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.