DC UNIVERSE Month 63, Part 2

ICON VS. HARDWARE #2 by Reginald Hudlin, Leon Chills and Denys Cowan. Curtis Metcalf is arrested for killing Alva. On trial, it is revealed that bullets fired at Metcalf were deflected by hardware, resulting in Alva’s death, which exonerates Metcalf. Running Alva Industries, Q Juice is developed and an unfortunate accident occurs in Sadaqah. The President enlists Metcalf to produce it for the armed forces. Icon gets involved in an effort to stop the war and that brings him into conflict with both versions of Hardware. Present day Hardware explains that he did what he did to prevent Q Juice being used and developing the Bang Babies in the process. Hardware goes back in time and encounters someone who is also currently encountering Raquel....and his name is Vandal Savage.

POISON IVY #11 by G. Willow Wilson and Marcio Takara. Everyone at the conference are now infected with Lamia and Ivy uses it to try to block access to an oil refinery, almost getting everyone killed in the process. After sharing a kiss with Janet -from-HR,  she decides she needs to change. But Gwendolyne threatens a lawsuit and suddenly changes into a monster.

THE JOKER: THE MAN WHO STOPPED LAUGHING #7 by Matthew Rosenberg, Ryan Cady, Carmine Di Giandomenico and Will Robson. The Joker battles Manhunter and appears to lose until Manhunter is hit by the police car driven by gang member Waffles. In Gotham, Jason is being transferred to Blackgate. High in the sky, Mr. Sprang decides to make a hasty exit from the plane he is riding in. Under Gotham, the other Joker is being tended to by Solomon Grundy. Back in L.A., Manhunter catches up with the police car containing The Joker and captures him, attempting to drown him in the L.A.  River.

LAZARUS PLANET: REVENGE OF THE GODS #3 by G. Willow Wilson, Becky Cloonan, Michael Conrad, Emanuela Lupacchino,Cian Tormey, Alitha Martinez. Washinton D.C. is in ruins and Diana weeps. Cheetah finds her and Diana wonders how they can fight all the Gods at once. Billy Batson is still captive on Olympus and grows weaker each time he tries to use his powers. Hecate arrives with Yara and they free Billy and make their way back to Washington, joining Diana’s forces against the Gods. That is when the mysterious hooded man arrives and reveals himself as Ares, the God of war. Continued in WONDER WOMAN #798. In the backup, the Amazons continue their battle with the army of the dead. To be concluded in LAZARUS PLANET: REVENGE OF THE GODS #4

LAZARUS PLANET: REVENGE OF THE GODS #4 by G. Willow Wilson, Becky Cloonan, Michael W. Conrad, Josier Campbell, Cian Tormey, Alitha Martinez, and Caitlin Yarsky. A super powered Diana battles and defeats Hera. When she returns to Olympus, the Wizard declares Hera unworthy and bans her from Olympus because of all she has done. The spirit of Hippolyta helps the Amazons defeat their enemies and peace returns to Themyscira. In the aftermath, the Wizard and Hippolyta grant the powers of the Gods to Billy and Mary, meaning the powers of Shazam live in them again. To be continued in SHAZAM #1.

MULTIVERSITY: HARLEY SCREWS UP THE DCU #2 by Frank Tieri and Logan Faerber. The other Harley tells our Harley that Starro has taken over this world and she speaks from experience, as she bears the scars. Because of what Harley had done because of her time travelling, all of the Justice League got “Harley’d out of existence”. They get attacked by the Starro infected people and Harley goes ballistic, killing as many as possible. Eventually, the pair reach the time machine and leave. What they don’t know is that the Starro’s have their own time machine and they have already conquered time itself.

NIGHTWING #103 by Tom Taylor, C.S. Pascat, Travis Moore, Vasco Georgiev, and Eduardo Pansica. Raven, Nightwing, Cyborg and Beast Boy travel to Hell while Batgirl, Donna Troy and Starfire take Olivia to Themyscira, where Wonder Woamn is going to teach her how to fight. Neron has an interaction with Blaze and beats her down. The team finds her and she directs them to Neron’s tower, with Beast Boy disguised as one of Hell’s denizens and the team as his prisoners. Once inside, Cyborg gets into Neron’s computer and discovers that Olivia’s mother was Jezebel Jet. Neron visits the Grinning Man in prison, who tells him Olivia is in Themyscira. During Olivia’s training, Wonder Woman is revealed to be the Grinning Man and he is there with Gorilla Grodd and Doctor Polaris. Neron meets with Nightwing, who tells him that he is now Olivia’s legal guardian. But Neron tries to tempt the former Boy Wonder with all the powers to change the world. In the backup, the son of the woman who runs the show reveals himself as the person who cut the rope, in hopes that he would not have to continue as a performer and live a normal life. But that does not answer who planted the bomb, meaning the investigation continues.

STATIC: SHADOWS OF DAKOTA #3 by Nikolas Draper-Ivey and Vita Ayala. The Blood Syndicate loses some members to the ‘Dark Man’. Virgil and his family try to work through some issues, with him feeling he needs to be the hero in Dakota. In the end, Quincy meets with a stranger who may pose a threat in the future.

SUPERBOY: THE MAN OF TOMORROW #1 by Kenny Porter and Jahnoy Linsay. Connor goes off into space after looking for distress signals to answer. It takes him to Planet Dragoi, where the Dominators are attacking. He battles the alien team of invaders but, in the end, he may have to find a new team, in the form of the Cosmoteers.

SUPERMAN #3 by Joshua Williamson and Jamal Campbell. Superman and much of Metropolis, have been corrupted by the Parasites, leading to him ending up with Luthor, where they use Livewire’s powers to free Superman from Parasite’s hold on him. Superman meets with Rudy, who absorbs all of the tiny Parasites and gets so filled he passes out. Later, Superman and Lois discuss the possibilities of him joining Supercorp. He meets with ;Luthor, thanks him for helping to save Rudy and gifts him a Superman signal watch, agreeing to work with Supercorp. In the end, the secret cabal is looking for a new subject in the form of the Silver Banshee.

TIM DRAKE: ROBIN #8 by Meghan Fitzmartin and Nikola Cizmesija. Batwoman crashes on the deck of Tim’s boat. Her memory is mostly gone, only recalling going to sleep and coming face-to-face with a monster. They head to Gotham and find a battle going on between Detective Williams and the Chaos monsters. Along the way, Batwoman encounters one of the leaders and Sparrow is stabbed and may be dying. Who does Tim save: Batwoman or Sparrow?

THE UNSTOPPABLE DOOM PATROL #2 by Dennis Culver and Chris Burnham. Worm is taken to Doom Patrol’s headquarters, where she meets Flex Metallo. While Chief visits Niles, Robotman visits Dorothy Spinner’s grave. Later, Peacemaker contacts Worm, saying that there is a job to be done or they will blow the chip in Worm’s head. Velvet snoops around the headquarters and sees that Niles is looking to bring Mento back to life again. Worm decides to not continue his mission and Peacemaker sets off the bomb, but the heroes have temporarily jammed the signal. Worm asks the team to care for velvet and flies off, being killed as the jam no longer protects him. Peacemaker reveals that Worm was not the metahuman, Velvet is and that means they have a spy on the premises.

WILDC.A.T.S #6 by Matthew Rosenberg, Stephen Segovia and Tom Derenick. Clark Kent meets with Marlowe, questioning him about Halo’s business practices. Elsewhere, Cole shows up and meets with Max, which is quite the feat considering he was dead. He tells her that he needs to have a chat with Halliday. Fairchild and Zealot join up with Warblade and Backlash, where they burst into a warehouse and are attacked by robots controlled by Toyman, who explains that Halo recruited him and faked his death, allowing them to build Halo’s robots. Things get crazy when Zealot is given the choice of being with Halo or against them, leading to a fight with the other team members. Later, Zealot on Fairchild meet with Spartan, who is actually now inhabited by Deathblow. Cole meets with Adrianna and kills her. But she begins to glow and Cole thinks he may have made a big mistake.

WONDER WOMAN #798 by Becky Cloonan, Michael W. Conrad, Josie Campbell, Amancay Nahuelpan, and Caitlin Yarsky.Diana and Shazam meet with Ares in the middle of a destroyed Washington D.C., where he suggests that they team up to take down Hera. With the rest of the team in tow, including Cheetah, Siggy, Yara and Mary Marvel, Diana faces off with Hera, being soundly defeated in the process. Mary utters that magic word and transfers her power to Diana. With the rest of the team in jeopardy, a transformed Diana reappears to take the fight to Hera. In the backup, a powerless Mary is met by Diana, who gives her three gifts to once again give her some sort of power. With that new power she battles and defeats Typhon, eventually joining Diana. Both stories are continued in LAZARUS PLANET: REVENGE OF THE GODS. #4.