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.