DC UNIVERSE Month 46, Part 2

THE JOKER #9 by James Tynion IV, Sam Johns, Stephano Raffaele and Rosi Kampe. While Oracle and Julia search for a connection between Joker’s past and the present, Jim and Vengeance head to The Joker’s hideout. After arriving and finding a massacre, they find The Joker and Dr. Frederich Baum: a scientist and a part of The Network. Among the work he shows off is his body duplication project and how he has been using his work to creature a body farm where his work ends up on the tables of many five-star restaurants. One of his genetic creations turns out to be Vengeance. That is when the Sawyer family arrives, kills Baum, wounds Gordon and absconds with The Joker. In the backup, Kelly reveals that she and Punchline were high school friends. But things changed and many students turned up dead. Meanwhile, Punchline plots her revenge against Orca for turning against the villainess.

THE JOKER 2021 ANNUAL #1 by Matthew Rosenberg, James Tynion IV and Francesco Francavilla. In a throwback tale from early in Jim Gordon’s career as Commissioner, Gordon tries to weed out corrupt cops in the GCPD, leaving the force undermanned. During al of this, The Joker stages a heist at a candy factory. Gordon arrests Falcone’s capo and tries to get him to talk. In the end, the crooked cops get what is coming to them and GCPD find a warehouse filed with giant pinatas containing dead bodies…including the capo. It’s all a gift from The Joker to Gordon.

THE JOKER PRESENTS: A PUZZLEBOX #4 by Matthew Rosenberg, Jesus Merino, Vanesa Del Rey and Ricardo Lopez Ortiz. The multiple stories in the search for answers in the death of The Riddler continues. In the jungle of Tropidor, Bane, Penguin and Ivy struggle for possession of the box, with Ivy pulling a switch. Later, the tale of Pyg and Scarecrow at the Gotham Museum sees the unity of the villains cracking. In present day, Mad Hatter finds he cannot control people like he thought. And Pyg tries to stage an escape, but Batman intervenes.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #69 by Brian Michael Bendis, Ram V, Phil Hester and Sumit Kumar. The team battles the teams of Deathstrokes. They discover that this is all a part of a plan for world domination by the Royal Flush Gang. But before they can fully plan a wake to take them down, there is a problem. The Fortress of Solitude has been stolen. In the backup, Constantine and Ragman confront Zatanna, who has started to unleash the Upside-Down Man within her. Meanwhile, the rest of the team has to deal with Merlin who has managed to resurrect Arion and made him his servant.

JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK 2021 ANNUAL #1 by Ram V, Dan Waters and Christopher Mitten. Justice League Dark has defended Atlantis, in events in JUSTICE LEAGUE #70 and #71(not shipping until late December) and Wonder Woman tells of a vision from the Goddess of Time and Space, Hauhet. Hauhet explains there is a dangerous gd unleashed because of Merlin. Randhir Singh, who Elnara and Batman had saved from Merlin, arrives and further explains there is a great darkness coming and Merlin will try to destroy the Tower of Fate. Mr. E show up and reveals that Merlin has been possessed by Yuga Khan- the father of Darkseid. In the end, Mr. E cuts a deal with Zatanna which could give him the power to kill magicians.

JUSTICE LEAGUE INCARNATE #1 by Joshua Williamson and Dennis Culver, Brandon Peterson, Andrei Berssan and Tom Derenick. On Earth-8, Tartarus invades, and the Retaliators fight back. Meanwhile, Flashpoint Batman and Earth-23 Superman draft Avery Ho to join the Justice League Incarnate to their team, so they can save Barry Allen and stop Darkseid. They head to Earth-8 and find Tartarus has decimated the team. Darkseid arrives and battles Tartarus, killing him. This gives Doctor Multiverse the distraction she needs, teaming with  Avery to send the Multiversal tear to another Earth. At the Hall of Heroes, Orion of New Genesis arrives and warms them that Darkseid’s army is here.

JUSTICE LEAGUE: LAST RIDE #7 by Chip Zdarsky and Miguel Mendonca. A reborn Martian Manhunter teams up with Jon Stewart to take on Darkseid. Meanwhile, Batman battles Cyborg Superman and gets stabbed with a Kryptonite knife. Hal Jordan shows up and the combined efforts of the Lanterns saves Batman. Diana beheads Lobo and Darkseid is defeated and flees, leading Hal to kill him. In the end, Lobo stands trial and the team declares the they shall now be the Justice League Universal.

LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #7 by Brandon Easton and Karl Mostert. Batman travels to Italy in search of Ras al Ghul, who is searching for the vessel of St. Januarius, which he can use to enhance his Lazarus pits. But that leads him into a confrontation with Azrael, who is not about to let Batman take the artifact. Ras shows up and the two heroes need to team up to stop him. In the end, Azrael blows up the location, seemingly killing he and Ras. In actuality, Azrael lives on, returning the artifact to its’ rightful place.

MISTER MIRACLE: THE SOURCE OF FREEDOM #6 by Mister Miracle continues his fight with N’vir, who has created Worldkiller to eliminate Shilo and conquer her world. Oberon tracks down Shilo’s long missing parents and their energy help Shilo to defeat N’vir. They reveal time is fluid and they had stepped into the time stream to fight against N’vir. Oberon fires up a Boom Tube, sending Shilo back to the 21st Century. In the end, Shio reveals his identity to the world.

NIGHTWING #86 by Tom Taylor and Robbi Rodriguez. The Clock Tower has blown up and there is a desperate search for the Batgirls. The Batgirls get found and it’s revealed that the Magistrate wasn’t responsible, but Seer was. That leads them to lead an assault on Skybase-01. They progress through the ship and find Simon Saint. But Seer is one step ahead and brings down the ship, leading to a mass evacuation. Although Skybase-01 is destroyed, Seer escapes and is ready to hide in sight.

NIGHTWING 2021 ANNUAL #1 by Tom Taylor, Daniel HDR and Cian Tormey.  Oracle shows Dick Grayson footage of Jason killing FBI agents and an informer. This leads to a flashback of Dick mentoring a young Jason. Back in the present, Dick confronts Jason, who declares his innocence. After some detective work, they discover the fake Red Hood is actually Clayface, who reveals he was hired by a drug kingpin who actually was responsible for drugs Jason’s mom had taken. When he tries to flee, Jason uses the Batmobile to crash the kingpin’s jet.

NUBIA & THE AMAZONS #2 by Stephanie Williams, Vita Ayala and Alitha Martinez.to invade the bodies of multiple Amazons. Is this related to the dreams Penelope keeps having about the destruction of Themyscira?

ROBIN & BATMAN #1 by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen. In the earliest days of Robin in training, he constantly breaks Batman’s rules of crime fighting. During the day, Dick dreams of being Robin and that night, he creates a costume and goes out after Killer Croc. Things go badly and Batman has to save him. In the end, Batman presents Dick with a costume he designed, angering Dick, as he knows Bruce has read his journal. Meanwhile, Croc is still on the loose.

ROBIN #8 by Joshua Williamson, Gleb Melnikov and Max Dunbar. Damian fights Connor Hawke in the finals of the tournament and dies for a second time in the process. Resurrected, Damian is ready to continue the fight, but the pit on the island has been opened and the demon within kills Connor.

ROBIN 2021 ANNUAL #1 by Joshua Williamson and Roger Cruz. Taking place before issue number 6 of ROBIN, Damian hacks into the Bat Computer to gleam information about the tournament competitors. At her grandfather’s deathbed, Flatline’s powers activate, which allows her to see her grandfather was a serial killer. This leads to her becoming a protégé of Lord Deathman and eventually entering the tournament. He continues to dig into the history of other competitors before heading off to the tournament. In the end, a meditative Ras al Ghul is attacked…leading to a meeting with his daughter.

ROBINS #1 by Tim Seeley and Baldemar Rivas. The team, made up of former Robins, takes down the Disciples of Anarky, with Jason accidentally blowing up the one person they need to shut off the bomb the disciples planted, leading to the team using their detective skills to crack the password. Later, they are visited by a man named Declaine who informs them that crooks from the individual team member’s first cases are being targeted. During the revelations, he gets assassinated by a mysterious woman who claims to be the first Robin.

STATIC: SEASON ONE #4 by Vita Ayala and Chriscross. The A.T.F. and Francis show up at the Hawkins home looking for Virgil. Later, Virgil opens the package from Metcalf’s storage unit, revealing kinetic metal sand which, when coupled with his powers, enhances his ability. He throws on his costume and goes out to meet up with his team. The team gets attacked and Francis arrives, but Static’s powers fail on him as Francis lights him up. 

SUICIDE SQUAD #9 by Robbie Thompson, Eduardo Pansica, Julio Ferreira and Dexter Soy. Rick Flag has broken into many black-site prisons and freed Mirror Master, Cheetah, Lor-Zod and Ghkeyy’t, with this new team looking to recruit the Fisherman. Waller meets with Rodriguez and plots her escape while sending the team off on another mission. While enroute, Culebra chats with Talon, who reveals he is not crazy and is working with Rodriguez to take down Waller. The team lands on Oa, where they cross paths with Jo Mullein. They find a mysterious alien, which is who Waller sent them for, the Thangarians attack and their ship explodes.

SUICIDE SQUAD: KING SHARK #3 by Tim Seeley and Scott Kolins. The tournament continues even as Defacer plots with Vik to make Nanue lose. As the next round begins, Etrigan Gentleman Ghost, Bison and Pigeon Person, calling themselves the Limbo Legion, show up to disrupt the event. Vik transports Defacer to where Queen Tiger is, with Defacer promising to reveal the secret to defeat Nanue.That backfires and Nanue wins. He and Defacer get transported to their next place: a world filled with cockroaches.

SUPERGIRL; WOMAN OF TOMORROW #5 by Tom King and Bilquis Evely. Ruthye and Kara end up on a planet where there is a Kryptonite sun and monsters. This forces Ruthie to act as Kara’s defender until the sun eventually sets. Once it does, Supergirl gets her strength back and they continue on their search for Krem.

SUPERMAN: SON OF KAL-EL #5 by Tom Taylor and John Timms. Jon has had his powers super-charged by Henry Bendix's solar beam and he struggles to save people all over the world while fighting the sensory overload. Aerie takes him to Jay so he can get some rest. After a nine-hour sleep, Jon is off again…but not before he can kiss Jay goodbye.

THE SWAMP THING #9 by Ram V and Mike Perkins. Jennifer Reece is brought to the Prescot Corporation, where she learns the history of The Green. It was first discovered in the 18th Century and is revealed that the Green contains all the memories of the world. Allegedly, all medical technology is the result of research gleamed from their experiments with The Green. It is also revealed that the Corporation has the corpse of the previous Swamp Thing, but they want a living conduit. Jacob arrives and launches an attack the Prescott, with the idea to destroy it all. Levi arrives and orders everyone to run, while he and Jacob battle. The goal of the fleeing Corporation members: send the facility, along with Levi and Jacob, into a deep freeze.

TASK FORCE Z #2 by Mathew Rosenberg and Eddy Barrows. Bane and Man-Bat are dead again, Bloom has left and Jason has been frozen and is about to be eaten by the Arkham Knight. Bloom takes down Freeze, returning with a supply of Lazarus Resin, which distracts Arkham Knight. Later, Jason learns that Bane and Man-Bat have been brought back to life with a limited amount of the resin. The team is sent out again, to meet with a potential new member, with Hobart in tow. The meeting place has been taken over by the reformed Cult of Kobra, forcing them into a fight, With the lights out, Hobart transform into a demon and dispatches the cult. In the end, they find the potential new member, who shoots Jason. The new member? Deadshot.

TEEN TITANS ACADEMY #7 by Tim Sheridan and Rafa Sandoval. Gorilla Gregg has turned against his friends and joined up with Gorilla Grodd, taking the townspeople and the Titans kids under their control. But Gregg isn’t totally with Grodd as he uses his powers to block Summer Zahid from being controlled. Grodd finds out about the betrayal leading to a fight between the Titans and Gregg. But it’s a staged fight, as Gregg has used his powers to block the mind control. Grodd is defeated, but he may not be imprisoned for long.

TEEN TITANS ACADEMY #8 by Tim Sheridan and Mike Norton. It’s potential student day at the Academy when Wally West shows up, freaking out parents and students alike who know him as a murderer. The students notice a change in Dane since returning and Raven has a vision of him being evil. Red X shows up to prove that Wally is the bad guy here and will result in the end of the Titans. Meanwhile, a group of students steal the H Dial in an effort to communicate with the dead Roy Harper. Miguel stops them, but a living Roy shows up, wondering why there is a statue of him out front of the building.

TITANS UNITED #3 by Cavan Scott and Jose Luis. Connor has been taken captive by Blackfire where she tortures him and tests his powers. Elsewhere, the other Titans face off against Lady Vic and her bodyguards, who have Beast Boy’s powers. Lady Vic flees in her jet and Jason hitches a ride by lassoing himself to the plane, forcing Donna and Raven to lend an assist. Vic teleports away but not before it appears that an alien invasion is impending.

WONDER GIRL #5 by Joëlle Jones and Adriana Melo. Yara Flor finds herself on Mount Olympus where she is being goaded into drinking the Elixir of Life to become Hera's champion forever. She refuses to be in service forever, leading to her fighting the armies of Hephaestus before calling for Jerry and flying off. In the process, Jerry is killed. Hephaestus destroys Yara’s sword and Hera arrives, leading to Yara possibly having to submit to Hera. Meanwhile, Cassie learns from Hermes what is transpiring with Yara. She goes off to talk to Potira. She apologizes for Artemis running off and Potira takes her to Aahim: the home of the Esquecida. Once there, Potira reveals that once Yara is captured, she will be used to lead the Esquecida in an attack on Themyscira. But they already have a secret weapon…Donna Troy.

WONDER WOMAN #781 by Becky Cloonan, Michael W. Conrad, Vita Ayala, Marcio Takara and Skylar Patridge. Diana has lunch with Etta and debates seeing Steve Trevor, now that she is back. She sees Doctor Cizko on tele vision hyping his new book, so she goes to see him and figure out his motives. After keeping a man from committing suicide, she meets with Deadman, who tells her where they need to go to sing Siggy’s body. Cizko meets with a strange man who gives him a guitar case. Steve gets a visit from Diana, but it is not her. Later, Diana and Deadman are flying off to find Siggy when she notices an army of Wonder Woman outside of the plane. In the backup, the new arrivals try to adjust to their new life, even as the kingdom is being attacked.

WONDER WOMAN 2021 ANNUAL #1 by Michael W. Conrad, Becky Cloonan and Andy MacDonald. A strange man named Altuum chats up Etta while Diana stops a hostage situation. Later, Diana tours a museum exhibit on Themyscira and meets Altuum, who claims he has been to Themyscira. He explains he is a part of a race that was thrown out of Themyscira and they are waiting for the coming war where the Amazons will eradicate themselves. The two battle to a standstill before Altuum sets off a bomb in the building and flees. To be continued in THE TRIAL OF THE AMAZONS #1.

WONDER WOMAN: EVOLUTION #1 by Stephanie Phillips and Mike Hawthorne. Silver Swan takes hostages at the Museum of Natural History, leading to a fight between her and Diana. Silver Swan takes a child hostage forcing Diana to save the child and allows Vanessa to flee. Later, Diana meets with Superman, where they race. He has to leave to stop a tsunami and Diana finds herself transported away to a tournament of some sort.

DC UNIVERSE Month 46, Part 1

ACTION COMICS #1036 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Sean Lewis, Daniel Sampere and Sami Basri. Superman and the Authority head to Warworld to confront Mongul. When they arrive, they discover a path leading them to the seat of power that is littered with the bodies of the Phaelosians. Once the arrive, they encounter Chaytil and are forced to battle their way to the Mongul-Who-Is, who promises to kill Superman. In the backup, Guardian summons a digital demon and ends up fighting it in a Dark Web world to save the missing children.

ACTION COMICS #1037 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Shawn Aldridge, Miguel Mendonca and Adriana Melo. As Superman and The Authority prepare to take on Mongul on Warworld, the ruling council of the United Federation of Planets decides to not send the United Order to help. The team battles Mongul and his minions with disastrous results as June and Apollo quickly fall. Manchester Black discovers the minion who is controlling the other creatures and beats him to death with a stick. Lia takes on another of the creatures and dies in Superman’s arms. Distracted, Superman is stabbed through the chest by a Kryptonite spear wielded by Mongul. In the end, the United Federation of Planets decides to do nothing. In the backup, Martian Manhunter investigates a recent theft of an artifact in the Metropolis Museum. And that’s when the Human Flame shows up.

AQUAMAN/GREEN ARROW: DEEP TARGET #2 by Brandon Thomas and Ronan Cliquet. Arthur and Oliver, still with broken memories and in each others’ roles as Aquaman and Green Arrow, are attacked in their jet by a team of mercenaries. They bail out with the co-pilot, who reveals that its’ possible the pilot set them up. Landing on a deserted island, a mysterious enemy kills the co-pilot and attacks the pair.

AQUAMAN: THE BECOMING #3 by Brandon Thomas and Scott Koblish.Mera is interrogated by Atlantean intelligence while Jackson is on the run from Atlantean security. After healing at Happy Island, he makes several short transporter jumps before ending up near Titans Tower West. Once there, he is attacked once again, but his mother arrives and helps out. In the end, he discovers his attacker is Delilah-Jackson’s sister.

ARKHAM CITY: THE ORDER OF THE WORLD #2 by Dan Watters and Dani. A street thug searching for a high gets one from escaped Arkham resident Double X. Meanwhile, Dr. Joy meets with the Ten Eyed Man, who is troubled by the ghost of Amadeus Arkham, and he produces a map of Gotham which supposedly shows where the escaped Arkham prisoners are. Azrael goes on a hunt for the escapees, which leads him to where Double X is held. There is a battle between the pair as the ghost also appears. In the end, Double X is captured, the ghost is still on the loose and Azrael’s next target is Dr. Joy.

BATMAN #116 by James Tynion IV, Becky Cloonan, Michael Conrad, Jorge Jimenez and Jorge Corona. Peacekeepers have invaded Eden to capture or kill Queen Ivy, but Ghostmaker is there to battle them. Ivy’s wrath is unleashed and, because her vines are wrapped in Gotham’s bedrock, it triggers a small earthquake. Miracle Molly and Batman track down Scarecrow, who tries to unleash his control on Molly. Peacekeeper-01 shoots Scarecrow, which stops his attack on Molly. Peacekeeper-01 claims he is better than Batman and the pair brawl, while Molly tries to stop Crane’s machine. In the end, Queen Ivy is becoming unhinged. But maybe the surprise appearance of Harley, the Gardener and the other Ivy will stop her. In the backup, the Batgirls come under attack by the Peacekeepers, but survive the demolition of Oracle’s headquarters.

BATMAN #117 by James Tynion IV, Becky Cloonan, Michael Conrad, Jorge Jimenez and Jorge Corona. Simon Saint is desperately trying to keep things together when the Bat Family, wearing Peacekeeper armor, arrive to shut the Magistrate down. Elsewhere, Batman and Peacekeeper-01 battle each other while Molly tries to shut down Scarecrow’s device. But she is having second thoughts and doesn’t immediately disarm it. Batman takes down Peacekeeper-01 and then desperately convinces Molly that Fear State is ending and she needs to shut the device down. At the same time, Harley reunites the two Ivy’s, who uses her powers to generate pheromones to mellow out the fear that Gothamites are feeling. The pair reunite with a long-awaited kiss as Fear State comes to an end. To be concluded in BATMAN: FEAR STATE OMEGA #1. In the backup, the Batgirls continue to hide from Seer who, even though Fear State has ended, continues to be a menace.

BATMAN FEAR STATE: OMEGA #1 by James Tynion IV, Ryan Benjamin, Christian Duce, Riccardo Federici, Guillem March and Trevor Hairsine. A month after the end of FEAR STATE and Scarecrow is finally being transferred to the newly constructed Arkham Tower. He tries to break out and is apprehended by Batman, who personally delivers him. Miracle Molly testifies about how Simon Saint used the Unsanity Collective to support his need for the Magistrate. She is sent to Blackgate, where she will serve time for her crimes, while the other Unsanity Collective leaders are allowed to remain free. While Nightwing and the Batgirls succeeded in taking down Skybase-01, the ship is still in Gotham Harbor and still needs to be cleaned up. Simon Saint is under arrest but may be released under house arrest and looks like he may end up working for Amanda Waller. Poison Ivy has had her two halves restored, but she lets The Gardener know she is not happy that she was responsible for messing with her mind and will use her powers to save the world. Peacekeeper-01 has broken free and is on the loose. Batman meets with Clownhunter, who refuses to join Batman’s team, as he blames Batman for everything that has happened in the last year. But Ghostmaker arrives and tells Clownhunter he will train him.

BATMAN 2021 ANNUAL #1 by James Tynion IV and Ricardo Lopez Ortiz. As Batman and Ghostmaker they take down Firefly, Ghostmaker tells Batman about his most outstanding feat, where he battled his way through an army of enemies to take down Madame Midas. It turns out that, when Ghostmaker was a child, Madame Midas brutally forced Ghostmaker’s father to sell his company to Midas’.

BATMAN: THE DETECTIVE #6 by Tom Taylor and Andy Kubert. Batman and his allies race to stop Equilibrium from levelling London by using a cluster of remote-controlled military drones she bought from the United States government. But Nightwing and Barbara have managed to hack the drones, leaving her defeated. Ducard tries to shoot her, but Batman stops him. Defeated, she tries to kill herself, but Batman stops her, promising Ducard he will get her help. In the end, Batman sees the prison release of the woman who torched the building but who also also saved the life of the man who eventually killed Equilibrium’s husband and son.

BATMAN: REPTILIAN #5 by Garth Ennis and Liam Sharp. Batman tells Croc that the creature wants him to impregnate it. The pair escape and Batman uses the Batmobile to try to get Volkov there to take the heat off of them. But things go awry and the creature heads back towards Croc.

BATMAN: REPTILLIAN #6 by Garth Ennis and Liam Sharp. While Volkov gets ejected from the Batmobile, Batman triggers a bomb, apparently killing himself and the creature.  Batman survives, takes down Volkov and tases Croc, taking him into custody. In the end, Batman leaves Croc with the concept that he may actually be a hermaphrodite, and this may happen again.

BATMAN SECRET FILES: THE GARDENER #1 by James Tynion IV and Christian Ward. Batman meets with Dr. Bella Garten, who reveals her origin story. After her parents died in a car crash, she was raised by groundskeepers named Garten. They fostered her interest in botony and eventually ended up working in a scientific program with Jason Woodrue, Alec Holland, Linda Holland and Pamela Isley, who she ended up in a relationship with. When she realized what the program leaders were doing, making monsters out of seeds, she decided to leave and unsuccessfully tried to get Pam to do the same. Pam stayed behind and, through experiments on her, got turned into the villainous Poison Ivy. Eventually Ivy meets Harley and the two become a couple. Recently, Ivy, who has embraced the green, met with Garten, who decided to grow a new Ivy containing her best aspects.

BATMAN/SUPERMAN: AUTHORITY SPECIAL #1 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Trevor Hairsine, Jonathan Clapion, Scott Hanna, Rain Beredo and Ben Templesmith. Batman teams up with Superman and the Authority as they head to the Shadow Earth in the Dark Multiverse to face the Empire of Shadows, controlled by the al Ghuls. Their plan is to invade Earth-Zero and are using the body of the Fuginaut as their conduit. The team transports to Shadow Earth and quickly end up in a fight, with the al Ghuls capturing June, to use her to transport to Earth-Zero. The team defeats the al Ghuls and promises to stop them if they ever try to come to Earth-Zero again. In the end, Shadow Earth’s Bruce Wayne promises to encounter the heroes in the future,

BATMAN: URBAN LEGENDS #9 by Alyssa Wong, Dan Watters, Sam Johns, Brandon Thomas, Vasco Georgiev, Nikola Cizmesija, Karl Mostert and Cian Tormey. Batwoman and Red Alice team up to battle Seer. Despite the pressure put on her, Beth struggles to shut down her Red Alice persona, forcing Seer to flee. Un the end, it appears the Red Alice persona may still be bubbling under Beth’s surface. In the second tale, Tweedle Dee has become seriously ill and Tweddle Dum will do anything to save him, but the health care system stops him at every turn. Story three involves Azrael finding that Bullet-Tooth has been resurrected by a doctor using a version of Lazarus Resin. But the results don’t last long and Bullet-Tooth dies again. The doctor responsible doesn’t get more than explaining the Resin when he is beheaded by…an avenging angel? In the last tale, the Outsiders fight in the past to change their future. They do, somewhat, but the fight in the future will continue.

BLACK MANTA #3 by Chuck Brown and Matthew Dow Smith. Gentleman Ghost send Manta to Ancient Atlantis where he learns that the leaders are planning to go back to the land of the first weapons of the Atlantean masters. In Themyscira, the strange visitor secures transportation to the civilized world, where she attacks Manta. He disables her transport but goes to save her as she wears the Orichalcum. In the end, Devil Ray invades Atlantis.

BLUE & GOLD #4 by Dan Jurgens, Kevin Maguire, Ryan Sook and Norm Rapmund. Booster and Ted are doing their first interview for their new business when Booster starts talking about their Justice League International days. Booster saved Ted’s life, while Ted tells it the other way around. In the end, Guy Gardner shows up to set the record straight: he saved them both. Either way, the interview has helped create a line of folks looking for their service. But that also includes Princess Omnizon, which is probably bad news.

CATWOMAN #37 by Ram V and Nina Vakueva. The final battle of Alleytown comes to an end as Billy attempts to get Ivy out of town. He ends up being stopped by Penguin and his crew, who capture her, all thanks to Riddler’s double cross. But Selina’s plan included expecting the double cross and it turns out that Ivy is actually Clayface, forcing Riddler to hide from the Magistrate. Resigned to give herself up, she gets an assist from Ghostmaker and lives to fight another day, with her Alleytown friends by her side.

CHECKMATE #6 by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev. With a blackout at the Hall of Justice, Talia is revealed as the traitor. Checkmate defeats her and she transports away, meaning the mission to gain the Heroes Network is a failure for Leviathan. Meanwhile, Mark Shaw continues to go after the "Snowman's Ticket"-Leo Lane. But Lane shoots Shaw and wounds him, forcing him to flee back to Markovia. Once there, Nakamura tells him he isn’t the one and kills him. Superman meets with The Guardian and retrieves Shaw’s body while Waller meets with Checkmate. Mr. King, the team’s benefactor, is revealed to be Kamandi, who has travelled from the future to hope to prevent what happened to cause The Great Disaster in his time. In the end, Talia returns to Leviathan and takes her followers to the Lazarus Pits.

CRUSH & LOBO #6 by Mariko Tamaki and Amancay Nahuelpan. Crush is in Space Vegas where she masquerades as someone else and gets a date with Q&&7. They end up in a comedy club and, after a comedian heckles Q&&7, Crush trashes the comedian. Q&&7 leaves, realizing this is not her true date. Disappointed again, Crush heads for a final confrontation with Lobo.

DEATHSTROKE INC. #3 by Joshua Williamson and Howard Porter. Deathstroke and Black Canary capture the Queen of Fables and she takes her back to T.R.U.S.T. while Slade continues his journey through this fantasy land to take on Cheetah. After battling through her cat guards, he confronts Cheetah before destroying the fable that allows her to maintain this illusion. Before she is captured, she promises to reveal everything about T.R.U.S.T. if he lets her go. Back at T.R.U.S.T., Canary discovers that the painting of her parents is a fake and Juliette is actually Libra. She reaches out to Oracle, but their communication is spotty. As Oracle tells her to take down Slade, he shows up poised to kill Canary.

DETECTIVE COMICS #1045 by Mariko Tamaki and Dan Mora. Nakano is unconscious and Batman is trying to revive him. Once awake, he is told about the parasites and how Vile is responsible, leading to Nakamo firing back at Batman for not telling him about this before it got out of control. As they flee the sewers, the eggs begin to spread, with the creatures tentacles going after civilians. As the creatures attack, Nakano tries to help by shooting it with a taser. That is when Nightwing flies in with a Magistrate aircraft and destroys the monster, which gives the Magistrate gets credit for saving the city. In the end, Batman and Nakano cut a deal to work together, even though Nakano ants to enhance his target list.

DETECTIVE COMICS 2021 ANNUAL #1 by Mariko Tamaki, Matthew Rosenberg and David Lapham. In the past, Bruce Wayne sees his father save the life of Peter Faust, who had shot two people. In the present, it is revealed that Faust eventually killed himself several weeks before A-Day. Batman and Nightwing investigate the case of The Meager Man, who has been killing people while dressed in a winged suit made of chicken bones. They capture him and discover this is Peter Faust’s son. He breaks free from police and injures two policemen in the process, leading to the duo to capture him again. In the end, Faust is transferred to Arkham Tower where Dick thinks that this will be the start of a new day in Gotham. But The Forgotten, who Faust met while on the run, looms large.

THE FLASH #776 by Jeremy Adams and Fernando Pasarin. Flash and Dr. Fate need to head to a strange two-dimensional causeway to stop Eclipso. But they can’t do it alone and it takes the help of you-the comic reader-to make their way to that causeway. With our help, they do get to Gemworld, only to find out they are too late and Eclipso has won.

FUTURE STATE: GOTHAM #7 by Joshua Williamson, Dennis Culver, Giannis Milonogiannis and Riley Rossmo. Jason battles WarMonger while his mind control forces the Bat Fsamily to battle each other. Jason manages to get the Arkham Knight armor off of WarMonger and breaks his control on the Bat Family. As the team vows to keep fighting for Gotham, Jason goes to meet with his mysterious contact but come up empty. It turns out the mysterious stranger he thinks is Bruce Wayne is really…Hush. In the backup, Batman battles a group that has been kidnapping bats.

GOTHAM CITY VILLAINS ANNIVERSARY GIANT #1 by Danny DeVito Wes Craig, G. Willow Wilson, Phillip Kennedy johnson, Nadia Shammas, Joghua Williamson, Stephanie Phillips, Dan Watters, Mairghread Scott, Dan Mora, Emma Rios, Riccardo Federici, Max Raynor, Max Fiumara, Skylar Patridge and Ariela Kristantina. In this collection, we get eight tales of Batman villains. In the first, Penguin and Catwoman fall in love and steal a vaccine that ends a worldwide pandemic. In the second, the Scarecrow introduces an app which furthers of fear plans. In the third, Ivy infiltrates a chemical pant and unleashes a poison which kills everyone except for the one person she decides to save. In the fourth, the villainous Red Hood lets his ego get in the way of business and it costs him his life with his partners. In the fifth, the Mad Hatter schemes in a plot which continues in ARKHAM CITY: THE ORDER OF THE WORLD. In the sixth, Killer Moth tries to change his ways after meeting Harley Quinn. In the seventh, Batman plays a game of chess, figuratively and literally with Ras al Ghul. In the final tale, Talia recounts her origin in preparation for the upcoming Shadow War.

GREEN LANTERN #8 by Geoffrey Thorne, ChrisCross and Marco Santucci. John Stewart continues his journey as he becomes a “new god”. This takes him to Anticitus, where he saves Kilowog and Hannu before entering a portal which takes him to meet those who worship the Lightbringer. Meanwhile, Jo Mullein continues to investigate the death of Guardian Koyos and the explosion of the Central Power Battery. In the end, Peya Fel believes she finds the answer but, before she can reveal it she is struck down by…Guardian Koyos?

HARDWARE: SEASON ONE #3 by Brandon Thomas and Denys Cowan. Hardware is on the run from Alva, but this leads him to Alva’s former partner Asher Sims. Sims gives him free reign of his laboratory but Alva contacts Sims and offers him a deal that may result in Sims betraying Hadware.

HARLEY QUINN #9 by Stephanie Phillips and Riley Rossmo. Harley escorts Ivy to the garden to meet with Queen Ivy. Of course, that means having to get through Keepsake first. Meanwhile, Kevin races into the burning S.A.F.E. Headquarters to save people, including Lockwood. Things go south and Lockwood deserts Kevin, who gets saved by Sam.

HUMAN TARGET #1 by Tom King and Greg Smallwood. Christopher Chance masquerades as Lex Luthor and a would-be assassin tries to kill him, but Chance succeeds in disabling and killing him. Later he meets with Luthor, only to discover he has been poisoned by someone who thought they were poisoning Luthor. Dr. Mid-Nite reveals he only has 12 days to live and discover who in the Justice League is responsible for his upcoming death.

HUMAN TARGET #2 by Tom King and Greg Smallwood. Chance gets a visit from Ice, who had been called in by Doc, leading to them going off and discussing their past and not so much the case. She reveals she was not ever a Norwegian princess, but a Norwegian girl who, after her powers manifested, killed her father and grandfather. During her superhero career, she died fighting the Overmaster before coming back during the reset. She also learned Lex was responsible for the Overmaster coming to Earth and that Fire wanted to kill Lex. In the end, he reveals that he masqueraded as Doc, because he wanted to meet the person he thought might have poisoned him.

I AM BATMAN #3 by John Ridley and Stephen Segovia. The Seer sends out multiple groups of the Moral Authority to the juvenile detention center to break out Morris Caulfield. But that assault leads to Jace Fox showing up as his mother is inside the center. One of the assault team gets inside, forcing Mrs. Fox to kill him. She confrots Batman, but he convinces her to put the gun down. In the end, Simon Saint promises that the Tyler Arkadine won’t say anything to the police and his prediction is correct as Arkadine turns up dead.

ICON & ROCKET: SEASON ONE #4 by Reginuld Hudlin, Leon Chills and Doug Braithwaite. Xiomara and Mrs. Erwin get free from the creature just as Icon and Rocket arrive. He battles the creature, that eventually flees. Later, Icon and Rocket reveal all and Rocket’s mother gives her blessing to allow Icon to continue to train her. In the end, it seems more enemies are coming…

DC UNIVERSE Month 45, Part 2

JUSTICE LEAGUE: LAST RIDE #6 by Chip Zdarsky and Miguel Mendonca. Hal and Bruce have found Darkseid’s cones, but Hal isn’t himself, as he’s revealed to be possessed by Darkseid, who now has the power of the Green Lanterns. The rest of the team battles Cyborg Superman and Vril Dox, who also has the Lantern power. Superman gets stabbed by a Krytoknife, but continues to fight. While Darkseid is preparing to lauch an attack from a reborn Apokolips, Superman saves Hal and Batman. It is revealed that Lobo let himself be captured because he was hired by Darkseid to set this trap. Superman offers Lobo money to switch sides, which he does. The team regroups as Darkseid meets with Granny Goodness and they lead the attack on the League. A reborn, Lantern empowered Martian Manhunter arrives…but what side is he on.

LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #6 by Becky Cloonan, Matthew Rosenberg, Dike Ruan and Cian Tormey. Batman deals with a traumatized Solomon Grundy, who is troubled by mirrored images of his former self. In the second story, Gotham has flooded because some criminals have blown up the dam to engage in a heist. So it’s a team up between Batman and Killer Croc to take the bad guys down.

NIGHTWING #85 by Tom Taylor and Robbi Rodriguez. Barbara sends out a message to everyone that the Oracle Network has been compromised, leading her to trash her system. The only way to take down Seer is to shut down Oracle 2, so she and Dick go off to meet Tim. They get to the Oracle 2 warehouse and get dosed with Fear Toxin. When they recover, Barbara and Dick kiss before learning that Seer is broadcasting from a spaceship. In the end, Seer sets off an explosion in the Watchtower where the Batgirls are.

NUBIA & THE AMAZONS #1 by Stephanie Williams, Vita Ayala and Alitha Martinez. On Themyscira, the Well of Souls starts giving birth to more Amazons. They begin their journey by adjusting to new life, as they have no memory of their past lives. But one has troubling dreams about the end of times, which may actually be coming true.

ROBIN #7 by Joshua Williamson, Gleb Melnikov and Max Dunbar. Damian battles with Respawn, who desperately tries to hide his space and it costs him a life. Damian calls out Mother Soul, revealing he knows her true identity as Ruh al Ghul: Ra’s al Ghul’s mother. The whole reason for the tournament is to feed the island with death energy. The tournament continues with the final four. Flatline faces off with Damian, resulting in her death. Meanwhile, Hawke takes down Ravager, leading to the final face-off between Robin and Connor Hawke.

SHAZAM! #4 by Tim Sheridan and Clayton Henry. Adam reveals that the Apocalypse will be brought about by the actions Billy is engaging in now and will be brought about by Raven. After a meal and cocoa, Adam gets Billy to channel his power and he is back to full power. After facing off against Pride and realizing he cannot save Freddy, he and Black Adam Jr. team up to continue their fight to stop the future from happening. In the end, the Titans meet with a recovering Dane, whose true self seems to have awakened, meaning the end of days may already be starting.

SUICIDE SQUAD #8 by Robbie Thompson, Eduardo Pansica and Dexter Soy. Peacemaker battles Swamp Thing, who removes the brain bomb that was forcing him to do Waller’s bidding. While one of Waller’s own conspires with Talon to bring her down, the team continues to battle in Hell. The end result is she gets a way to seal off access to Earth-3. She also has a cache of Lazarus Resin, meaning death is no longer a way out of the Suicide Squad, as she resurrects Culebra. Peacemaker, now free of Waller, meets with Flagg and his new Squad.

SUICIDE SQUAD: KING SHARK #2 by Tim Seeley and Scott Kolins. Shark battles a giant jellyfish while Vik and Shawn conspire to make certain he loses in the tournament. But he defeats Tiger Queen in the next round and their plan seems to be going sideways.

SUPERMAN AND THE AUTHORITY #4 by Grant Morrison and Mikel Janin. Inside the Bottle City of Kandor, Ultrahumanite prepares to take over Superman's body by putting his brain inside it. Lois Lane shows up with a White Kryptonite gun and takes the Ultrahumanite down. They discover this is all part of a plan by Brainiac. The rest of the team battles on various fronts, even saving Lia, who was kidnapped by Eclipso. The team joins together and heads to Warworld, in a thread which will continue in ACTION COMICS. In an interesting epilogue, set after those events, Superman and Manchester Back examine an artifact from the Source Wall that says “Lightray is”.

SUPERMAN: SON OF KAL-EL #4 by Tom Taylor and Daniele Di Nicuolo. The Justice League arrives at the destroyed Kent farm and learns that someone dropped Faultiline here. Jon learns that Jay is a Post-Human and he and Jon meet with Aerie and Wink, who reveal that Bendix cheated to become President of Gamorra. Jon invades Gamorra and meets with him, but he has his people overload Jon’s powers.

THE SWAMP THING #8 by Ram V and Mike Perkins.Swamp Thing battles Parasite, learning his back story in the process. He learns the Green chose Levi, while his brother Jacob tried to force the Green's power into himself. The dark magic Jacob uses transforms him into Hedera, where he plans to use the power to save the planet. Levi battle Peacemaker where he removes the brain bomb and tells him to go make peace. In the end, orders go out to pick up Jennifer Reese.

TASK FORCE Z #1 by Mathew Rosenberg and Eddy Barrows. Crazy Quilt battles a reincarnated Man Bat and Bane, who are being handled by Red Hood. After his capture, Jason meets with Hanna Hobart and some of the people in charge of Project Halperin. After Crazy Quilt gives up information about who might have some quantities of Lazarus Resin, the team, made up of Red Hood, Bane, Arkham Knight, Man Bat and Bloom, confront Mr. Freeze. The team is decimated, Freeze gets away and Jason finds himself frozen…with a hungry Arkham Knight menacing him.

TITANS UNITED #2 by Cavan Scott and Jose Luis. The Titans go after a powered-up Kite-Man, eventually taking him down. They find a former Cadmus scientist who was responsible for helping them create sleeper agents to safeguard against out-of-control metahumans. Before he can reveal much more, an arrow from Lady Vic kills him. Connor and Starfire give chase, but Conner’s powers fail him and he gets captured by Blackfire.

WONDER GIRL #4 by Joelle Jones and Adriana Melo. Yara Flor, deemed to be Hera’s new champion, continues her training with Chiron on the outskirts of Mt. Olympus to become Hera's new champion. Later, while Joao sleeps, she is visited by Potira, who shows her why she needs to be the new champion. She is eventually returned and meets with Artemis and Wonder Girl. In the end, Chiron shows Yara off to Hera.

WONDER WOMAN #780 by Becky Cloonan, Michael Conrad, Travis Moore and Steve Pugh. Diana finally returns home to the surprise and delight of most, except for Dr. Psycho. In the end, she goes to Themyscira, meets with Nubia and gets her lasso back. 

DC UNIVERSE month 45, Part 1

AQUAMAN: THE BECOMING #2 by Brandon Thomas, Diego Olortegui and Skylar Partridge. Jackson comes out of the Well surrounded by Atlantean police. They are looking to arrest him for treason because they allegedly have video of him planting a bomb as part of a terrorist attack. The police meet and interrogate Mera and it becomes obvious they have a grudge against the people of Xebel. She manages to get word to Jackson and she also gets away, to meet up with his mother. But Jackson is wounded from the attack by the police and may not get to finish his mission.

AQUAMAN/GREEN ARROW-DEEP TARGET #1 by Brandon Thomas and Ronan Cliquet. A satellite is taken offline, and a shadow team sets up a device that manages to bring a baby dinosaur into it. They kill the dinosaur and transport it back to their base, as part of an experiment that successfully brings living tissue from the past into the future. Six months later, General Anderton is sitting around with dinosaurs around. He gets transported to base, but something goes wrong. Eighteen months later, Oliver Queen heads to Atlantis and confronts Aquaman. But something is wrong as Aquaman is the archer and Oliver sits on the throne and each other has the other person’s skill set and powers. After a face-to-face fight, they surface and meet up with some guys in a boat, who tells Anderton they have returned. But Anderton appears to be…a dinosaur?

ARKHAM CITY: THE ORDER OF THE WORLD #1 by Dan Watters and Dani. Thing have gone crazy in a post A-Day Gotham, with many villains loose throughout Gotham.  Criminal psychologist Dr. Jacosta Joy is concentrating on getting the escaped inmates the help she believes they need. While the “Ghost of Arkham” haunts Mad Hatter, the Ten Eyed Man is loose and arrives at Joy’s home, where he tells her they need a ritual…and presents her with the bloody jaw of one of his victims.

BATMAN #114 by James Tynion IV, Brandon Thomas, Jorge Jimenez and Jason Howard. Miracle Molly talks with Ivy and figures out what Scarecrow’s endgame is and needs to get to Batman. Simon Saint is freaking out that Peacekeeper-01 has gone rogue, which has Peacekeeper-X being dispatched to help turn him back. This leads to a battle where Peacekeeper-01 is injured but kills Peacekeeper-X, even as Batman tries to help. In the end, Saint’s Peacekeepers arrive, but so does Molly, who explains that she knows what is really happening. In the backup, Clownhunter continues to hallucinate while falling to his possible death. That’s when a Robin shows up to save him.

BATMAN #115 by James Tynion IV, Becky Cloonan, Michael W. Conrad, Jorge Jimenez, Bengal and Jorge Corona. Simon Saint is going crazy after the death of Ricardo/ Peacekeeper-X, when he gets a call from Mayor Nakano, which he refuses to take. Batman and Miracle Molly goes to the Unsanity safe house, where they discover that the Scarecrow has the Mind Machine, which he can use to mind-wipe everyone.Scarecrow meets up with Peacekeeper-01 and prepares him for the Mind Machine. Queen Ivy meets with Master Wyze, who reveals he worked with Jervis Tetch and was Doormouse to Tetch’ Mad Hatter. The Peacekeepers arrive at her domain and Saint orders them to bring him Ivy’s head. In the backup, Batgirl is on the prowl, leading Spoiler to find her. Bt that leads them into seeing the “face” of Seer.

BATMAN/CATWOMAN #8 by Tom King and Liam Sharp. In the past, Batman and Catwoman’s relationship continues to fracture because of her ongoing relationship with The Joker. In the present, The Joker and Phantasm torment a family. It is revealed that the family had another son who was kidnapped as a baby. Phantasm uncovers her mask and says the kidnapped boy was her son. That leads t the Joker choking her. In the future, Selina’s daughter meets with Commissioner Dick Grayson and decide to team up to bring her mother in. Selina kidnaps The Joker’s body, dismembers it and hangs the body part on the huge Christmas tree in Gotham.

BATMAN SECRET FILES: PEACEKEEPER-01 #1 by Ed Brisson, James Tynion IV and Joshua Hixson. Sean Mahoney/Peacekeeper-01 is on the run after his confrontation with Peacekeeper-X. In flashbacks, we see that the Mahoney family has been Gotham police officers for generations. As a child, Sean witnesses his father and some cop friends kill another cop. Young Sean also gets brainwashed by Mad Hatter, which leads he and his classmates doing Hatter’s dirty work, deeply disappointing his father. Later, Jim Gordon become Commissioner and exorcises dirty cops, including Sean’s father. He is convinced to carry on the tradition but is blackballed by Gordon. Sean ends up working as a guard at Arkham, eventually getting alone time with Hatter and gaining his revenge. He get suspended for his actions and, on A Day, he was trying to destroy his records. When he learns that two nurses are trapped, he risks his life and saves them, but at a high cost to his body. Although Sean is now considered a hero, his father refuses to pay the medical bills, which allows Simon Saint to enter the picture, transforming Sean into Peacekeeper-01. In the end, Peacekeeper-01 ends up confronting his father at his bar, where he calls his father a nothing and that Sean is the future of Gotham.

BATMAN: URBAN LEGENDS #8 by Alyssa Wong, Dan Watters, Christian Ward, Brandon Thomas, Vasco Georgiev, Nikola Cizmesija and Cian Tormey. Kate and her sister Beth are talking while Beth continues to keep her Red Alice persona inside of her when Rene Montoya shows up. She shows Kate video of Batgirl killing civilians, leading Batwoman to seek her out. When she finds her, Cassandra explains that the Anti-Oracle is at work spreading lies t the people of Gotham. Seer shows a video that proves she has been stalking the Bats. Kate races home to find Beth has attacked some Peacekeepers who have invaded their home. She vows that Red Alice will d what Batwoman can’t. In the second tale, a fairytale told by Thomas Wayne becomes a story of Professor Pyg fighting a Big Bad Wolf in the form of Batman. In the third tale, Azrael is back from his adventures in JUSTICE LEAGUE ODYSSEY and, after meeting with Batman, is ready to take on the post A-Day world. The final story begins 30 years from now, Duke Thomas is teamed up with Teekl, who sends the elemental Black Lightning back in time with the to take out Jonah Whitfield: a regular guy who gets twisted by Scarecrow. In the process, he meets the Outsiders: Frankenstein, Metamorpho, Katana, Duke and Black Lightning. They try to help Jonah and thing go bad fast, which is when Red Robin arrives.

BLACK MANTA #2 by Chuck Brown and Valentine de Landro. Black Manta is still trying to find a way to cure his sickness and he meets with Dr. Shin. Shin explains that it all relates to an object called Orichalcum, which is awakening dormant Atlantean DNA in humans, which suggests Manta may be of Atlantean descent. In Themyscira, a mysterious woman arrives and reveals that the stones in her necklace are calling her to go somewhere. Later, Manta and Gallous go to a party and, after making their way through possessed people, convinces the Gentleman Ghost to transport them back to Atlantis in 9000 B.C. In the end, a jailed youth sets off chaos throughout the world, claiming he if called Devil Ray.

BLUE & GOLD #3 by Dan Jurgens and Cully Hamner. Booster can’t get to secure his new office because Ted Kord hasn’t paid the rent. Ted hasn’t paid the rent because he got fired and is basically broke. An alien associated with the group that had kidnapped the Justice League attacks the U.N., leading to the pair teaming up, along with Ted’s newest invention: Buggles. Buggles transports the alien to a Louisiana swamp where she promises revenge on our heroes. Trixie Collins Booster’s former assistant, shows up and offers the team office space above her yoga studio and they decide to engage in crowd sourcing to pay the rent.

CATWOMAN #36 by Ram V, Nina Vakueva and Laura Braga. Peaxekeepers are hunting for Ivy and Selina, led by the Wight Witch, and lethal force has been approved. Selina talks to Nygma and asks him to put the pieces in place. While he reachs out to her allies, he also informs The Penguin that they are moving Ivy. The rest of the team of former villains confront the Peacemakers and get some unexpected help from Harley and the Gardener. They confront the bad guys and Harley untimately takes down the Wight Witch. Ivy is ferried away in a truck, but there are apparently multiple trucks and one of them contains multiple versions of Wight Witch. So where is Ivy now?

CHALLENGE OF THE SUPER FRIENDS #7 by Peter J. Tomasi and Max Raynor. Jon and Damian learn they are due to die, according to the Doom Scroll. Rora arrives and tells them the curse is broken, but Savage and Faust arrive. They are dispatched because the curse is broken, but the present-day Savage and Faust are still here. Luckily, as the boys fight for their lives, the Justice League arrives to take down the bad guys.

CHECKMATE #5 by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev. The team, while fighting Leviathan, gets transported to Thailand, along with their headquarters, which falls apart upon landing in Thailand. Just before that happens, Lois meets her brother as they flee from the secret hideout. Shaw has Agent Whitney go undercover as a tourist at the Hall of Justice. The team transports to the lair of Justice League Dark, where it suddenly seems Talia is the traitor within the team. In the end, Shaw confronts Lois and Leo.

CRUSH & LOBO #5 by Mariko Tamaki and Amancay Nahuelpan.Crush continues her search for her dad, with her landing on a planet ruled by a two-headed king who wants Crush to get off his plane. He has her attacked by Space Lizards, but  Space Lizards love Crush. With the Space Lizards in tow, she heads to the house of one of Lobo's girlfriends. She tells Crush Lobo was here but she doesn’t know where he went. Immediately after Crush leaves, the girlfriend calls Lobo, who is gambling on Space Vegas. Luckily, Crush overhears the call and, while ignoring multiple text messages from her girlfriend, she heads to Space Vegas.

DEATHSTROKE INC. #2 by Joshua Williamson and Howard Porter. Deathstroke, Black Canary and Toyman, in a batsuit, head to a space station, where they encounter Cyborg Superman, who has wired up The Weird to act like a cosmic battery. They defeat Cyborg Superman, free The Weird and get their next assignment: find and capture Cheetah.

DETECTIVE COMICS #1044 by Mariko Tamaki, Stephanie Phillips, David Lapham and Dan Mora. While Deb Donovan drinks at a bar, a John Doe in the morgue who died from parasitic infection seems to be leaking Vile’s eggs.In the sewers, Batman desperately tries to free Nakamo, who finds himself infected by Vile’s parasites. Batman uses his grappling gun to get to Nakano, using his taser to kill the parasites and maybe Nakano himself. Elsewhere, a redhaired woman walks into the mayor's office and is told that it's been taken over by Nero XIX. She reveals herself as Batwoman. In the backup, Nakano announces the construction of Arkham Tower. But the site has a mysterious past and the spirits there may be having an effect on the construction workers.

THE FLASH #775 by Jeremy Adams and Fernando Pasarin. A large speared is embedded in the ground in Central City and not even Superman can pull it free. What it is apparently doing is radiating pure anger and is causing everyone in Central City to exhibit this anger. Flash ends up feuding with friends and battles enemies. Eventually, Starbreaker, an outer space energy vampire, arrives an reveals the angry energy is making him stronger. He pulls out the artifact and finds himself filled with a dark power. With that, he leaves and, just then, Dr. Fate pulls Flash out of the situation, telling him the fate of the universe is in his hands.

FUTURE STATE: GOTHAM #6 by Joshua Williamson, Dennis Culver, Jorge Jimenez and Giannis Mionogiannis. Batman has been “captured by Peacekeeper Red, which is all a ruse so they can get out. The plan looks like it will work until Warmonger arrives and steals the Arkham Knight armor. This means he can now control the Hatter’s nanites in the air and bend everyone’s will to his own, including the Bat family. Batman and Red Hood are immune, so Hood goes after Warmonger himself. In the backup, Batman tries to train Damian to follow a plan to take down some bad guys. Of course, Damian just goes out and does his own thing, leading to Batman being frustrated.

GREEN LANTERN #7 by Geoffrey Thorne, Tom Raney and Marco Santucci. John Stewart questions Lonar about being a New God, which leads to them seeing a glimpse of the first meeting of the Oans and the New Gods. When Uxas uses his power to attack the Oans, John steps in and is transformed to his next place in his evolution. Meanwhile, Jo Mullein continues to figure out what happened with the power battery. Keli Quintela, in her sleep, creates a construct threat that Jo and Simon need to handle, while trying to calm Keli.

HARDWARE: SEASON ONE #2 by Brandon Thomas and Denys Cowan. The F.B.I. are in Alva’s building and he tells everyone that Curtis is responsible for the Big Bang. Curtis, undercover as F.B.I., meets with Tiffany, asking her to help him find something in Alva’s office relate to Asher Sim. Tiffany meets with Alva, who knows she and Curtis are involved with each other, and threatens her life. At the same time, Curtis sets off an explosion and breaks int Ava’s office. Curtis leaves but then discovers Tiffany has been captured by Ava, leading him to come back as Hardware. He gets ambushed and, in the process, a man and his son are injured. He leaves the man but takes the gravely injured boy to the hospital. Later, Hardware meets with Barraki, tells her about Deacon being injured and heads off to confront Alva, who is leaving Dakota on a jet.

HARLEY QUINN #8 by Stephanie Phillips and Riley Rossmo. Kevin steps up his game and decides to take Harleys role as a protector of Gotham, that may cost him his life. Meanwhile, Harley reunites with Ivy, or a version of Ivy. The group of Harley, Ivy, Catwoman and the Gardner get confronted by Keepsake and his Caucus of Corruption. During the battle, Harley figures out that Hugo Strange is using mind control. Meanwhile, Strange, in his Batman suit, decides to burn his building down, even if it means killing his own people.

I AM BATMAN #2 by John Ridley and Stephen Segovia. Anarky has been killed by part of a group inspired by The Seer. Batman takes them down and gets some intel from the guy who owns the warehouse where the six were killed. Meanwhile, Whitaker and Chubb interrogate a member of the Moral Authority who killed Anarky. Batman and Vol send out message of a fake meeting between The Seer and his followers, leading to Batman taking them down. While Montoya meets with Jace’ mom, The Seer tells his followers they need to protect Anarky’s killer because he is a hero to their cause. They are also told to kill Batman.

THE JOKER #8 by James Tynion IV, Sam Johns, Guillem March and Rosi Kampe, Vengeance injures Isabella and kidnaps Gordon, leaving a trail of officers in her wake. She reveals that she and her team arrived at the massacre at the laboratory, revealing the Joker was indeed responsible. She also read the file on her, showing how she was grown in a test tube, given a fake back story and addicted to Venom from birth. She suggests they team up, go to the place where the chief scientist lives and take down the Joker together. In the backup, Harper Row is trying to get Kelly Ness out of prison so she can expose Alexis Kaye as a true villain. They get an assist from Orca, giving them a chance to break out. But Punchline sees all and sends other inmates to attack Harper and Kelly. Orca lends a hand but gets stabbed by Punchline.

THE JOKER PRESENTS: A PUZZEBOX #3 by Matthew Rosenberg. Jesus Merino, Dominike “Domo” Stanton and Juni Ba. The detectives question Two-Face, who explains hoe he got back from Russia safter being shot by Black Mask. After a visit from the Joker, he goes to investigate Black Mask, but runs into Deathstroke, allowing him to team up against Slade with Doctor Phosphorous. Batman attacks and steals Harvey’s car. The detectives leave and meet with Officer Bachman, who offers to take Harvey’s ledger book, but they refuse to maintain the chain of custody. Bachman meets with Harvey, who tells him he needs to get the book back because Bachman is incriminate. The officer tells him his new employer has removed his name and promised that he is protected. Back with the Joker, he tells Gordon how Catwoman talked to Killer Moth, who was in Zambesi near a volcano to retrieve the package. But that leads to a fight between Moth and Man Bat, but still manage to recover the artifact. In the present, the captured villains think Harvey is going to flip on them, so a fight breaks out and Man Bat saves a police officer. Is he ready to flip?

DC UNIVERSE: Month 44, Part 2

THE JOKER PRESENTS: A PUZZLEBOX #2 by Matthew Roseberg, Jesus Merino, Keron Grant and Dani. In Russia, a meeting between Black Mask and Two Face goes down with Roman betraying Dent. In the present, Gordon and Bullock continue to interrogate Joker. This leads to the part of the story where Harley encounters Mad Hatter and loses a puzzle piece in the process. In the end, Roman is interrogated but is free on bail before they can get much out of him.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #67 by Brian Michael Bendis, Ram V, Phil Hester and Sumit Kumar. The team continues to battle Synmar Utopica with the help of Hawkslayer of Thanagar, Prince Zerep of Tamaran, Dominator QQ of the Dominion, and Devinea, the Mega-Daxamite of Daxam. Superman uses the Phantom Zone projector and sends Synmar away. In the end, Daemon Rose/Leonardo Lane is confronted by a team of Deathstrokes. In the backup, Justice League Dark battles sea creatures while Constantine confronts Merlin, who is getting an assist from Zatanna.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #68 by Brian Michael Bendis, Ram V, Scott Godlewski and Sumit Kumar. The United Order of the United Planets faces off with the Justice League over the Phantom Zone projector. Superman convinces them to let him keep the projector and they leave. Now they have to rebuild the Hall of Justice, but Flash and Superman accomplish that at super speed even before the rest of the team can decide what to do. Naomi’s parent take her home as the team realizes Green Arrow is not with them. He is off with Checkmate, which is staking out Daemon Rose’s secret hideout. They get attacked by a grou of Deathstrokes, but get saved by Superman, who is about to take out the Deathstrokes when the issue ends. In the backup, the team faces off against Merlin in Atlantis. He is not who he seems and they find Zatanna, who contains the spirit of the Upside Down Man.

JUSTICE LEAGUE: LAST RIDE #5 by Chip Zdarsky and Miguel Mendonca. The Brainiac-controlled Cyborg Superman battles Flash and Superman, John Stweart and Wonder Woman fight Mongul and Hal and Batman learn that someone leaked Lobo’s location. In the past, Superman and Batman argue, until Diana convinces them to get their head in the game. Darkseid shows up and Superman drops the power battery of Oa on him.

LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #5 by Brandon Thomas and Giannis Milonogiannis. Batman saves some children, reaizing there is a connection between their birthdays and also the Martian alphabet. He calls in Martian Manhunter, but he is being corruted by an alien criminal. After being saved, J’onzz reveals everything is part of a plot by Calendar Man, who is also possessed by one of these alien criminals. The heroes team up to defeat Day and the creature.

MIDNIGHTER 2021 ANNUAL by Becky Cloonan, Michael W. Conrad and Michael Avon Oeming. Midnighter, Shilo and Apollo team up to take on Andrej Trojan and his followers. In the process, they find the current Midnighter and free him, as future Midnighter battles Trojan. With Apollo, present day Midnighter and Shile using a Boom Tube to leave, future Midnighter sacrifices himself to take our Trojan. But…it appears Trojan will live on inside of his chief scientist.

MISTER MIRACLE: THE SOURCE OF FREEDOM #5 by Brandon Easton and Fico Ossio. Shilo and Oberon come across Orion, who is fighting against N’vir and her army. Quickly defeating them, Orion shows them the original Mobius chair. Shilo sits in it and sees images of N’vir at her parents graveside, but find their bodies are gone. It is also revealed she believes Shilo is responsible for their deaths, even though Shilo and Orion do not know who Scott and Barda were. She reorganizes her forces and attacks, even as the mystery continues. Are Scott and Barda lost in the Omniverse?

NIGHTWING #84 by Tom Taylor and Robbi Rodriguez. Nightwing gets a call from Barbara, but it's actually the Anti-Oracle. Dick heads to a meeting in Crime Alley and crosses paths with the Magistrate. Batman arrives and the pair escape. Later, Dick meets with Barbara, who decides to join the fight…as Batgirl.

ROBIN #6 by Joshua Williamson and Gleb Melnikov. The tournament continues and the numbers dwindle. Robin becomes friends with Flatline and convinces Ravenger and Connor that the secret of the island lies in Mother Soul’s book. During the next round, Damian steals the book and figures out who she really is. But he may not get a chance to reveal the information as Respawn attacks.

SHAZAM! #3 by Tim Sheridan and Clayton Henry. Billy and Dane get away from Sulibak and run into Neron, who promises to lead them to the Rock of Eternity. He gets them there but then turns on them. Luckily they get a save from Raven. She takes the injured Dane back to Titans Tower and Billy finally enters the Rock of Eternity. He expects to find the Wizard, but is surprised when he sees Black Adam.

STATIC: SEASON ONE #3 by Vita Ayala, Nikolas Draper-Ivey and Chriscross. Francis Stone has been captured and may end up joining the group hunting Bang Babies. Meanwhile, Virgil is hiding in Metcalf’s storage unit and acquires some of Metcalf’s tech to escape. At home, Virgil makes use of a strange metal he got from Metcalf’s and creates a costume. Elsewhere, Daisy meets with Darius and reveals she is a Bang Baby. Later, the Feds and Hotstreak show up at school and take Daisy and Darius away.

SUICIDE SQUAD 2021 ANNUAL by Robbie Thompson, Eduardo Pansica, Julio Ferreira and Dexter Soy. Superboy battles Superboy, where we discover that the Suicide Squad Superboy is actually a clone now known as Match and infused with Bizarro personality. The full team discovers a lab filled with Superboy clones. In the end, the team convinces Match to stay with them and take Waller down. Rick Flag goes to Baxk X Prison and frees Mirror Master. He also reveals he has someone on the inside of Task Force X…Talon.

SUICIDE SQUAD #7 by Robbie Thompson and Eduardo Pansica. Waler has the recently returned team in stasis where they are living a dream of being on a beach with Ambush Bug, who explains how they have been mind-controlled. After a virtual training mission in their heads, Waller sends the team to Hell to find the Rock of Eternity. But the Hell Squad is there to stop them.

SUICIDE SQUAD: GET JOKER! BOOK TWO by Brian Azzarello and Alex Maleev. The team has some down-time in which to bond before heading to a strip club looking for The Joker. It goes bad while Harley gives The Joker a lap dance and, outside, Toyman kills Yonder. Toyman is revealed to be a robot and Banshee gets shot up by a team consisting of Rick Flag, Deathstroke, Peacemaker and others. Is this Waler’s doing?

SUICIDE SQUAD: KING SHARK #1 by Tim Seeley and Scott Kolins. Defacer is in Belle Reve in a therapy session when she gets into a tussle with Hot Take. King Shark takes a liking to her and later eats Hot Take when he menaces Deacer, Later, Amanda Waller tasks her with a mission with King Shark to go visit his father. They head off to Waipio Bay to meet Shark’s father, but get into a fight with Orca. After defeating her, the pair enter a portal that takes them to an ethereal dimension. Once there, they meet with Vik Wynn who tells them they will end up in a fight to the death against a group known as The Exemplers.

SUPERGIRL: WOMAN OF TOMORROW #4 by Tom King and Bilquis Evely. Kara and Ruthye continue their planet hopping journey as they search for Krem.

SUPERMAN AND THE AUTHORITY #3 by Grant Morrison, Travel Foreman and Mikel Janin. The team saves Enchantress from her troubled mind and she joins up. The team split up onto several missions, with Apollo looking for Lightray, who may have been captured by Eclipso. Midnighter, Natasha Irons and Manchester Black travel to Dubai and come face to face with a team calling themselves The Authority. At Fort Superman, Superman is attacked by the Ultra-Humanite who now lives in Solomon Grundy’s body. He easily dispatches Superman and prepares to take him to the bottled city of Kandor, where he plans to put his brain into Superman’s body.

SUPERMAN: SON OF KAL-EL #3 by Tom Taylor and John Timms. The Infantino Tower in Coast City is ready to collapse and father and son team up to save everyone. The cause is a girl with density powers named Faultline who can't control her powers. To keep her and everyone else safe, they take her to S.T.A.R. Labs. Later, Jon goes to a protest against Henry Bendix and his treatment of the Gamorran people and gets arrested. Forty-five minutes later and Superman bails him out, as Jon’s new friend Jay attempted to also do. Jay accompanies them to dinner on the Smallville farm, but has an emotional break when he meets his hero, Lois Lane. Soon, he tells Jon he needs to go to Warworld and leaves Jon in charge. Finding out Superman is gone, Bendix releases Faultline onto the Kent family home.

THE SWAMP THING #7 by Ram V and Mike Perkins. The Suicide Squad finds Heatwave's body, leading Peacemaker to call Waller for help. Nightmare Nurse manages to probe Swamp Thing’s mind to find what troubles him. It all goes back to   when Levi's company wanted to buy the land but Levi's family and the people of Kaziranga were convinced that selling would lead to destruction of the ecosystem of the Green. Levi's company bought the land with the help of the government and bribes. Levi's father is shot during protests and Levi's family blames him for it. Nightmare Nurse sends in Chemo to dissolve Swamp Thing but, with the power of Kaziranga’s green, he fights back.

TEEN TITANS ACADEMY #6 by Tim Sheridan and Rafa Sandoval. It’s summer vacation and Stich, Chupacabra, Tress, Summer Zahid and Gorilla Gregg check out a vacation village in East Nyack, New York. Gregg goes missing and, realizing something feels wrong, they go undercover and follow the townspeople to a meeting. There they find Gorilla Grodd as he prepares the people to take over New York City. And by his side/ His nephew-Gorilla Gregg!

TITANS UNITED #1 by Cavan Scott and Jose Luis.The team of Nightwing, Starfire, Donna Troy, Raven, Beast Boy, Superboy, and Red Hood face off against an ex-con named Evan Morton, who has the power to absorb the team’s individual powers. In the process, he absorbs Superboy’s powers and that leaves him injured with a broken arm. Back at Titans Tower, they get an emergency call from Hawk and Dove, who tells them they are getting beaten up by Kite Man. Just what is going on?

WONDER GIRL #3 by Joëlle Jones and Adriana Melo. Yara wanders away from the plane crash and she and João share a kiss. Eros arrives and starts is shooting arrows at them. A giant snake begins chasing Eros and Yara gives chase. This leads her to a clearing here she meets a pair of mystical monsters who say they have been waiting to meet her. While she tries to take out the creatures with the bolas she received from Iara, Eros stabs her with one of his arrows, leaving her in love with him. He takes Yara to Mount Olympus where she meets Hera, Queen of the Gods. Esewhere, Cassie and Artemis team up against some Amazons before deciding they must find Yara things get worse.

WONDER WOMAN #779 by Becky Cloonan, Jordaire Bellaire, Michael Conrad, Travis Moore and Paulina Ganucheau. Boston Brand is dead and Janus is to blame. Diana wraps her lasso around Deadman and he rises up. He explains that they are stuck in the in-between space with no way out but then admits he was lying and goes off to get help. Sigfried and Ratatosk arrive and so does The Norns, who wrap Janus in their threads and plan to remove er from the thread of reality. Deadman returns with the dead Oympians and Janus’ other half, who orchestrated the whole thing in order to eliminate his other half. Diana begs The Norns to spare their lives and stitches them back together again. Wonder Woman uses the Godscraper to make a portal out of herself and disappears, Sigfried and Ratatosk head to Asgard and the Olympians return home. In the backup, Young Diana enters an Amazonian competition that may finally result in her becoming Wonder Woman.