ACTION COMICS PRESENTS: DOOMSDAY SPECIAL #1 by Dan Watters, Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, and Max Raynor. Supergirl has a nightmare about Doomsday only to find that this nightmare was sent to her by Martian Manhunter, who believes it is not just a dream but a vision. This leads the pair to Hell, where they meet the First of the Fallen, who wants Supergirl to act as his champion as Doomsday is trying to break out of Hell. As she battles the creature, Martian Manhunter pleads with the souls here to act as a barrier to keep the creature in. With their help, they are able to contain Doomsday in Hell…for now. In the backup, Raphael Arce, who lost his life stopping Doomsday, finds himself in the Fifth Circle of Hell, where he encounters the creature guarding that level. Using the powers he received from Martian Manhunter, he transforms into a superhero and defeats him, before freeing some tortured souls and going deeper into Hell.
ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN: JON KENT #6 by Tom Taylor and Clayton Henry. While Superman prepares for the executions, Jon meets with The Flash and explains his plan. He then proceeds to take down Hawkgirl, Hal Jordan, and Wonder Woman before meeting with Damian. Superman has Jay in jail and threatens him with Jon arrives. During a heated argument, Superman breaks Jay’s arm, causing Jon to charge at Superman and then hugging him, telling him he is sorry for everything that has happened to him. Superman fights back until a vision of Lois stops him and Cyborg blasts Jon and sends him back to his own Earth. Back home, Jon finds the Hall of Justice deserted. To be continued in BEAST WORLD.
BATMAN BEYOND: NEO GOTHIC #2 by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, and Max Dunbar. Terry comes face to face with a giant, transformed Killer Croc in the area beneath the city, but gets saved by Kyle the Catboi. As they flee and continue their journey, Terry reveals that this is the remans of Wayne Enterprises and that Croc is acting as a guard dog, although he is a hungry one. As the tunnel is rocked by an earthquake, set off by Lumos, they continue their journey, chased by Croc. Lumos has fired up Neo-Gotham’s future, in the form of self sufficient energy. When Kyle and Terry reach “the tomb”, they discover it is the Tomb of the Owls.
BATMAN/CATWOMAN THE GOTHAM WAR: THE BATTLE LINES #1 by Tini Howard, Chip Zdarsky, and Mike Hawthorne. Set eight weeks after KNIGHT TERRORS: NIGHT’S END, Bruce Wayne wakes from a dream and goes out on patrol. While he has been gone, crime has dropped off dramatically and that may be due to Catwoman’s new approach to crime: stealing from the wealthy and employing criminals who otherwise would end up working for villains such as The Joker and The Riddler. After a reunion with Tim Drake, Batman is informed of a meeting with Catwoman where she lays out her plans for Gotham. Batman still sees this as a criminal acting outside of the law and wants now part of her plan, even as members of the Bat Family disagree. Later, Red Hood breaks into Selina’s home and a fight ensues, before he tells her he is willing to help her from the inside of Batman’s family. Even Commissioner Montoya questions the need for a Batman with crime stats being down. In the end, one of Selina’s crew breaks into the condo of Hannah Jiang and pays with his life, further pushing Batman against Catwoman’s plans. To be continued in BATMAN #137.
BATMAN INCORPORATED #11 by Ed Brisson, John Timms, Sergio Acuna, and Nikola Cizmesija. Joker has left Batman Incorporated in a tough bind: kill the members of Joker Incorporated or innocent people will die because of their inaction. What is worse is that Bat-Man finds himself up against his own sister. The bombs have been activated and time is running out. And Raven Red snaps and is trying to kill the man who assaulted his father. What will happen next? Is this how the Joker wins?
BATMAN/SUPERMAN: WORLD’S FINEST #18 by Mark Waid and Travis Moore. Years ago, someone has stolen six million dollars from a bank vault in Gotham and left a riddle behind in Kryptonian. The riddle is seemingly the work of The Riddler, except that it is in Kryptonian. This leads Superman to meeting Jim Gordon for the first time, leading him to also meet a vigilante who dresses like a bat, also for the first time. The two team up, taking down Spellbinder and Magpie. Later, Clark Kent goes to Wayne manor and meets Bruce Wayne, who admits he knows Kent is Superman before taking him to the Batcave, revealing his secret. They learn of a new message left on a wall at Gotham memorial Park. This leads them to an abandoned shipyard where they find The Riddler but also Jax-Ur, who has escaped from the Phantom Zone and trapped Batman there in his place.
BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #4 by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, Ed Brisson, Rob Williams, Meghan Fitzmartin, Kelly Jones, Pasquale Qualano, Stefano Landini, and Belen Ortega. People have been taken hostage, including Cullen Row, and Batman is trying to find them and the cause, which leads him to a thousands year old woman who claims they were taken by the Dark Garden. She leads him to the Garden, where Batman is forced to fight not only the creature living there but hallucinations. They find Cullen, who reveals he is the only one that has not been eaten. The girl sacrifices herself so no one else will ever be eaten. In the second tale, Phantom-One and Shado search for Victoria and Core, who have been captured by a creature trying to convince her that Stormwatch is using her. She is eventually rescued, but Core has reverted back to a fetus and eventually disappears. It turns out this is only a part of the Nightmare store created by Insomnia. Later, Victoria meets with Bones and demands that he tell her who they are actually working for. In the third story, Emilia Harcourt is back among the living, thanks to Waller and some Lazarus Energy. In the final tale, Batman battles Bane and, with him in critical condition, realizes the importance of family.
CITY BOY #3 by Greg Pak and Minkyu Jung. Cam meets with Superman, explaining that his powers are not destroying the city but helping to expand it. While dealing with his own visions of people in his life and those he does not even know, he is finally able to get the creature calmed down and subdued. As he deals with the trauma of seeing everyone’s stories and pain, including his own, Superman convinces him that he can be a hero and he sets off on the road to Bludhaven.
DANGER STREET #8 by Tom King and Jorge Fornes. Lady Cop goes to dinner with Jack Ryder, where she reveals the trauma that led her to become a police officer. Meanwhile, the jailed Dingbats, along with Warlord, break out and that leads them to Starman. Abdul, on the run from Manhunter, explains how he became part of The Green Team. It all went back to when he was a kid and there were two teams: Green team and The Outsiders. That’s when a certain Dr. Fate also got involved. Abdul, it appears is relating this story to members of The Outsiders, one of whom presents him with The Warlord Sword, as they have aligned themselves with Manhunter. In the end, a drunken Ryder turns into The Creeper and Lady Cop knocks him out.
G’NORT’S SWIMSUIT EDITION #1 by Julie Benson, Shawna Benson, Steve Orlando, Meghan Hetrick and Paul Pelletier. While mostly a pin-up book featuring variant covers from DC Comics, there are two stories included. In the first, Ivy, Helena, Dinah, Mari, and Barbara spend a quiet day at Gotham City Beach when they discover that Penguin is looking to blow up an oil pipeline that would destroy the ecosystem. The girls jump into action, taking down the villain and saving the day…even if they have to endure the Penguin ending up naked in the process. In the second tale, a quiet beach day for Apollo and Midnighter is interrupted as Monsieur Mallah tries to break the love of his life, The Brain, out of a ship. The pair work to defeat Mallah but soon see that the love of the two villains is so important. In the end, the villains are jailed but are still together and that’s the most important thing.
HAWKGIRL #2 by Jadzia Axelrod and Amancay Nahuelpan. Fifty years ago, a strange woman named Vulpecula gives a two young boys a pair of medalions to fuel their wishes. Today, it seems she is back and looking to collect, using them to hunt down more Nth metal. Meanwhile, Kendra is dealing with her past lives, having crashed into Kat and Galaxy’s apartment. The pair, along with Argus the talking dog, proceed to Kendra’s apartment, even as she is getting used to actually being able to feel her metal wings. They end up spending the night in a gay bar, where Kendra runs into Abilene. The bar is later crashed into by Vulpecula and her transformed followers, Galaxy and Hawkgirl fight the villains, with them eventually leaving but promising to be in touch. In the end, Abilene asks Kendra who she really is, now having seen her as Hawkgirl.
ICON VS. HARDWARE #4 by Reginald Hudlin, Elon chills, Atagun Ilhan, Denys Cowan, and Yasmin Flores Montanez. Prehistoric beast have invaded Dakota City, thanks to all of the messing up with time and it’s up to Icon, Hardware and Rocket to stop their rampage. During it all, a group calling themselves the Systematics arrive, saying they are here because without Dakota City there is nothing left for them to control. Meanwhile, Alva gives orders to the Systematics to go into the past and collect as many anomalies as possible. In the suburbs, Static runs into what appears to be the Nazi army , leading to him taking them all out. The anomalies have even made their way onto Paris island, leading the Blood Syndicate into action. Later, the heroes have a meeting, trying to decide if what was changed in the past by Hardware, such as ending slavery, was good for this world. Seeing one robotic creature still about, Hardware and Icon pursue it, only to lead them into what looks like a direct confrontation with Brainiac. In the end, in Switzerland, Rocket returns to her school, where she is confronted by Vandal Savage and the “mean girls”, who have been given some Q Juice. Luckily, Rocket has backup.
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA # 5 BY Goeff JohnsMikel Janin, and Jerry Ordway. Helena and her father meet with the Justice Society, who have arrived with the snow globe. Also arriving is Per Degaton, who is seemingly everywhere at once as he is also off battling Stargirl and the Thunderbolt. He is also residing in his past, a twisted present and an equally devastating future. Dr. fate uses the snow globe to bring together a unified group of JSA members from different eras to defeat him and trap him in the snow globe along with the Flashpoint Batman, The Joker and Harvey Dent’s son. All of the JSA members go back to their proper times except for Helena, who is stuck in the present. As the JSA figures what to do with Helena, Stargirl, Hourman and Judy Garrick arrive to explain, leading to the Dawn of DC.
MULTIVERSITY: HARLEY SCREWS UP THE DCU #6 by Frank Tieri and Logan Faerber. As the alternate Harley lies dying in Harley’s arms, our Harley promises that she will take out the Starro Suicide Squad. She battles Red Tool and the pair end up in the time machine, before she can boot him out and he gets sucked into the time stream. Inside the device, she finds the to-do list that she needs to finish. She goes to Martian manhunter’s arrival where she sets him on fire, but she now arrives and puts the fire out with a fire extinguisher. Then she goes to fix her origin, where she takes out a Starro influenced Harleen Quinzel. It is a time paradox, as Harley was the one responsible for the other Harley to be freed from Starro in the first place. Thinking she is going home, she ends up in front of the Council of Quinn, where she meets the various versions of her: Hyena Harley, Injustice Harley, Harley Classic, Old Lady Harley, Bombshell Harley and Zombie Harley. They admit to sent her on this mission in the booth and that they may be the problem for the various catastrophes. As she leaves for home, they engage a memory wipe. Booster Gold meets with the Council and they declare that all’s well that ends well. But…that may not be the case as we see an image of the Super Friends…but Aquaman is missing in that image!
THE PENGUIN #1 by Tom King and Rafael De Latorre. As the Bat Boat slowly sinks, Batman is trapped inside with the Penguin and both are mortally wounded. One year earlier, One year earlier, Oswald Copplepott, now known only as Mr. Cobb, is trying to live a simple, retired life as the owner of a flower shop with a loving girlfriend. But people are watching his every move and he is eventually taken into custody by Agent Nuri Espinoza; last seen in BATMAN: KILLING TIME. She is working for Amanda Waller and has an offer for Cobblepott: work for the government and help to take down the Batman. In the end, his evil side comes to the top and he kills his tailor.
SPIRIT WORLD #4 by Alyssa Wong and Haining. Xanthe, Batgirl and Constantine search for the missing residents when they are attacked by another collective, only to discover it is their missing neighbors. At the same time, Bowen, Shen and Po Po are also trying to free themselves. They all cross paths with the Divine Fox and, thanks to Bowen tossing Zanthe the Joss paper, she has her sword back and is able to free everyone, but not without a cost to Bowen, who ends up in the early stages of Spirit Deterioration. Xanthe wants to contact the Jade Court for help but before a decision can be made, Bowen appears to be taken over and suddenly Batgirl and Constantine can’t control their abilities.
SUPERBOY: THE MAN OF TOMORROW #5 by Kenny Porter and Jahnoy Lindsay. Superboy has been rescued by Krun and Gleeb, who are going to try and fix his teleporter, meaning Connor is stuck here for now. Meanwhile, Trav is using his might on the residents of Planet Callum, despite his teammates asking him to stand down. With his teleporter fixed, Connor can finally communicate with Kelex and asks him to send out a distress signal to pick up survivors of Dominator X’s attack. Teleporting to Planet Callum, Connor gets into direct conflict with Trav, who explodes during the battle. But he does not die and now his brain is inside a cloned Kryptonian body.
SUPERMAN 2023 ANNUAL by Joshua Williamson, Mahmud Asrar, Edwin Gaimon,m Caitlin Yarsky, Max Raynor, and Jack Herbert. Lois gathers her staff at the Daily Planet, looking for the next big front page story. Jimmy and Lisa Lombard go to Supercorp, where they see that Parasite is now an integral part of that team. But them a part of Parasite gets loose, eventually ending up with Parasite as his pet. Lois goes into prison to meet with Livewire and the pair team up to take down Robinson Goode. Cat Grant rides with the police and they come across a holdup and give pursuit, but Marilyn Moonlight gets there first and takes down the perps. During all of this, Superman battles a giant creation of Toyman’s, but soon discovers that Winslow is not to blame for the giant toy being loose. In the end, the Planet gets the headlines and Clark finally arrives to write his story. Lois explains that every story about Lex being a hero was buried by their former boss: Perry White. In the epilogue, Lobo has been captured by Dr. Pharm, where they discover a tracker hidden inside of him. But what does this have to do with Brainiac and his bottled city of Czarnia?
TALES OF THE TITANS #2 by Tini Howard and Eleonora Carlini. In the Hell Palace of Trigon, Trigon tries to inspire Trilogy, who was created following the Lazarus Rain. Meanwhile, raven and Kory attend a baby shower for Rosabelle Mendez, the Titan formerly known as Pantha. The whole event makes Raven think of her own mom and how her prayers led her to demons. That night, Raven heads into the church where her mother once was and meets the spirit Amadeus, who informs her of trigon’s plans to have a grandson. She heads to a castle where a blood ritual is taking place and manages to make like she is a member of the cult. She meets Eden, who is going to give birth to Trigon’s grandson. She manages to disrupt the ritual and leaves Eden to make her own choices, now that Trilogy has been sent back to Hell.
THE UNSTOPPABLE DOOM PATROL #5 by Dennis Culver and David Lafuente. The main core of the team are in New Poplar, which is a front for the Metagen Corporation, turning innocents into weapons of mass destruction. In the process Niles and the Chief are captured by the Corporation, whose CEO wants to hire Niles. He introduces Niles to Metawoman, who he sends off to stop the Doom Patrol from destroying the town. But the metagenes in her system are unstable and she dissolves into a giant puddle of goop that continues to fight on. Once the team gets free, the CEO is revealed to only be a robot proxy. Elsewhere, General Immortus meets with his new recruits, telling them they can get anything they want if they destroy the Doom Patrol.
THE VIGIL #4 by Ram V and Devmalya Pramanik. The team make their way into a Lexcorp R&D facility, where they observe an old image that reveals the doctor was part of a research team here. A large enemy named Tyaga arrives and attacks, but the team is hard pressed to stop him as he has a healing factor. Doc gets Tyaga to stop fighting, telling the team that he made Tyaga and made all of The vigil when he thought them up. Meanwhile, at a Supercorp board meeting, Festus Hep shows the members Harmonia.
WILDC.A.T.S #10 by Matthew Rosenberg, Stephen Segovia, and Tom Derenick. Weeks ago, Peacemaker and Peacebreaker met with the President of a Western European nation. Spartan arrives and wants to make an offer, on Halo’s behalf, for meteor fragments the President has, leading to a fight between Peacemaker and Spartan and the plane that was leaving is destroyed. So too is Spartan’s internal gyroscope, meaning he must walk back to the United States. Currently, Spartan saves Voodoo after she was falling out the window at the end of last issue, but that leads him into a battle with Maul, Backlash and the Owls. During the fight, Cray ends up leaving Spartan and ends up in Maul, with Voodoo convincing Spartan to go to Marlowe’s aid. Elsewhere, Lynch, Maxine, Caitlin and Zannah meet with Marlowe, telling him the Amanda Waller has made them an offer better than his. The limo they are riding in gets into an accident that leads them directly into a confrontation with Batman, Black Canary and Roy Harper. Grifter arrives and sides with his friends, teleporting them away by using a JLA transporter.
WORLD’S FINEST: TEEN TITANS #2 by Mark Waid and Emanuela Lupacchino. Aqualad and Bumblebee go to meet Wonder Girl, finding her with someone named Mal. The foursome go off together and spend the day enjoying just being teenagers until Bumblebee gets an alert that leads them to the rest of the Titans. In Chapel Hill, Speedy and Robin meet with Lilith and Gnarrk, who have tacked a 16-year-old girl to an abandoned house. With the full team united, they all go into the house and find themselves in a variety of overwhelming nightmare scenarios that are based on the girl’s own nightmares. They all manage to fight through their insecurities and offer to help the girl. In the end, the team gets invited to Titanscon and all seem excited…except for Robin!
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