DC UNIVERSE Month 42, Part 1

ACTION COMICS #1033 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Becky Cloonan, Michael W. Conrad, Daniel Sampere and Michael Avon Oeming. Task Force X attempts to steal a Genesis fragment from Atlantis with less than successful results. This leads to Aquaman informing the League that the fragment belongs to Atlantis and any attempt to take it will result in war. In the Fortress, Thao-La tries to deal with her new powers while explaining the importance of the chains she wears means to her and her culture. On Warworld, Mongol sends one of his warriors with a mysterious device to the Fortress, to convince Thao-La that she needs to finish the mission he sent her on. But Lois intervenes, saying Thao-La is part of the Kent family now. In the back-up, Midnighter and Shilo Norman team up to take out members of Lucas’ team, but get stopped cold when they encounter Lucas and the full force of Trojan Solutions.

ACTION COMICS 2021 ANNUAL #1 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Siya Oum and Scott Godlewski. Mr. Byla tells a future tale of the House of El to the children of Warworld. Alura Van-El is preparing to marry Khan from Warworld Prime. As part of the festivities, Brandon Kent is going to fight Khan but Pyrrhos shows up and transports most of the House of El to the Phantom Zone. They fight off the creatures there before crossing paths with Hank Henshaw-the cyborg Superman who claims he has been trapped here for hundreds of years. Pyrrhos takes over the Sanctuary while the Phantom Zone prisoners work with Henshaw to survive. They eventually find a long dead Mister Miracle with his Mother Box, which Henshaw uses to open a portal. Henshaw also reveals he was responsible for killing Mister Miracle, leading to Ronan taking Henshaw out and leading to the El’s escape. Kara issues Henshaw a pardon for helping the family out of the Zone. In the end, Alura marries Khan and Mr. Byla reveals a certain toy belonging to Thao-La could be one of the House of El’s greatest treasures someday.

BATMAN #110 by James Tynion IV, Jorge Jimenez and Ricardo Lopez Ortiz. In the present, Batman still finds himself under the control of Scarecrow, where he learns that Fear State is coming. In the recent past, Batman battles Peacekeeper-01, trying to convince him that Simon Saint is the real villain here. He gets rescued from the fight by Ghostmaker and Harley. Harley revels that Peacekeeper-01 was one of the worst guards at Gotham, which explains his nasty disposition. Elsewhere, Pecekeeper-01 invades the Unsanity Collective, where Miracle Molly and Squeak surrender. But Saint gives the order to use lethal force. In the backup, Ghostmaker continues his hunt and Devil Skull Island but may just have been blown up!

BATMAN: REPTILIAN #2 by Garth Ennis and Liam Sharp. Batman saves Penguin’s life and continues to investigate this creature that is more dangerous than Killer Croc. He doesn’t find the creature but does find the severely injured Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy.

BATMAN SECRET FILES: HUNTRESS #1 by Mariko Tamaki and David Lapham. Continuing out of DETECTIVE COMICS #1040, Huntress escapes from the hospital and discovers she has a psychic connection with the infected victims of Hue Vile. She goes on a hunt for his victims, stopping each one from claiming more victims. In the end, she realizes Batman has been infected and needs to go back to Gotham. Continued in DETECTIVE COMICS #1041.

BATMAN SECRET FILES: THE SIGNAL #1 by Tony Patrick and Christian Duce. While out on patrol, Duke comes across vigilantes and former Robin teammates Riko and Dax. Riko uses her powers to spy on a arms convention and reports back to her boss, who just so happens to be meeting with Bruce Wayne. Duke eventually is able to spy on the marketplace using his light powers and sees some Anti-Joker toxin, which he knows can help his parents. But Riko gets caught and Duke tries to save her. She transports out and leaves him battling for his life. He eventually transports out and, when he wakes, Batman is taking care of him. The next day, Signal goes to visit his parents, only to find there has been a breakout…and his mom is gone.

BATMAN/SUPERMAN #20 by Gene Luen Yang and Ivan Reis. Batman, Robin, Supermand and El Diablo battle against Auteur.IO. While the yare able to defeat him, he escapes and now creates a film world around Etrigan. Etrigan get free and sets his demons loose on Metropolis. The super team makes their way to the Archive of Worlds, where they fight the demons. Meanwhile , Etrigan has made his way to the Fortress of Solitude where he has access t an army of Super Robots.

BATMAN: THE DETECTIVE #4 by Tom Taylor and Andy Kubert.Bruce has been arrested for the murder of Henri Ducard but learns Ducard is not dead. His police interrogators are not who they say they are, and Bruce has been poisoned by a glass of water. He manages to break free and gets out thanks to help from Amina and also gets meds to counteract the poison. He learns that over 200 people have been killed by Equilibrium. Sarah arrives with a mobile Bat Cave and he decides it is time to activate the European Alliance of the Bat.

BATMAN: URBAN LEGENDS #5 by Chip Zdarsky, Marguerite Bennett, Meghan Fitzmartin, Matthew Rosenberg, Eddy Barrows, Marcus To, Sweeney Boo, Belen Ortega and Ryan Benjamin. Jason continues to investigate the Cheerdrops, leading to his meeting the woman who developed Joker Gas. He also believes her husband, Silvanio Romero, is Cheer. And Cheer: he’s preparing to give Batman a super strong dose of Cheerdrops. In the first backup, Cassandra and Stephanie Brown break into Wayne Manor to play some video games before receives a mission from Oracle to retrieve a red card, meeting a mysterious girl along the way. In the second backup, Tim continues to try and find his friend Bernard, leading to his coming face to face with a cult. In the last backup, Grifter goes undercover with a group looking get steal Wayne data. But he double crosses them, calling in the WILDC.A.T.S. and taking the data drive for themselves.

BLUE & GOLD #1 by Dan Jurgens and Ryan Sook. The Justice League has been captured by aliens and Booster Gold decides he is going to free them. But that doesn’t go well, leading to Blue Beetle coming in to assist him. The pair team up to stop the aliens and free the League. Booster is convinced that he and Beetle will be asked to join the team but, when they only want Beetle, he turns it down, leading to the pair starting their own super team. In the end, the princess from the alien race promises revenge on the heroes.

CATWOMAN #33 by Ram V and Fernando Blanco. Alley town is in turmoil as the citizens are in the streets and Mayor Nakano announces his Magistrate Program to hope to calm things down. Catwoman meets with the Strays at their new base. Riddler is there, using his tech abilities to set up their equipment. The mysterious stranger is revealed to be Basil Karlo/Clayface and he’s brought along Croc, Knockout, Firefly and Cheshire. Elsewhere, Hadley finds out that Karl Senke is Karl Valley and he realizes he is here to kill Selina. A bomb goes off at the docks and Father Valley arrives. He seemingly kills Clayface with a well-placed grenade and then fights with Catwoman. Cut several times, she ends up in the water and looks like she might be dying…but then there is a helping hand…from Batman.

CHALLENGE OF THE SUPER SONS #4 by Peter J. Tomasi and Max Raynor. Superboy and Robin face off against Vandal Savage, defeating him with the Supercar. Then they head off to save Cyborg from Grid.

CHECKMATE #2 by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev. Two weeks ago, Mark Shaw and Mark Merlyn have Talia captive and Superman arrives, leading Shaw to explain his country was just invaded by the Man of Steel. The following week, Shaw meets with Agent Allie, who informs him that Lois asked if Allie was the Snowman's Ticket. His response is that he needs Lois on his side. In the present, Lois heads to Sam Lane’s houseboat where, while being observed by Green Arrow and The Question. She discovers a snowman figurine. A mysterious spaceship arrives and transports the houseboat away and the disappears. The ship arrives at Leviathan, but explodes due to an arrow Green Arrow fired at it before it disappeared. In the end, Shaw meets with Lois in the houseboat and tells her that her husband had invaded his country.

CRIME SYNDICATE #5 by Andy Schmidt, Kieran McKeown and Bryan Hitch. Luthor’s team is tracking down Johnny Quick and Atomica which leads to a battle critically injuring Power Tower and apparently killing Quick. Later, the core Syndicate members arrive, discovering that quick had once killed his family, as they discover the bodies. The Syndicate goes off and attacks the Legion of Justice, who are quickly defeated. Just as Ultraman is about to take out Luthor, he gets stopped…by Luthor’s assistant: Ultraman’s cousin Kara! In the backup, young Johnny is abused by his father and, after gaining his powers, he takes revenge on his family.

CRUSH & LOBO #2 by Mariko Tamaki and Amancay Nahuelpan. Crush continues histrip to visit her dead while recalling how she met her ex-girlfriend on the playground of Larry’s Burgers. She ends up at a Space Bru coffee shop where she runs int an argument with the coffiologist, who later attacks her ship with the help of his employees. Lucikly, she gets picked up by a prison ship and that will lead to her meeting with dad…she hopes.

DETECTIVE COMICS #1039 by Mariko Tamaki, Viktor Bogdanovic and T. Rex. When Hue Vile was a child, he got a parasite in his throat which took him over. The parasite feeds on fear which is why Hue continues to create violence to feed the parasite. Meanwhile, Batman and Huntress save Donovan, but she has become infected by Vile and becomes violent. With the city on chaos, Oracle explains that the sample she has reacts to light. Huntress catches up with Vile, but he infects her, leading to her attacking Batman. She forces out the word light and Batman uses it to blind her and that also hurts Vile. In the end, Vile and Worth are missing, Huntress is recovering, and Batman decides to turn himself in. In the backup, Vile explains how he went about murdering and infecting people to feed the parasite and why he came back to Gotham to continue the feeding.

DETECTIVE COMICS #1040 by Mariko Tamaki, Dan Watters, Dan Mora and Max Raynor. Bruce Wayne has turned himself into the police and ends up in the drunk tank with a guy who is sure Bruce is Batman, after seeing him unmasked years ago. But when he sobers up, he doesn’t know him. Bruce’ alibi eventually checks out and the police free him, but Bruce returns to find his current home destroyed thanks to Worth and the Penguin, who has Vile under medical care. Also, Oracle learns that Huntress has escaped from the hospital. In the backup, Batman confronts Man-Bat, who has been corrupted from a creature he saw in the Tower of Fate. The creature kills Langstrom before ending up inside the dying scientist. In the end, Batman debates about telling Francine Langstrom the real truth about her husband’s death.

THE FLASH 2021 ANNUAL #1 by Jeremy Adams, Fernando Pasarin and Brandon Peterson. The Speed Force has led Wally West ends up at the Sanctuary during the events of HEROES IN CRISIS. Roy is still alive and the other heroes are in stasis as Savitar arrives, draining power from the Speed Force. Roy and Wally team up to take him on, but there is a problem. For Wally to get back in the Speed Force, they need to pop the stasis bubble, which means the events of HEROES IN CRISIS will still happen. Roy makes the decision and shoots the bubble, which transports Wally and Savitar to the present, where Savitar tangles with the Justice League. Wally unleashes his Speed Force powers, draining Savitar, who ends up transporting to “the darkness” via what appears to be a Boom Tube.

THE FLASH #772 by Jeremy Adams and Will Conrad. Wally seems to be getting his renewed family life in order which means he needs to get a real job. He ends up working for Speedy Lube but soon gets fired by owner Michael Holt/Mr. Terrific. Holt has Wally added to his team of engineers at Holt Industries. Wally heads to assist fighting a fire when he comes face to face with Heat Wave who is dying of cancer and has nothing to lose.

FUTURE STATE: GOTHAM #3 by Joshua Williamson, Dennis Culver and Giannis Milonogiannis. Red Hood and the new Batman team up to fight their way out of Gotham, freeing Astrid Arkham in the process. But Warmonger shows up and makes the two heroes fight to the death. Elsewhere, Punchline gets free and, after seeing a news report on it, that gets Harley a bit upset, as she claims Gotham is her city.

GREEN LANTERN #4 by Geoffrey Thorne and Tom Raney. John Stewart is trying his best to be a hero on a new alien world where he finds himself powerless. The Qinoori show up and want his ring. It seems that as the thousand and one Green Lanterns that were heading into the Dark Sector have a bounty on their heads. John uses his wits to take over the Qinoori spaceship and drive the enemy away. Meanwhile, Jo Mullein has teamed up with the United Federation of Planets and is trying to pick up the pieces of Oa. It appears that Sinestro may be responsible for the destruction of Oa and the Power Battery, leading Teen Lantern to head off to confront him on New Korugar.