DC UNIVERSE< Month 71, Part 1

ACTION COMICS #1060 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Nicole Maines, Steve Orlando, Joe Casey, Eddy Barrows, Fico Ossio, Eber Ferreira, and Dan McDaid. Superman is seeking help to get his daughter back and that leads him to John Constantine. Constantine brings him to Norah Stone’s abode, where they find that she has made an Organum Inernalis that allows her to transport between worlds. Otho-Ra is now on Earth Al Ghul, where she meets Sister Shadow. As she explains, every Earth that they conquer starts with the Kryptonians and that is the ultimate purpose of Blue Earth. She then shows her the Valkyrie General of the Warworld Engines: a Multiverse version of Otho-Ra. Superman hears his daughter’s voice and, despite Constantine’s orders, touches an hourglass that causes an explosion and transports Superman to Hell, where he is greeted by Bloodwynd and Etrigan, who tell him they must hurry and get to Earth Al-Ghul. In the first backup, Jon is relaxing at Dreamers place, after evacuating A-Town to Parthas during TITANS: BEAST WORLD TOUR METROPOLIS #1. Amanda Waller arrives, telling her she needs to stop Afterthought from freeing her prisoners or there will be issues involving her hometown. She does the job, stops Afterthought, even at the cost of his men. In the end, Dr. Hate meets with Waller, loving the idea that dreamer can now be controlled. In the second backup, Zod is making his moves, much to the surprise and concern of his son. This story will be continued in KNEEL BEFORE ZOD #1

ACTION COMICS ANNUAL 2023 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Max Raynor. Continued from ACTION COMICS #1060. On Earth Al-Ghul, Superman, Bloodwynd, and Etrigan save a family of slaves, who direct them to the Al-Ghul citadel, where Sister Shadow is working on trying to break Otho-Ra and make her the warrior she is destined to be. The heroes from Earth Zero encounter an invasion force that is heading to Earth Zero. The team makes their way to the citadel where Otho stabs Etrigan. When she sees Superman, she envisions him as Mongul and attacks him. he convinces her that she is the bravest child he has ever known and the starchild of Ra, turning her away from Sister Shadow. Seeing her plan needing changing,  she gathers her troops to invade Earth Zero. On Earth Zero, the transform followers of Earth Blue attacks the Superman Family even as Sister Shadow’s followers attack. Supergirl convinces the Earth Blue followers, who see that Nora Stone is leading the attackers, to fight with them. Osul takes the fight to Sister Shadow in an effort to save his sister. But it is Superman and Otho that save him, even as Bloodwynd and Etrigan open a portal and send the invaders back to Earth Al-Ghul. One week later, Metropolis is still rebuilding and Superman is their defender.

ALAN SCOTT: THE GREEN LANTERN #3 by Tim Sheridan and Cian Tormey. Alan Scott finds himself down by the docks, looking to hook up with a young man, learning that the police are cracking down on homosexual activities. He also learns that a connection named Tommy has drowned. Alan and Jay Garrick investigate with Jay telling him both recent deaths  are being investigated by another JSA member. That leads Alan to meet up with Jim Corrigan, better known as The Spectre. They discover an empty police file, meaning that the police have had no intention  to investigate the deaths of these homosexual men. Alan vents his anger and how he is obviously involved in actions that God would not approve of and he takes comfort from The Spectre. During their conversation, Alan realizes he may be missing something and heads back to his apartment where he comes face to face with his former lover Johnny, who is both speaking Russian and is revealed as the Red Lantern

AMAZONS ATTACK #3 by Josie Campbell and Vasco Georgiev. With the Amazons in disarray, Nubia, Faruka and Mary Marvel investigate the destroyed structure in Esquecida. Nubia and Faruka head off to the Greek border, where they observe a tent city and meet with Ismene Dimakos, who has set up the city for displaced Amazons and those who support them. Believing that Eris is responsible, they head off to the Garden of Hesperides, where the golden apples grow. Meanwhile, Mary heads to Belle Reve to meet with Sivana, who tells her that Eris is not responsible and then tricks her and makes her escape. In the garden, Faruka finds Eris and she has been crucified to one of the apple bearing trees.

BATMAN #140 by Chip Zdarsky, Jorge Jimenez, and Mike Hawthorne. Batman battles The Joker, but he is really fighting at a disadvantage as he is being controlled in a battle in his mind with Zur-En-Arrh and the other Multiverse versions and they are struggling to take over his earthly persona. He catches The Joker and is beating him to a pulp when Lucie Chesson gets him to stop, gaining Bruce’s own psyche back momentarily. She gives him words of advice and, even though he is mentally incapacitated again, he manages to break through before killing The Joker. Later he wakes in a strange place where he is greeted by the New Batman…straight from Project Terminus. In the backup, vandal Savage meets with some of the wealthiest people in Gotham and one of them seems intent on making Savage Police Commissioner...

BATMAN AND ROBIN #4 by Joshua Williamson and Simone Di Meo. In the past, Damian trains with Mistress Harsh. Disappointed with his performance, she slaps Damian, leading to her dismissal by Talia. Now, Daian has been captured by Man-Bat, who reveals that he poisoned Batman and turned the bats against him. Shush works for him, as does the transformed Terrible Trio. Batman and White Rabbit arrive. Man Bat turns the bats loose on Batman as he leaves with Shush. But Batman has learned not to show them fear and now he again controls the bats. With Dr. Kafira rescued and the Terrible Trio apprehended, they notice how the Trio is now filled with rage. White Rabbit leaves, to be captured at a later time. The next morning, Damian returns to school, where he and Bruce meet with Principal Stone. Damian reveals that Stone is the former Mistress Harsh and also Shush.

BATMAN BEYOND: NEO GOTHIC #7 by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, and Max Dunbar. With Neo Gotham in turmoil because of the creatures from the Green attacking it, Terry fights against them, before revealing his secret identity and telling the citizens they can all be Batman and the citizens transform to become Batman, helping to defeat the creatures and a transformed Killer Croc. Meanwhile,  Kyle confronts Constantine and tells him he forgives him, allowing Constantine to die in peace. In the end, Terry, more confident than ever, calls Dana, saying he has a lot to explain to her.

BATMAN: OFF WORLD #2 by Jason Aaron and Doug Mahnke. Batman continues to train, now with Punch-Not and Nyreek. They eventually break free and turn against their captors, but Punch-Bot has been left behind, which causes Batman to go back for him. But the bot is taken out by Akkarian and Batman ends up in space and Nyreek saves him. They crash land on the planet Akkari, where Batman plans to finish his training.

BATMAN-SANTA CLAUS: SILENT KNIGHT #1 by Jeff Parker and Michele Bandini. It’s Christmas time in Gotham and a group of carolers gets killed by a group of winged creatures. The victims all have a single puncture wound in their neck and have been drained of blood. Zatanna arrives and , using her magic, sees that the creatures were The Draug: a vampiric version of Norse undead. One of the creatures returns and  the heroes get saved by…Santa Claus? There is another attack and Santa saves Nightwing and Batgirl. Zatanna tells the origins of Santa: how he and the Norse warriors used to gather every year for The Wild Hunt, where they went after the most deadly of creatures. The deadliest was Krampus, who eventually became Santa’s friend and helped seek out the creatures. Krampus would scare children but Santa would create toys for them. While examining one of the creatures, something bursts forth infecting Zatanna. Krampus has returned.

BATMAN-SANTA CLAUS: SILENT KNIGHT #2 by Jeff Parker, Michele Bandini and Trevor Hairsine. With Krampus’ appearance, a small wooden box is left behind. Back at the Batcave, the box is opened and it transports the heroes into the past, where Krampus threatens to eat a wicked child. Santa intervenes and this becomes the ritual: Santa takes care of the good children and Krampus threatens the bad. Santa messages the team, telling them that he is showing them how the relationship developed. At one point in history, Krampus actually eats some children, enraging Santa, who cast him into the Nightmare Realm. Later, Miss Martian infiltrates the Draug lair, along with Green Arrow and Black Canary, only to be joined by Superman. In the end, Krampus is building his army.

BATMAN-SANTA CLAUS: SILENT KNIGHT #3 by Jeff Parker and Michele Bandini. Harpies are attacking London, leading to Hawkgirl, Green Lantern Jo, and Wonder Woman to engage them Wonder Woman learns that Krampus was responsible for freeing the harpies. Elsewhere, Superman join the other heroes in a fight against one of the monster, with the help of Peppermint Jon. That is when they find that Krampus has arrived. Superman attacks him and gets corrupted by him, leading him to crack open a glacier and free the Monsterkind.

BATMAN-SANTA CLAUS: SILENT KNIGHT #4 by Jeff Parker and Michele Bandini. While many of the heroes fight together against the Monsterkind and Superman, Robin is being held in the Gnome Hall, where a dark creature is giving Krampus his orders. Blue Beetle blasts Superman with Kryptonite and frees him from Krampus’ corruption. After speaking with Santa, Superman realizes that whatever is influencing Krampus is something from the Phantom Zone. Meanwhile, Robin makes off that he is scared, earning Krampus’ kindness. The heroes arrives at Gnome Hall and force the Phantom Zone creature from out of Krampus, restoring him to what he once was. With the creatures defeated, Santa reunites with Krampus, he invites Damian to join them to deliver presents. While the rest of the heroes join Peppermint Jon for a Christmas feast.

BATMAN/SUPERMAN: WORLD’S FINEST #22 by Mark Waid and Dan Mora. Superman and Batman fight Gog’s heroes, with this world’s Firestorm taking down Superman with Kryptonite Gas, allowing them to be captured. In Gog’s dungeon, the heroes see the villains of this world and meet with Metron, who reveals how Gog ended up here and now has made the Mobius Chair as his throne. Gog tells David he has progressed and transforms him, renaming him Magog. Meanwhile, this world’s Superman and Batman question David’s story and end up meeting our heroes in their prison, giving Batman back his utility belt and Superman his uniform. Metron reveals that he plans on taking Magog and leading an all-out war on Apokolips and engaging on a battle with no survivors.

BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #8 by Guillem March, Kyle Starks, Gabriel Hardman, John Higgins, and Fernando Pasarin. The two Batmen head to Aurora’s home to rescue her and her mother. The real Batman sits back and lets Frank Freeman take the lead on this operation, which has been planned by The Ventriloquist. Frank saves Aurora while her mother finds Batman, calls him Bryce, and then kisses him. The Ventriloquist threatens to kill Aurora and Frank gives up, allowing the thugs to beat him up. Batman shows up and takes out the villains, even as Aurora tosses away Scarface. Wesker is no longer under Scarface’s control but, somehow, Scarface triggers a series of explosions. Frank saves Wesker but Aurora is falling with no one to catch her, which is when Catwoman arrives and saves her. In the end, Aurora asks her mother why she kissed Batman and Catwoman examines Scarface. In the second tale, Wild Dog meets with Alan. The two of them fight and Alan gives up the information Wild Dog needs. Later, he goes to break into a crime family meeting, but that plan goes astray when a team shows up, with their leader saying he runs the family now. He kills Longbeard and, revealed as Gizmo, he tells them he is taking over the family. Wild Dog gets involved and is taken down. In the third tale, Aquaman learns from Konar that this facility they are in was started by expatriates of Gorilla City and that the Dominators had arrived and taken control. One gorilla, Ajjar, became a willing collaborator with the Dominators. The two work together to stop them but Konar gets caught and is gravely injured. But he has enough energy to save Aquaman, sending him to Gorilla City. In the final tale, Batman deals with the terrorist group Citizens Against, whose leader has developed a procedure to save her daughter for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. But the woman takes it too far at the cost of her life.

BIRDS OF PREY #4 by Kelly Thompson and Leonardo Romero. In Themyscira, Zealot battles Wonder Woman and Barda intervenes, telling the rest of the team to find the Mega Rod and freeing Sin. Diana prevails but the Cass arrives and engages the battle. The team gets captured and jailed and then Megaera is loose. Cass breaks everyone out of prison and they discover that Diana has been captured by Megaera who tosses the Amazon into the sea, meaning it’s now Megaera, versus the Birds.

BLUE BEETLE #4 by Josh Trujillo and Adrian Gutierrez. Lex Luthor sends Janice Cord a voluminous floral display of flowers which she promptly burns with a flame thrower. While Paco has relationship problems with Xiomara, especially when Fadeaway and Gimmix show up, Jaime goes for a walk to talk with Oo’li, where she tells him that he must do the unthinkable when faced with ultimate evil. He meets with Starfire and then goes to visit Kord, asking her how she would kill someone like him. In Egypt, the Blood Scarab, Javier Basualdo,  bursts forth from the tomb he was buried in and is told he must succeed or he will die

CATWOMAN #60 by Tini Howard and Stefano Raffaele. Selina is still trying to deal with her multiple deaths and ends up attending the Theater of Death, where she becomes the star, thanks to Flamingo. She is subdued and may have died again. When she wakes, she attacks Flamingo, who reveals someone known as The Producer is responsible for all of this. The Flamingo makes a deal with her to help him steal the Idol of Bacchus. She does and betrays Flamingo in the process. To her surprise, she has not died And still has six lives left.

CYBORG #7 by Morgan Hampton, Bruno Abdias, and Travis Mercer. Cyborg battles Solace and Maz gets in the way and gets injured. Cyborg finds himself in his own mind, in a digital version of his house and has a conversation with his father., who tells him that he is going to wipe the system, meaning he will die too. The two of them encounter Solace in the digital realm, defeating him at the cost of  his father’s life. In the end, Max comes out of his coma and Cyborg mourns his father while accepting his place in the world.

DANGER STREET #12 by Tom King and Jorge Fornes. Following the ritual, the reconstituted arm of Metamorpho leaves the Commodore’s plane. At the same time, the Outsiders realize they are human again. He tells Abdul that the Feds have seized all of his company assets and Abdul’s sole remark is that they should get off the place, because it is not theirs anymore. As they are walking down the road, a passerby picks up Abdul, now going to L.A. but tells the driver that the Commodore can find his own ride. At Lady Cop’s home, Warlord is alive again, even as Orion complains that there is no mercy for gods or men and that the sky is falling, before doing the same to the resurrected Creeper. The Dingbats are in the kitchen, enjoying a reunion with the resurrected Good Looks. Metamorpho returns and reunites with his arm. Lady Cop spoils the good mood by telling the Dingbats that Good Looks, now possessing the soul of Atlas, must leave as he will be responsible for keeping the sky from falling. Krunch suggests that they all go together, where they can sit around, play video games and reads comics for all of infinity. With a power assist from Starman to Orion’s Mother Box, the boys depart and Lady Cop proceeds to arrest Warlord, Starman, Orion, Metamorpho and The Creeper. The next day, she drives out to the desert with the helmet where the Lord of Chaos arrives and takes the helmet. The next day, she gives a ticket to The Outsiders, who have now taken the Dingbats place riding up and down Danger Street. The Commodore ends up in jail, Warlord and Starman share a drink, Jack Ryder is back at work, Metamorpho gets used to being reborn and the Dingbats are living their best life making sure the world does not end. And the narrator, which has been Dr. fate’s helmet since issue #1, is revealed to be in a bar with the Lord of Chaos.

DETECTIVE COMICS #1079 by Ram V, Dan Watters, Jason Shawn Alexander, Liam Sharp, and Juan Ferreyra. Batman dangles at the end of a rope, apparently hung in front of Gotham. Bellow Gotham, Cheshire reunites with her daughter and helps, along with Grundy, to get the captives out. Elsewhere, Azrael battles the devil beast. Catwoman has been captured but it is actually Eiko and she escapes. Selina attacks the van carrying Batman’s corpse, and along with Grundy and the team from the tunnel, they carry Batman away. When Selina visited him in his cell, she kissed him with lipstick from Ivy, designed to make him appear dead. Back in the tunnels, the Reality Engine is out of control, causing Mr. Freeze to flee. As Gotham fights back, a boat arrives and Talia is here…and Two-Face may be involved also. In the backup, the story of how the matriarch of the Orghams arrived in Gotham, to take the city back.

DETECTIVE COMICS #1080 by Ram V, Dan Watters, Jason Shawn Alexander, Mike Perkins, and Christopher Mitten. Batman has been saved and now Selina and Jim Gordon are on the run with him. The Orgham followers go after them and they get saved by Two Face, allowing Selina a chance to meet with Talia at the docks and she takes possession of her former lover. Meanwhile, the matriarch of the Orghams reveals she killed her husband, as she also kills her loyal son. Over the next few weeks and months, Gotham moves on and forgets Batman and begins the healing process. Talia fights against her enemies and, in the end, it is just her and Batman, still possessed by Barbatos. In the end, the death of Henry Fielding is investigated by none other than The Question. Un the backup, a young Damian dreams of Aleasa, who may or may not be real.

FIRE & ICE: WELCOME TO SMALLVILLE #4 by Joanne Starer and Natacha Bustos. While Ice and Rocky attempt to clean up the business from the mess made when Jimmy transformed, Firs and the villains are in a cave where Fire is still doing her reality show when lobo shows up and makes the moves on Fire. She receives a call from Martha Kent, asking her to have them meet up. When she arrives, she sees that Ice is also there , as they will be attending a Drag Brunch. While there, the pair make up, but Rocky comes in and proceeds to get between them. As the three argue, the emcee for the event encourages them to come up on stage, which leads to a greater fight that gets them all tossed out of the event. Once outside, they see a protest against the concept of a Drag Brunch, which leads to Fire knocking out Miss Congeniality. Fire heads back to the Big tease and finds Tamarind smooching with Honey, who was able to get past Krypto, who was charged with watching the cave. She agrees to let Honey spend the night and Fire goes off on a date with Lobo. While on their date, they observe a fire burning from the location of the Big Tease.

THE FLASH #4 by Si Spurrier and Mike Deodato Jr. While Wally continues to investigates the other place in his mind, he sees that his daughter is involved in an investigation of a career criminal during the recent Beast World event. While teaming up with Liberty Belle, they discovers a woman who also appears to have Speed Force, In the process, she encounter Mirror Master, who tries to killer her and she gets saved by her father, who admits his mind is elsewhere.

GREEN ARROW #7 by Joshua Williamson, Sean Izaakse, Oliver is back on Earth and goes to visit the Justice league, to find they are gone. As he helps out the former Justice League members, he learns that the League has disbanded, Superman is now working for Lexcorp,(renamed Supercorp), and none of the former team want to put it back together. The one thing he does know is that Roy is missing and Amanda Waller is pulling a lot of strings. Ollie gets together with Connor and goes off to find Roy and Waller. But someone else has unfinished business with Ollie that made interrupt that plan.

GREEN LANTERN #6 by Jeremy Adams, Peter J. Tomasi, David Lafuente, and Xermanico. Hal is forced to fight Sinestro, releasing so much energy that it is detected all over the world. It also keeps the Superman Family from assisting because the emotional energy being released is something like Kryptonite to them. Fighter jets arrive and Sinestro attacks them, which Hall has to deal with before returning to the fight. They battle each other with giant constructs that causes a huge explosion. Sinestro flees and Hal tries to follow but his no energy left in his ring. Back at his trailer, Hal talks with Killowog when Razer shows up, revealing that this Killowog is a construct. Killowog is dead and Hal blames himself for it. In the backup, Sinestro’s rescues some stolen organs from a band of crooks and, returning them where they belong, steal their credits. He builds a spaceship to go after his father but, just as he is about to take off, Nagaf arrives and destroys the spaceship, severely injuring Korg.

GREEN LANTERN: WAR JOURNAL #4 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Montos. On the planet Durla, the refugees of Euphorix are welcomed by Lord Premier Thaaros. But this is all for show as they are soon sent to the Steamyard Ghettos while he instructs his people to get a group of Lanterns to find Varron. Meanwhile, inside of John Stewart’s mind, Rayner, Shepherd and Stewart fight a battle to defeat his infection, which fails. Back in the real world, where Stewart is being contained, he learns that the rings of dead Lanterns rings don’t go back to a new wearer; instead just going dark. They go to Steelworks where they try to reactivate the ring. The infection begins to take hold and Stewart goes on another “Soul trek”, where he confronts Varron. Stewart fights back against the infection and now has control of the ring and is ready to take on the Radiant Dead.

HARLEY QUINN # 35 by Tini Howard, Hannah Rose May Logan Faerber, and Leomacsvi. The digital Harley takes Kevin and Harley’s students hostage. Harley and Lux prepare to travel to Earth 48, but not before they eat and Lux tells some basic details of why he became a P.I.. Kevin sends out a message warning them not to come rescue them because it’s a trap. Kevin break free and flees, ending up somewhere lost in the Multiverse. Corrupted Brother Eyes capture Lady Quark and her followers, but Harley and Lux arrives and they team up until Quark and Volt get corrupted too. Bud and Lou arrive and say how they are always around to help Harley. Lux reveals that her four students are still here but Kevin is lost. In the backup, Harley dreams about looking for an artifact for Waller along with Croc, resulting in a weird Indian Jones style adventure.

HAWKGIRL #5 by Jadzia Axelrod and Amancay Nahuelpan. Hawkgirl is in the Nth World and is seeking Vulpecula. When she finds her, she declares that all she wants is to find Galaxy and go home. Galaxy has been turned into Vulpecula’s pawn and galaxy begs Hawkgirl to kill her, which Hawkgirl refuses to do. Aesop, the spirit of the Nth World, contains Vulpecula and tells Hawkgirl that the explosion that brought her here has damaged the borders between dimensions and will take the sacrifice of millions to fix it. Hawkgirl offers herself and her many lives up. She sacrifices those lives and is made the Knight of Nth World, where she is also given an Nth metal weapon that she can mentally change into any shape she likes. She and Galaxy return to their friends and celebrate new beginnings.

JAY GARRICK: THE FLASH #3 by Jeremy Adams and Diego Olortegui. In 1941, the Justice Society search through the secret lab, only to be attacked by Doctor Elemental. As the team finds themselves losing, Judy arrives from the future, which saves the JSA but allows Doctor Elemental to escape. In the here and now, Mister Terrific decides that the Ro-Bear, and potentially Doctor Elemental, is because Judy is now back in the world after having been lost for so long. Fairplay and Quiz Kid use a device they created to probe Judy’s mind, as she had actually seen the true face of Doctor Elemental. The device pulls forth an image and it reveals that Doctor Elemental is Professor Hughes: the man responsible for Jay becoming The Flash.