which leads to the new Dynamic Duo to take him down. Batman lets her go and she meets with Mirand’r who congratulates her on passing the first trial. But there are three witches who are still not happy Harley messed with Captain Triumph.

HAWKMAN #9 by Robert Venditti and Bryan Hitch. Carter meets with Xanadu and explains that the Deathbringers are coming. No sooner does that happen when the Deathbringers show up, leading to a fight between them and Hawkman. During the battle, Carter’s old friend Idamm shows up, leading to a fight between them.  Idamm gains the advantage and is ready to kill Hawkman.

HEROES IN CRISIS #6 by Tom King, Clay Mann and Mitch Gerads. During a series of flashbacks, we see moments with Wally, Harley and Gnarrk, during their time in VR at Sanctuary. In the end, Gnarrk dies, Roy is near death and Wally is comforting him when he takes an energy blast to the chest. Booster walks in with his energy weapon ready and sees Harley, with both saying neither is supposed to be there.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #17 by Scott Snyder and Jim Cheung. Martian Manhunter is on Mars in the Sh’Anne Valley when he is forced to team up with Lex to survive. J’onn recalls being in the scientist lab as a child and being befriended by a young boy named Albie. J’onn agrees to work with Lex if he helps him find Albie. The pair team up to survive before both men get transported back to their respective bases. In the end, it is revealed that the scientist is Lionel Luthor and Albie was Lex.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #18 by James Tynion IV and Pasqual Ferry. Luthor and Brainiac team-up to find how to bring Perpetua back to life. Brainiac reveals he wants Perpetua and her power for himself and reveals how Vandal Savage was the first to discover the Nth Metal, leading to a lifelong search for all the keys of Totality. Eventually, Savage turns on Lionel, turning him into a broken alcoholic. This was the reason for Lex killing Savage as revenge. In the end, the pair focus their minds onto the orb to bring Perpetua back to life.