DC UNIVERSE Month 31, Part 1

ACTION COMICS #1024 by Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita Jr. Cameron Chase and the FBI have raided the Daily Planet and blame Lois for Leone owning it. Meanwhile, Red Cloud confronts the Deputy Chief and kills her, sending Superman into a rage. The rest of the Superman family, with Brainiac 5, track down The Whisperer, leading Leone to say it’s time to counter-punch.
 
AQUAMAN #62 by Jordan Clark and Marco Santucci. Prior to the wedding, Jackson meets with Black Manta and gets possession of the Mecha to travel to Xebel. After getting away from a giant fish attack, he meets with Ha’wea and, after taking a selfie together, Jackson heads to Xebel, where the battle rages.
 
BATGIRL #48 by Cecil Castellucci and Robbi Rodriguez. Barbara awakes from her dealings with The Joker in the apartment of her brother. Luke meets with her and does surgery, putting the implants back in which allows her to walk again. She patrols the city and hears of a murder. When she arrives, she sees the murder victim dressed like Batgirl.
 
BATMAN #96 by James Tynion IV and Jorge Jimenez. In the future, we see an older Batman battling Mr. Freeze and his “sons”. After defeating them, he returns to the Batcave, where he talks with Alfred, whose neck snaps and his face changes to a Joker smile. Batman wakes to find Harley Quinn, who has survived the attack from Punchline. She explains he is fighting through toxin, Joker is using Bruce’s money to outfit his gang with all kinds of weapons and the city is falling apart. Still reeling from the toxin, Batman makes his way to The Monarch Theater, where the Joker has filled the audience with all of his victims. He explains that he has used The Designer’s gas to reanimate them. With that, they attack Batman.
 
BATMAN #97 by James Tynion IV and Jorge Jimenez. At the Tricorner Yards of Gotham, punchline is awaiting several large shipments, which will go to Ace Chemicals to make Joker Toxin. At the same time, there is a new vigilante named Clownhunter who has been killing Joker’s clowns. Back in the theater, Batman blindfolds himself and uses an EMP to knock out the nanobots in the victims. He collapses in front of Harley Quinn. She takes him to a forest and administers a drink that will cure him of the toxin but cause him to hallucinate for a while. That’s when Alfred arrives for a chat.
 
BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #15 by Bryan Hill and Dexter Soy. Ra's al-Ghul tells his followers how he plans on burning everything don, destroying civilization and starting from scratch. He starts by engaging a hostile takeover of a major media company and broadcasts to the world. But Batman and company have taken down one of Ra’s followers and that leads the team to a final confrontation with Ra’s.
 
BATMAN BEYOND #46 by Dan Jurgens and Sean Chen. Terry, Damian, Goliath, Dick and his daughter, the new Batwoman, head into space to stop the League of Assassins and their satellite that is trying to create a new ice age on Earth.  They make their way through the satellite and take out Zeh’ro’s followers, but he has a surprise for them that may result in their deaths. Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne, Barbara Gordon, and Matt McGinnis do their best to survive as the temperature on Earth drops to 52 degrees below zero.
 
BATMAN/SUPERMAN #11 by Joshua Williamson and Clayton Henry. Ultra-Humanite has compromised Batman and implanted a bomb inside of him. Superman arrives and that leads to a battle between him and Batman, with Superman blasting his friend with his heat vision, seemingly killing him. But Batman lives and takes down the Ultra-Humanite, as Superman only used a pinpoint laser blast to destroy the detonator inside Batman. It turns out the Ultra-Humanite as just a drone being controlled by the brain of the creature, which they find in a protective tank. In the end, robot controlled microsurgery fixes Batman and the Atomic Skull, laid to rest with honors, rises from the grave.
 
BATMAN: THREE JOKERS #1 by Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok. There is a crime spree occurring in Gotham and three acts of crime all seem to be enacted by the Joker, but all happen at the same time, meaning there is actually three Jokers: the Criminal, the Clown and the Comedian. The ultimate plan seems to be to create Joker gas and cause move havoc. Batman, Jim Gordon, Batgirl and Red Hood investigate the old Ace Chemical plant, where the Joker got his start. They later go to the Gotham Aquarium where they . find Joker sharks and get attacked by Gaggy and his crew. Things don’t end well for Gaggy, as he gets eaten by the sharks. One of the Jokers shows up and is quickly taken down by the trio. Batman gets a report of a second Joker elsewhere and heads off, leaving this one with Batgirl and Red Hood. He relentlessly taunts Jason who can’t take anymore and shoots the Joker in the head, executing him. Batgirl walks away in disgust and Jason hopes this was the right Joker.
 
CATWOMAN #24 by Sean Murphy, Blake Northcott and Cian Tormey. Selina has been poisoned and is being interrogated by Angelica and the giant panther Kissen.  Selina gets the antidote and heads to Correas Village, where she learns how bad a person Snowflame is. Catwoman and Kissen head to Snowflame’s mansion and decide to take out the villain. He powers up, but it’s not enough to stop Angelica, who stabs him with a poison tipped spear, leaving him for Kissen to take care of. In the end, a quick switch leaves Selina with the diamond, which she leaves for the villagers of Correas to improve their lives.
 
DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL #3 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. The Dark Knights walk into an explosive trap left for them by a dying Jonah Hex. Meanwhile,
Diana, Batman, and their team race to save Superman, who is having his Kryptonian cells destroyed by Darkfather to be replaced by anti-life. Batman gets hit with a blast of anti-life power but survives it because of Bat Blocker while Superman fights off the effects of anti-life thanks to the Black Lantern ring. Superman quickly dispatches Darkfather, allowing them to free the captured heroes. Wonder Woman describes the plan, where the Trinity will enter the Dark and gather the energy needed to restart the Multiverse. Elsewhere, Lobo fights imps on his way to gather the fifth box filled with Death Metal, which he has been tasked to collect for…Lex Luthor.

DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHTS #1 by Marguerite Bennett, Garth Ennis, Daniel Warren Johnson, Scott Snyder, Frank Tieri, Peter J. Tomasi, James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson, Tony Salvador Daniel, Francesco Francavilla, Jamal Igle, Daniel Warren Johnson, Joelle Jones, and Riley Rossmo. This is a collection of stories highlighting some of the Dark Knights. The Batman Who Laughs gets a full retelling of his origin, revealing that he went to another world and manipulated events so Bruce Wayne became Dr. Manhattan, before kidnapping him, which allows him to ultimately become the Darkest Knight. The Robin King is a young Bruce who shows sadistic tendencies and kills his parents, Jim Gordon and Alfred on his way to his transformation. B. Rex breaks out of Arkham in his story. Castle Bat was once Bruce Wayne who, through satanic means, transforms himself into the castle. Batmobeast was Bruce Wayne before his subconscious was implanted into the modified Batmobile. And Baby Batman was a Bruce Wayne whose consciousness gets transported into a baby hose biggest weapon is his cry.
 
DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL GUIDEBOOK #1 by Christopher Priest, Vita Ayala, Becky Cloonan, Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson, Chip Zdarsky, Becky Cloonan, Doug Mahnke, Dan Panosian, Khary Randolph and Eduardo Risso. This series of five stories, being written in a book by a scarred Lex Luthor, details how the world became ruled by members of the Dark Multiverse. The biggest reveal, coming from DEATH METAL #3 is that Lobo has brought Lex the Death Metal and he is preparing to put his Legion of Doom back together to join the fight.
 
DETECTIVE COMICS #1025 by Peter J. Tomasi and Kenneth Rocafort. Batwoman returns to Gotham and gets involved with helping Batman in the Joker War. After helping GCPD dispatch Joker's henchmen, the Dynamic Duo head off and save a Jokerized Lucius Fox by giving him the antitoxin.
 
DETECTIVE COMICS #1026 by Peter J. Tomasi and Kenneth Rocafort. With the Joker War raging, we find that random citizens of Gotham have been abducted and taken into the sewers. It turns out that the Joker blew up a chemical plant and it had flooded the sewers, causing the captured citizens to be transformed. Killer Croc, living here because the Joker blew up the hotel he was living in, moved here and began his own Monstertown by abducting citizens. Batman goes down into the sewer and faces Croc. They make a deal: if Batman wins a fight between them, they all get to go home. If Croc wins, Batman goes home. Batman wins the fight and Croc thanks Batman for using his real name.
 
THE FLASH #759 by Joshua Williamson, Rafa Sandoval and Scott Kolins. While The Flash/Eobard meets with Young Justice, Barry finds himself trapped in his own subconscious with zombified versions of Jesse Quick and Max Mercury. Max decides to teach Barry everything he knows about the Speed Force, allowing him to retake his body and force Eobard out. In Central City, the Rogues are causing havoc and Eobard and Impulse arrive. Trickster throws a bomb but Eobard throws it back, injuring Trickster. Eobard tells Impulse he doesn’t have what it takes to be a hero. Eobard runs off to the Legion of Zoom and yells at them for not following his orders to stay off the grid before instructing them to steal items he needs to keep control of Barry’s body. Eobard heads to Iris, Avery and Wally and Impulse shows up, warning that this isn’t Barry. To bolster the team, Jay Garrick arrives.
 
THE FLASH #760 by Joshua Williamson, Christian Duce and Scott Kolins. In the Speed Force, Max tells Barry he needs to cross The Starting Line and use his mind to once again get hold of his body. which is the Big Bang for the Speed Force. The moment of creation. Barry must use his mind to think at super speed and regain a hold of his body. Before he can break free, he gets attacked by a clone of Bart Allen, Thaddeus Thawne. Eobard is facing Jay Garrick, as Barry continues to try and break free, causing Eobard to flee. He joins up with the Legion, that have been dispatched to the grave of Nora Allen. He claims he needs the temporal energy stored inside of her. But the Legion refuses to dig her body up and the Flash Family arrives, having been led here by Trickster, who has betrayed Eobard. Bart gets a brief moment with his parents, the Tornado Twins, before they head back to their own time. Barry retakes control and drags Max and Jesse back to the real world with him. Zoom begins running and when he returns, he has a much bigger Legion of Zoom.
 
GREEN LANTERN: SEASON TWO #6 by Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp. Hal Jordan is badly injured and the Anti-Matter Lantern is still on the loose. Hal musters all of his strength to join the fight but, in the end, finds himself dead again and wearing the outfit of the Spectre.
 
HARLEY QUINN #75 by Sam Humphries, Sami Basri, Nicola Scott, Emanuela Lupacchino, Ray McCarthy, Ramon Villobos, Ngozi Ukazu, Riley Rossmo and Joe Quinones. It’s Harley’s birthday and she runs through a bunch of adventures in an extended fdream sequence. In the end, she faces a new day with Becca. In a post-script tale, Harley survives her attack from Punchline, stitches her neck back together and plans revenge.
 
HAWKMAN #26 by Robert Venditti and Fernando Pasarin. While Adam Strange and The Atom race to save our heroes, the Lord Beyond the Void is draining the life energies from them in an attempt to open the doorway to our dimension. They decide to give him all of their past lives, unleashing them, destroying him and killing themselves in the process. In the afterlife, they are given a choice and choose to go back to the world of the living, with this life being their last. When they awake, they find themselves in the Golden Age with the Justice Society of America.
 
JUSTICE LEAGUE #50 by Si Spurrier and Aaron Lopresti. The team still struggles with trying to rule an alien race embroiled in the midst of a civil war. Batman seems to be enjoying his role as a ruler more than the rest and that leads to dissension among the team. In the end, it turns out that Siddix created the Civil War, but Wonder Woman used her lasso to break the control she had put on Batman and it is revealed our heroes knew all along and played Siddix. With the true villain revealed, the war ends.
 
JUSTICE LEAGUE #51 by Jeff Loveness and Robson Rocha. The team investigates a ship that has been destroyed and that puts them on the Planet of the Black Mercy. They all get captured by the Black Mercy, which allows them to see their hopes and dreams. But in Bruce’ case, it’s a nightmare as his mother appears to him.
 
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #25 by Ram V and Amancay Nahuelpan. Wonder Woman and Zatanna find themselves trapped in the realm of the Upside Down man. It takes a restored Swamp Thing uses the Green to penetrate the Upside Down and help Wonder Woman and Zatanna. Meanwhile, Bobo goes searching for Constantine and finds him hanging upside don with the tarot card of The Fool in his mouth.