DC UNIVERSE Month 24, Part 2

JUSTICE LEAGUE #35 by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV and Francis Manapul. The 1941 Starman tells the League that their Starman is dead. All across the Universe and the Multiverse, Perpetua’s symbols lights the sky. On Earth-19, Perpetua arrives, even as Batman calls for the members of Justice Incarnate. She wipes out that Earth, leaving 51 worlds. Kendra and Shane try to reach the League, but her ship is damaged and crashes,

JUSTICE LEAGUE #36 by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Francis Manapul and Howard Porter. While the Trinity tries to formulate a plan, Lex and the Legion celebrate their victory. But Perpetua turns the tables on them, turning Brainiac One Million into her throne and subdues Sinestro, Grodd and Cheetah, using them to power her chair. Kendra and Shane run afoul of the Anti-Monitor, who has betrayed his brothers and sided with his mother. Back on Earth, Luthor and his army shows up in their flying Hall of Doom. The League has an answer: a flying Hall of Justice.

JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #17 by James Tynion IV and Javi Fernandez. In the distant past, Circe made a deal with Hecate which gave her the power she has used for centuries. In the present, Wonder Woman is fascinated by the Black Diamond of Eclipso, causing Bobo to realize that Diana isn’t really Diana. Circe reveals herself, casts a spell that silences Zatanna and regresses Bobo. Circe’s minions in the form of Grundy, the Floronic Man and Midnite arrive as Zatanna grabs a knife and slits open the mouth that Circe sealed, allowing her to cast a spell taking the Black Diamond from Circe and lock themselves into the vault. In the Collective Unconscious, Diana confers with Witchfire and, even though things could be worse, an old enemy is primed to make sure it does get worse.

JUSTICE LEAGUE ODYSSEY #15 by Dan Abnett and Will Conrad. The giant block has transformed into Eskaton with the goal of killing Orion. As Jessica and Hax try to flee, Orion, Blackfire and Dex-Starr come together to fight the Eskaton. Dex-Starr cuts a deal that, if the creature stops its’ attack, they will take it to Darkseid, who is still making plans with Cyborg. The creature reverts back to the giant box and apparently the ship is in trouble, leading to Gamma Knife, who may very well be the Green Lantern recently introduce in FAR SECTOR, to head towards it.

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Ryan Sook. In the Sewers of Bludhaven,  Ultra Boy is pursuing a demon gangster named Mordru, who has stolen an ancient artifact. Karate Kid, Wildfire and Starman arrive, forcing Mordru to retreat. The artifact turns out to be Aquaman’s trident. Meanwhile, Saturn Girl transports Superboy to the city of New Metropolis where he meets the Legion of Super-Heroes including Rose. In the end, just as the other Legionnaires arrive with the trident, the Horraz arrive to take it back. At the same time, Madamhonor President is made aware that Superboy was pulled out of the Time Stream, breaking the number one rule of the United Planets. And she is also told of the stolen artifact.

LOIS LANE #5 by Greg Rucka and Mike Perkins. Renee breaks up a meeting that revolves around the business man that was recently killed. She kidnaps one of the men and tortures him to find out who is worth so much money to be killed. Elsewhere, Lois meets with a Washington aide and finds out there is a memo she needs to find.

METAL MEN #2 by Dan Didio and Shane Davis. In the bowels of Challengers Mountain, the Metal Men band together to contain the Nth Metal Man, injuring Lead and Mercury and killing Gold, But Magnus uses the Absorbascon to control the Nth Metal Man. Later, a giant flying creature comes out of the pit and flies off, spreading radiation as it goes. And, somewhere in an undisclosed location, Chemo awakes.

NIGHTWING #66 by Dan Jurgens and Ronan Cliquet. While the Nightwings save people, William Cobb has captured Ric and Beatrice, where he is implanting false memories of Dick Grayson inside him. In these memories, Cobb takes in Dick after his parent’s death and begins training him to be an assassin, eventually leading to him killing Bruce Wayne. In the end, Dick Grayson, in full Talon wear, confronts the Nightwings.

RED HOOD OUTLAW #40 by Scott Lobdell and David Messina. Jason and his team of trainees continue to investigate what Shay Veritas is up to. In the end, Jason and Clara come across Artemis and Bizarro, who knocks Jason out.

SHAZAM #8 by Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins. Eugene and Pedro are in the Wozenderlands with the wizard and the rabbit, where they lean that each of them…plus an as yet seventh family member are destined to sit on each of the seven thrones. Meanwhile, Billy’s dad has come to the foster home looking for his son, but leaves empty handed. Sivana, influenced by Mr. Mind, conspires with Black Adam and brings about a The Seven Sins to work with him. Billy finds himself in the Darklands, where the Ghost of Champions is asking for a favor to bring him back to life. The dead direct him to the house where Tawny, Darla and Freddy are and they escape back to the real world. Billy goes after his father and fights Black Adam. The Seven Sins grab his father and drop him from the sky, resulting in Mr. Batson changing into…a member of the Shazam family.

SUPERGIRL #36 by Marc Andreyko and Eduardo Pansica. Brainiac-1’s robots are attacking Supergirl, but that battle is only in her mind. But Brainiac-1 is exploring the Fortress as Krypto desperately tries to wake her. She wakes and flies off to find Batman battling Hawkman. She rescues Batman and they go off to find Superman, who is fighting Infected versions of Donna Troy and Blue Beetle. Blue Beetle throws a Batarang at Superman, which she catches, turning her into one of The Infected. She wakes to find King Shazam standing over her. Realizing her powers have increased to maximum power, she goes after Brainiac-1, killing him. She realizes she needs no one andm with Krypto crying and whining, she flies off.

SUPERGIRL ANNUAL #2 by Robert Venditti and Laura Braga. Kara is a young girl on Krypton, where she is playing a version of hockey. After winning the match, she meets with a boy named Rix and the planet is rocked by an earthquake and she begins having horrific visions. Over the course of the next few days, she continues to have visions while the planet continues to have earthquakes. While caring for her cousin Kal, Rix comes over and they share a kiss. After having another episodic vision, Kara wakes in her parent’s lab, where they tell her she needs to leave to escape Krypton’s destruction. She changes into her Infected form and Krypton explodes.  She awakes to find The Batman Who Laughs and gives her orders to follow him. This takes her to the Fortress of Solitude, where she is fully infected and attacks her cousin Kal.

SUPERMAN #17 by Brian Michael Bendis and Kevin Maguire. All the recent issues have been solved: Rogol Zaar is gone, Jor-El is dead and Jon has gone to be with the Legion of Super-Heroes. Superman meets with Lois, who shows him the lead lined box Luthor gave her and explains that what’s in the box is something she needs to publish in The Daily Planet. After discovering a secret S.T.A.R. Labs base, he meets with Zod and the Kara, who he explains that he needs to tell the truth and it will affect her. Next time, Superman reveals his identity to the world.

SUPERMAN’S PAL JIMMY OLSEN #5 by Matt Fraction and Steve Lieber. Timmy Olsen continues to prank Batman, Clark discovers that the body in Jimmy’s grave is an artificial decoy corpse, Lex continues to see the connection between the Luthor’s and the Olsens, and Batman pranks Jimmy back.

TALES FROM THE DARK MULTIVERSE: BLACKEST NIGHT #1 by Tim Seeley and Kyle Hotz. In the Dark Multiverse, Apokalips has been taken over by  the Black Lanterns. All of Earth’s heroes are dead from Nekron’s attack, except for Dove and Lobo who, along with a limbo tethered Sinestro, who has both White and Black Lantern rings, head there. It is revealed much of what has happened is because Sinestro refused to share the power of the rings, resulting in everyone’s death. They meet up with the only surviving New God, Mister Miracle, who uses his skills to get the team away from the zombies, including his wife Big Barda and Darkseid, who has become the God of Death. Scott plans to use Dove to transfer the Source energy combined with Sinestro’s white Lantern ring to resurrect the dead. But before they can accomplish it, Darkseid kills Lobo, creating multiple versions of himself. Darkseid tries to convince Sinestro to join him but, after Scott kills Dove, realizing his plan would not work without killing Barda, Sinestro uses his powers to create new life. But they are all patterned after Lobo, meaning they are bloodthirsty killers. He tries to escape by tearing a hole in space and time, but Tempus Fuginaut seals the hole.

TALES FROM THE DARK MULTIVERSE: INFINITE CRISIS #1 by James Tynion IV and Aaron Lopresti. Tempus Fuginaut examines what happened in the Dark Multiverse version of  Infinite Crisis. Blue Beetle kills Maxwell Lord and, with the help of Brother Eye, takes over Checkmate. Booster Gold visits him and Beetle tries to convince him to join him, but fails. Later, they Checkmate discovers a dead Luthor an Black Adam, finding another Lex, Alexander Luthor and Superboy Prime. Alexander wants to wipe out the world and start over and begins his purge by killing Lois and Clark of Earth-2. That sends Superboy Prime into a rage and he kills Alexander. Prime and Beetle team up, but that brings the Teen Titans and the JLA together to stop them. When they arrive, they find the One Beetle Army Corps and the heroes are forced to battle an army of O.M.A.C.S. Booster tries to stop Beetle and Ted kills his best friend. In the end, the O.M.A.C.s kill all the heroes and Beetle is now the ruler of the world…as an O.M.A.C.

TEEN TITANS #36 by Adam Glass and Bernard Chang. Roundhouse is still locked up in Damian's dungeon with his former teammates guarding him. The team continues to try to get Djinn out of her ring. Elsewhere, a mind-controlled Crush is destroying the city. The team goes after her, but quickly get defeated and captured by Crush and Lobo, who brings the fallen heroes to…The Other.

THE TERRIFICS #22 by Gene Luen Yang and Stephen Segovia. Mr. Terrible, Bizarro and son travel to the planet Bgtzl, where they steal the Phantom Zone crystal and use the time machine. This brings us to Metamorpho who has found himself as a child version of Metamorpho. In fact, the entire team have become children and they realize that Bizarro has turned the entire worls upside down. Rex gets his powers back, but Bizarro and Mr. Terrible create a Time Vortex and Paula is sucked into it. So pleased with what they have done, Bizarro and Mr. Terrible create a Time Loop to relive this day forever.

WONDER TWINS #9 by Mark Russell and Stephen Byrne. After helping the League, the Twins meet with Polly, who they have gotten out of prison. She reveals that her dad created Colonel 86 back in the day and they reveal that they believe he is in the Phantom Zone and can get him back. It is also revealed that the Twins grandfather used the disruptor to sentence people to the Zone and they were forced to leave for Earth because of the shame their family had brought. Elsewhere, The Scrambler gets some computer time and someone who just bought an old computer gets access to Colonel 86.

WONDER WOMAN #82 by Steve Orlando and Kieran McKeown. Cheetah is running wild on Themyscira now that the Dark Fates have freed her. Diana is relaxing with Etta when she learns that Cheetah is loose, so she heads to China to get a secret weapon. Cheetah continues her rampage and wants to kill off all of Diana’s gods, starting with Hera. But she crosses paths with Maggie. Just when things seem desperate, Diana arrives and says it’s time to finish this.

YOUNG JUSTICE #10 by Brian Michael Bendia and John Timms. Two months ago, Jinny broke about a robbery. Following that, her mother gives her a chest containing her inheritance-a chest from Jonah Hex filled with all sorts of artifacts. In the present, on Earth-3, the heroes of this world and Young Justice team up to save the day. After a tearful goodbye between Tim and the Earth-3 Stephanie Brown, the team comes back home. But home is in Oregon and they meet…Naomi.

DC UNIVERSE Month 24, Part 1

ACTION COMICS #1017 by Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita Jr. The Trinity finds themselves at the mercy of the Legion of Doom, standing among the fallen bodies of the other superheroes. The day before, Superman chases after Leviathan and finds himself transported to Gorilla City, where he has to fight his way home. Back in Metropolis, an explosion destroys the Ace Club, leading Superman to believe that Leviathan and the Invisible Mafia are at war. What could cause this? An offer from Luthor.

AQUAMAN #54 by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Robson Rocha and Jesús Merino. While laying waste to Amnesty Bay, he reminisces about his father, who taught him lessons, berated him often and died at the hands of Aquaman. Manta instructs the mech suit, which has his father as the A.I. inside, to shoot Jackson, Manta’s son. But before he can totally destroy Amnesty Bay, the giant monster, who was once the lighthouse keeper, rises up to attack.

BATGIRL #41 by Cecil Castellucci and Carmine Di Giandomenico. Batgirl nearly drowns but is rescued by Leslie. Oracle, believing Batgirl to be dead, decides she is not going to let Burnside down like Batgirl dead. Jason goes searching for Barbara but find Frankie instead. He convinces Oracle that he is with her and he also wants Batgirl’s memory erased. Barbara wakes and heads out, just before Oracle arrives looking for her.

BATMAN #82 by Tom King and Mikel Janin. Batman and Catwoman finally face off with Bane and beat him down. Just when Batman is about to break Bane’s back, Thomas Wayne and The Ventriloquist arrive and Wayne, who has destroyed the Bat Cave, shoots Bruce. He then says it is time to get the Psycho Pirate.

BATMAN #83 by Tom King and Mikel Janin. Batman wakes at the dinner table and hears Alfred’s voice via a recorded message. He sees Alfred’s dead body across from him and breaks down before seeing the phrase “You are not Batman” painted on to the wall. He tries to leave the room but finds the only exit walled up with bricks. As the message continues to play, Batman removes his cowl and mourns. As the message ends, an explosion removes the brick wall. Catwoman is in the doorway and, telling him that it is finally time, leads him past the Bat Family to a room with Thomas Wayne, Ventriloquist, and Psycho Pirate. Thomas asks if he finally gives up and Batman tells him that he will never give up.

BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #7 by Bryan Hill and Cian Tormey. Ishmael has Duke as his captive and is trying to get him to side with Ra's al Ghul before heading out to confront Katana and Black Lightning. They, along with Kaliber, are flying Sofia, who now calls herself Babylon, back to Gotham. Babylon attempts to kill a sleeping Katana, but Jefferson intervenes, only to be stopped by Kaliber, who has been aligned with Ra’s all along. He throws a bomb into the cockpit and tells them not to worry because Ra’s can resurrect them when they die. Meanwhile, Cassandra goes off to rescue Duke, leading to a battle with Ishmael. She rescues Duke, but he declares that he has been changed. On the plane with

BATMAN BEYOND #38 by Dan Jurgens and Sean Chen. Batwoman continues her war on the bad guys of Neo Gotham, but Bruce continues trying to figure out who she is. Throughout the issue, he realizes she is not Barbara or Melanie. Terry and Constance are still on the run from the law, stealing as they get the chance. Blight has returned to Neo Gotham and Batwoman confronts him, leading Bruce to realize that Derek Powers is alive.

BATMAN/SUPERMAN #4 by Joshua Williamson and David Marquez. Blue Beetle in now one of the Infected and is trashing the Fortress of Solitude. He gets joined by the rest of the Secret Six: Hawkman, King Shazam, Jim Gordon and Donna Troy. Supergirl arrives to lend a hand, but she catches an infected batarang, which affects too and makes her the last of the Secret Six. With the team complete, The Batman Who Laughs is ready to bring the Dark Multiverse to Earth.

CATWOMAN #17 by Joelle Jones. Selina gets a gift from Lex, which turns out to be a road map which takes her to the cave where Raina is. Raina kills Yilmaz and Finick, dumping their bodies in the Lazarus Pit and resurrecting them. Selina is caught by Adam, killed and thrown in the Pit, leading to her resurrection. In the end, Selina goes to Gotham and meets Zatanna.

DEATHSTROKE #49 by Christopher Priest and Fernando Pasarin. Joe finds Rose and an injured Terence in a dumpster after fleeing from Deathstroke’s attack.  In atuslity, it’s a decoy and Slade finds himself bound in protoplasm. He falls to Earth and no is confronted…by Deathstroke. Elsewhere, Slade is preparing to kill his e-wife when Wintergreen arrives, leading to a loving reunion. That’s when Joe arrives and takes Slade away. In space, Joe destroys the Diode, leading to him rapidly aging as he appears to succumb.

DETECTIVE COMICS #1015 by Peter J. Tomasi, Doug Mahnke and Jose Luis. Mr. Freeze has brought Nora back and cured her, thanks to Lex. They proceed to go on a crime spree, but Victor is having second thoughts, as he wants to settle down with his wife. But she is attracted to the power, turns on her husband and freezes him. In the Batcave, Batman finds a cure and successfully revives the victims. That’s when the Bat-signal is lit and Mr. Freeze is the man who lit it.

DETECTIVE COMICS #1016 by Peter J. Tomasi, Doug Mahnke and Jose Luis. Nora Fries continues to use her newfound powers to wreak havoc, creating a mausoleum with her husband’s name on it in the graveyard where her parents are buried. This leads to Victor teaming up with Batman. Victor has deduced that the serum that Lex gave him included fluid from the B-zero experiment that created Bizarro. This leads them to a statue of a ballerina in the Gotham museum, where Nora has killed one guard and is about to kill another when Batman and Freeze save him. Victor tries to talk sense to her and that goes bad. Freeze turns on Batman and tries to kiss his wife, but she sticks a syringe in his ear, which removes his ability to be outside of absolute zero, allowing Nora to get away. In the end, everyone at the theater have been revived and Victor is back in an absolute zero tube to keep him alive.

DIAL H FOR HERO #9 by Sam Humphries and Joe Quinones. Miguel and Summer are hiding out in plain sight in Metropolis. But Miguel wants to use the dial again and become Supermiguel. Summer explains that he can’t, but, despite warnings from The Operator, he does, becoming Early Adopter. Summer again becomes Lo-Lo Kick You, alerting Captain Thunderbolt. They flee in the rebuilt mayonnaise truck and plug in the C-Dial. They suddenly find themselves traveling to the Multiverse.

EVENT LEVIATHAN #6 by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev. Sam Lane is dead, Talia and the Silencer confront the heroes and Superman reveals that Leviathan is former Manhunter Mark Shaw. He gets away from Superman and that gathering of heroes, but his plan is not finished. He will reveal all secrets to the world. In the end, Lois reveals all that has transpired in an article in the Daily Planet. And Leviathan still ants to proceed forward, with Guardian Jim Harper by his side.

THE FLASH #82 by Joshua Williamson and Rafa Sandoval. Central City is in control of the Rogues, Iron Heights is now Ice Heights and the Flash is allegedly dead. Luthor gave Captain Cold with hard light technology which lets him use the power of Mirror Master’s Mirror Dimension. But there are insurgents led by Commander Cold, Kid Flash and Avery fighting against the Rogues, resulting in Commander Cold being frozen in ice. Kid Flash and Avery meet up with Iris, where they reveal they were able to get a piece of the mirror. In the end, Captain Cold visits with a captured Flash and he throws the frozen head of Commander Cold into the cell.

THE FLASH #83 by Joshua Williamson and Rafa Sandoval. Flash is still captured and so is Trickster, who declares there is no escape. But Golden Glider shows up, breaks the chains and breaks Flash out, although he is not able to use his powers because of a power dampener. As they battle Cold’s giant robots, Glider explains that everything that has happened while Flash was captive is because of Lex Luthor. She says that she is helping him because she needs to stop her brother. After finding out that Flash is free, he goes to the mirror wall and makes ice wolves to hunt for Glider and The Flash. They meet up with Kid Flash and Avery and Glider explains they must collect the different shards of Mirror Master’s mirror from each of the rogues. The wolves arrive and Glider takes off Flash’ inhibitor, leading to a huge explosion. Kid Flash reattaches the inhibitor and says Flash can never use the Speed Force again.

GREEN LANTERN: BLACKSTARS #1 by Grant Morrison and Xermanico. Controller Mu is in charge of the Blackstars, with Belzereth, Hal Jordan, now known as Parallax, and all the former Green Lanterns. They go after Mongul, draining him of his of his energy and making a mess of Warworld. Mu arrives, declares that Belzereth and Parallax are to be wed and he sets his sights on Earth.

HARLEY QUINN #67 by Sam Humphries, Sami Basri, Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapamund, Aaron Lopresti, Matt Ryan and Tom Derenick. Harley visits her dad and tries to get her family to come together for a Thanksgiving dinner. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen and she realizes that those things only happen in comics. She hijacks a bus and heads West.

HARLEY QUINN & POISON IVY #3 by Jody Houser and Adriana Melo. The Mad Hatter has Harley and Ivy in his lair and uses his ability to control Ivy. He uses Ivy’s powers to create a bunch of creatures and they attack Harley. Eventually, Ivy breaks free and she and Harley take out Tetch, with Ivy hypnotizing him and telling him to destroy this place.

HAWKMAN #18 by Robert Venditti and Pat Olliffe. Starting on Earth-3, we see one of Carter Hall’s previous lives as the Sky Tyrant. On our Earth, Sky Tyrant has returned and Carter can’t control it…only watch. As Sky Tyrant wreaks havoc, Carter struggles with him. Hawkwman arrives when things look realty bad and plans to take him down.

THE INFECTED: KING SHAZAM #1 by Sina Grace and Joe Bennett. Billy Batson is Infected and he gets into an argument with his foster parents before doing the same with Mary. He transforms into King Shazam and goes after legendary gods including Atlas, Thor, Rao and Ares. Mary Marvel catches up with him as he is fighting Ares. After a battle, he fakes being returned to his old self and punches her stomach, leaving her bleeding and badly injured.

THE INFECTED: SCARAB #1 by Dennis Hopeless Hallum and Freddie E. Williams II. Jaime is infected and goes off to battle Ghostfire. During the battle, the Scarab takes full control and eats Ghostfire.

INFERIOR 5 #3 by Keith Giffen and Jeff Lemire. While the five go on their journeys, the Tasmanian Devil looks for his son Derek but is told he is dead. Later, he battles something looking like Starro the Conqueror. Elsewhere, one of the Dominators continues to put pressure on Brother Power to continue working for him. The man in the radiation suit finds the logo of the Peacemaker and realizes there could be a problem. In the back-up, Peacemaker battles and defeats the KGBeast. But the Rocket Reds are right behind and it looks like another battle is brewing.