DC UNIVERSE Month 2, Part 1

ACTION COMICS #995 by Dan Jurgens and Brett Booth. Booster is arrested, and Skeets gives Superman Booster’s origin. It seems his father was an abuser and Booster did what he did to pay off his father’s gambling debts and save his life.  As fate turns out, Booster gets incarcerated in the same jail cell as his father. Superman arrives and busts Booster out, leading them to the Time Sphere to make their escape back to the past. The Eradicator shows up and breaks the controls, resulting in our heroes ending up on a planet controlled by Zod.

ACTION COMICS #996 by Dan Jurgens and Will Conrad. Lois heads to Logamba to try and save her father, which Jon tagging along, unbeknownst to her. Meanwhile, Superman and Booster are stuck on Jekuul, where it seems that Zod is in charge. After allowing themselves to be captured, they are taken to the planet’s ruler, where they discover it is a grown-up Lor-Zod who is going to be there chief adversary.

AQUAMAN #32 by Dan Abnett, Rick Leonardi, and Riccardo Federici. Aquaman frees Mera from King Shark’s prison and, finding out she can’t breathe underwater, takes her to the Widowhood to be healed. The Widowhood reveals how they want Mera to be the Queen of Atlantis, so she can rule and bring about peace. In the end, Aquaman and the Drift attack Corum Rath’s throne room.

BATGIRL #19 by Hope Larson and Chris Wildgoose. After stopping some would be donut shop robbers, who are actually hired actors meant to threaten but not harm the shop owners, Burnside gets hit with a freak snow storm. Even the Penguin enlists his crew to help with the clean-up. What she discovers is that a group from S.P.U.R. may have been messing with the weather forecasting satellites. Then she realizes it is all a diversion so the real bad guys can rob a secret government lab.

BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY #18 by Julie Benson, Shawna Benson and Marcio Takara. Spyral has recruited Huntress to find a black-market tech dealer and that means Barbara and Dinah are going to get involved at a Tech Expo. They manage to get a tracker on the guy before he can steal Hap-E: a power source that is impervious to EMPs and the like. Still, he steals the device and hooks it up to stolen Weather Wizard tech, causing havoc before they can finally capture him and shut the device down.

BATMAN #38 by Tom King and Travis Moore. Following the murders of a man who worked for Wayne Enterprises and his wife, Bruce Wayne takes their young son under his wing.  Batman investigates Victor Zsasz, as the M.O. is his. After some more murders, it appears it might be Two-Face’s doing. Eventually, the boy’s butler confesses to the murders. In the end, Batman discovers the boy is responsible because he wants to be just like Bruce Wayne, complete with carving Thomas and Martha’s names into his own face.

BATMAN #39 by Tom King and Joelle Jones. Wonder Woman meets with Batman, telling him they have an obligation to someone called the Gentle Man. The heroes swap dimensions with him, so they can fight his fight for him. Selina spends time with the Gentle Man while Batman and Wonder Woman fight monsters. In the end, it seems that there is a time difference between dimensions and Wonder Woman and Batman have been in the other dimension for ten years, while only being gone from ours for hours. At the same time, the heroes have formed a bond that may end up in a kiss.

BATMAN AND THE SIGNAL #1 by Scott Snyder, Tony Patrick and Cully Hamner. Gotham has a new place for developing metas and it’s called the Arkham Juvenile Center. Duke, now known as The Signal, battle with a character named Null and realizes he needs to find out more about these new metas. That leads to Detective Alex Aisi making her way into the Juvenile Center to find out the connection between the metas and a mysterious sun dial that seems to be creating these metas.  Duke makes his way in and realizes it’s a trap and he’s now stuck with a bunch of metas who want to kill him.

BATMAN BEYOND #16 by Dan Jurgens and Phil Hester. As it looks like Terry and Dana will fall to their death fighting Stalker, Batman’s wings get fixed and they are safe. The pair fight throughout the issue and, in the end, it looks like Stalker may kill Terry yet.

BATWOMAN #11 by K. Perkins and Scott Godlewski. Julia Pennyworth has been abducted  and Kate is on the hunt to find her. This leads her to Egypt where she discovers that Professor Pyg and his dolls are to blame, as Pyg is using his kidnaped victims to make new dolls. She finds and frees Julia, but Pyg escapes and all of his other victims are dead. Feeling as though she has let everyone down, she decides to meet Julia in Brussels, where everything began with Kate and Safiyah.

BLACK LIGHTNING: COLD DEAD HANDS #3 by Tony Isabella and Clayton Henry. There’s a villain named White Thunder loose, but that takes a backseat to a black man in custody who, along with his wife, gets shot dead by the police. In the panic that ensues, his two kids take off with one of Tobias Whale’s alien space guns. White Thunder has been tasked by Whale to get the gun back, the cops go after the kids, intent on doing to them what they did to their parents. Black Lightning gets to the kids before tragedy can happen, but now he has to face White Thunder.

BLUE BEETLE #17 by Christopher Sebela and Scott Kolins. Jaime is free and going after Stopwatch, while Paco, Brenda and Naomi are being crushed by falling debris. But Jaime stops Stopwatch by pulling out the pieces that make up his time travel device out of the villain’s body. This also allows time to reverse and saves his friends. In the end, Naomi has figured out Jaime is Blue Beetle and apparently will never speak to him again for not revealing his secret to her. And Stopwatch’ followers run into Stopwatch, who is now an alien creature, and still offer to help him.

CYBORG #20 by Kevin Grevioux and Cliff Richards. With all these children dead as a result of the minefield massacre last issue, Vic and Sarah flee into the jungle, where Sarah sprains her ankle. Vic saves her from a zombie attack and uses the horn to make one more wish: that everything was back as it was. The General uses the horn to become a rock monster, but gets turned back and shot by one of the kids. Not dead yet, he grabs a gun and shoots Nailah, killing her. The shaman shows up and says they did good and alls well that ends well.

DAMAGE #1 by Tony S. Daniel and Robert Venditti. Ethan is a military man who turns into, against his will, a creature of mass destruction. This apparently happens for an hour every 24 hours. In the process of his transforming and busting out of the plane he is in, he actually causes the plane to crash, while he begins a rampage in the city. Major Liggett dons special armor and begins his pursuit. Everyone dies in the crash except for Liggert, who got out prior to the crash. After getting his armor shut down, Damage goes in for the kill until Ethan’s voice in his head convinces him otherwise. The next day, Col. Jonas surveys the scene and Amanda Waller and Task Force XI show up.

DARK NIGHTS METAL #5 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. While Batman and Superman have managed to free themselves, the Forge of Worlds is going dark and that means that the Dark Multiverse is going to permanently become part of our Earth. Green Lantern and Mister Terrific are in prison and Terrific reveals that Plastic Man has become a super conductor for the cosmic energies, which is why he is being sought after by the bad guys. That’s when Martian Manhunter shows up, freeing them so they can get Plastic Man back. Wonder Woman finds the Nth Metal mace and battles and defeats Black Adam, which leads to her battling Hawkgirl, finally getting her back to her old self by punching her with the lasso. Aquaman and Deathstroke have  run in with Black Manta, which leads to them meeting up with half of Barbatos’ Dark Multiverse fractured heroes. Lantern, Manhunter and Terrific secure the Plastic Man egg, but it seems the rest of the bad guys have plans for them before they can load the egg into the Phoenix Cannon. In the end, Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl face an army of twisted heroes and villains, vowing to fight to the end.

DEATHSTROKE #27 by Christopher Priest and Diogenes Nieves. We see how Terra’s mom died in Markovia, sending her on a permanent path of self-destruction, especially after she ends up in bed with Slade. While Slade talks with the imagined Wintergreen, Willow seeks out the Forgotten and Adeline deals with the Superman of China. Jericho visits his father in prison and helps to free him, but not before Slade controls the device controlling the Ikon suit. Terra tracks down and takes out most of the Forgotten until Willow shows up, leading to her getting tossed out the window and being saved by Jericho’s ex-boyfriend.

DEATHSTORKE ANNUAL #1 by Christopher Priest, Larry Hama and Dennis Cowan. Power Girl is trapped in another dimension, but her presence causes Tanya to question her ability to be on Defiance, especially when she discovers that the death which made her part of the team was set up by Deathstroke. She also reveals that she has problems with Jericho’s lifestyle choices and reveals that she is in love with Kid Flash, actually offering herself to him. Jericho is offended and decides to move out, while Slade continues to try and do his job without killing. Terra and Jericho eventually team up to help Slade finish his mission, but then the team discovers that Tanya has committed suicide. In the end, it is revealed that she is not really dead and has used the machine that everyone thought she used to kill herself to join Power Girl in another dimension. Only problem: Kid Flash has moved her away from her transponder and now she is stuck with Karen.

THE DEMON HELL IS EARTH #3 by Andrew Constant  and Brad Walker . As the demons begin to rise up from Death Valley, we find that Merlin is really inhabiting the corpse of the dead girl. That means that Jason, Merlin, Madame Xanadu, and Etrigan are the front line to try and stop Belial and his demon army, who is trying to usurp Hell from Lucifer.

DETECTIVE COMICS #972 by James Tynion IV and Miguel Mendonca. Clayface confronts Batman, telling him he really is just a villain after all. Batman freezes him, only to discover that he has used his training well and this frozen figure is just a husk, meaning he has escaped and is probably heading for the Belfry. While Batwoman gets a powerful weapon from her father to use, Dr. October reveals she has a cure, but it’s only a temporary fix. Clayface arrives and battles Tim, Kate, and Batman, until Cassandra intervenes long enough for Basil to get back in control. That doesn’t last long and he turns into a giant monster, destroying the Belfry in the process. Meanwhile, it seems the First Victim is only about destroying Batman, something that is seemingly bothering Anarky.

DETECTIVE COMICS #973 by James Tynion IV and Jesus Merino. After a flashback showing how Tim created the mudroom using parts of Clayface’s clay, we jump back into the action. The Belfry is destroyed, Tim has a concussion, and the people of Gotham are becoming more convinced that Batman is truly evil. Anarky revolts, eventually taking down the First Victim. He gives Stephanie a jump drive which may have data on who the First Victim really is. Meanwhile, the battle with Clayface continues until Cassandra delivers the cure, which transforms him back to Basil. That is also the moment when Batwoman uses the gun she got from her father and puts a bullet through his head.

DETECTIVE COMICS ANNUAL #1 by James Tynon IV and Eddy Barrows. Back when he was young, Basil Karlos talks to his father about his movie make-up techniques, where he discovers a secret chemical that allows him to alter his ability for great makeup. Twenty years later, Basil gets the role of a lifetime, but gets a call saying his father has died and that leads to a car crash which scars Basil for life. Convinced he needs to restore his face, he begins using his father’s Renu chemical to make himself look as he used to. But the chemical has a horrible effect and scars him worse. Desperate, he tries to steal more of the banned chemical and that leads to the police shooting at him during a break-in and he is covered in the chemical, which radically alters his DNA. During one of his early battles with Batman, he ends up covering Glory in his mud, transforming her into the person we currently know as Mudface.

DOOMSDAY CLOCK #3 by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. Although he was thrown through a window in WATCHMEN, the Comedian was transported away to the DC Universe before dying by Dr. Manhattan. Now he returns the favor by throwing Ozymandias out of Luthor's office window. While an aged Johnny Thunder watches an old Nathaniel Dusk movie and waits for his great-grandson to visit, Mime and Marionette begin a wrathful search for The Joker. Rorschach gives Batman Walter Kovac's journal before he cleans himself up to reveal he is a young black man. Batman reads the journal and takes Rorschach to Arkham to meet with Dr. Manhattan. In actuality, this is just an excuse for the Dark Knight to lock him away.

THE FLASH #38 by Joshua Williamson and Scott Kolins. Flash is stuck in Iron heights, where he is getting beat up by Captain Cold.  August turns from heel to face and shuts off the absolute zero device that was being used, allowing Flash to finish off the Rogues and head off to save Kid Flash and Copperhead.  Copperhead pleads innocence regarding the hijacked cold guns, but she seems to be in league with someone else. Yea, the bad gal was setup by the Rogues and it's up to Barry to save the day. There is turmoil at Iron Heights about the Rogues running the prison, but Kristen vouches for Wolfe and saves his job, which is really just her gaining his confidence. In the end, Cold gets transferred to Belle Reve and Barry visits his mother’s rave and seeks forgiveness from Iris.

THE FLASH #39 by Joshua Williamson and Carmine De Giandomenico. While Barry tries to patch things up with Iris, including a tour of the Watchtower, Wally gets to meet up with Avery, who has been hanging with the Justice League of China as of late. They investigate a jailbreak that results in Karver's death while time slows and stops for Barry up in space. This leads to him running into Multiplex, Meena, Raijin and the real villain of the piece: Grodd.

THE FLASH ANNUAL #1 by Joshua Williamson and Howard Porter. Set before issue # 39, we begin in the 25^th Century, we see that history has been changed because of events which are happening in the 21^st Century. In the resent day, our Wally West Flash, Wally West Kid Flash and the Barry Allen Flash battle The Top. After they defeat him, Barry insists that our Wally talk to Iris and accidentally it comes out that Iris killed Thawne. This causes Wally to leave and head back to Titans Tower, where he recalls growing up wioth a girl named Frankie. He seeks her out and that eventually leads to her memories coming back, including how she was once a hero named Magenta but then became a villain with the same name. They battle until he finally gets her to recall that she was once good and she now hopes to be good again. Back in the future, a masked Time Judge sends his team of Renegades, fture versions of the Rogues, to retrieve Iris from the 21^st Century. In the end, the Judge reveals that he is Hunter Zoloman-Zoom. This will lead into the Flash War storyline, which will begin in THE FLASH #47.

GREEN ARROW #36 by Ben Percy and Juan Ferreyra. Henery and Dinah save Oliver from his undersea fate even as Shado eliminates Briderick with an arrow through the head. Ollie and Dinah meet up with Red Arrow and they head over to the Ninth Circle to confront Mom and Merlyn. The end result: Merlyn gets killed and Mom shoots an arrow through Emi.

GREEN LANTERNS #38 by Tim Seeley and German Peralta. While Jessica and Regent Anthene interrogate a Red Tide prisoner in their search Kesh Cur, Simon frees Podfather. With Liseth Vok in tow, they find Cur and realize that the Red Tide has been using aliens to create their Surge Engine and make themselves genetically better. In fact, this is just a response to the Regent who previously experimented on Kesh Cur and transformed him into the person he is. As it turns out, Liseth Vok has also been transformed and she plans to use her powers to unite Ungara and kill Lanterns.

GREEN LANTERNS #39 by Tim Seeley and Ronan Cliquet. Liseth Vok tells the people that she is going to help the Ungaran people with her powers and that all the others in the universe are weak. This leads to Simon, Jessica and the Regent into a battle with the transformed girl. Pod father almost sacrifices himself to save the injured Molites, but he gets a save and help from the Ungarans who band together. Simon uses his special light to cause Liseth to transform back to her old self. In the end, the Ungarans and the Molites are joined as one and Liseth has a long recovery ahead. And Night Pilot is forced into slavery in an asteroid belt.

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #36 by Robert Vendetti , Jack Herbert and Jose Luis. Kyle, Guy, Hal and John take on the Controllers. Kellic plans on harvesting all of the captured Guardians, but John destroys their machine. The Controllers flee to fight another day and the Guardians, after a quick change into their classic garb, prepare to be a governing council yet again. In the end, Kellic reveals his legion of Darkstars at the ready to continue his fight.

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #37 by Robert Vendetti and Rafa Sandoval. With the Guradians back in some sort of control, John Stewart threatens to quit the Corps. Meanwhile, Hal and Kyle travel to Sector 2811, where they find General Zod, his family and the Eradicator. The Lanterns get beat up badly, as Zod declares this word to be his. Hal threatens that the rest of the Corps will arrive and Zod stands ready.

HARLEY QUINN #34 by Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, John Timms and Chad Hardin. Harley and friends head to Florida, where she gets to reunite with her family and her two beloved hyenas. In the end, she meets with Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner, before ending up on a yacht with Ivy.

HARLEY QUINN #35 by Frank Tieri and Inaki Miranda. Harley and company are back home, and she is bumming about Mason’s death. While the rest of the Harleys try to cheer her up, they fail. Meanwhile, Tony gets kidnapped and that leads Harley into combat with Man Bat. It turns out this Man Bat is really a transformed Tony. Thinking that Kirk Langstrom is responsible, the gang investigates but they discover what Harley quickly finds out-it’s really Francine who is doing the attacks and Harley becomes her next victim.

HARLEY QUINN #36 by Frank Tieri and Inaki Miranda.  Harley has been turned into a Man-Bat and she and Francine Langstrom are terrorizing the folks at Coney Island. As the Gang of Harleys try to help her, Francine attacks them, which turns Harley from bad to good and she attacks Francine. Meanwhile,  the rest of the Harley crew find Tony and, with Kirk Langstrom’s help, find the antidote to change him back. Langstrom transforms himself and flees, but the crew go to the pier and administer the antidote to Harley. In the end, she convinces herself that she needs to be left alone and packs her bags, leaving them confused and disappointed. Coach thinks that someone is behind all of this and that person turns out to be The Penguin, who has more villains lined up to make their lives miserable.

HARLEY QUINN BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR SPECIAL EDITION #1 by Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Chad Hardin, Otto Schmidt, and Ben Caldwell. Reprinted from a Loot Crate release from last year, Harley finds a genie’s bottle and a genie named Jimm Salabim to go with it. She spends the entire issue wishing for things, mostly with bad results. She asks for a bigger chest, which causes her to fall down. She asks for her beaver to come to life, but he dies. She asks the Joker to be nice, but he is TOO NICE! She joins the Justice League and kills Luthor in the process. She even gets to meet Kamandi. In the end, she wishes the genie wasn’t a genie any more, which ends her wishes and leaves them both figuring what to do now besides be a part of her gang of Harleys.

THE HELLBLAZER #18 by Richard Kadrey and Davide Fabbri. John may or may not be dead, but he gets to meet Bardo, who he insults and ultimately sends Constantine back to life. That leads to him meeting back with the coven and panning to stop Ray’s killers. With their gold gun ready, the bad guys head to the hospital, intent on killing Jackie. But John turns the tables on them and Jackie unleashes a spell that eliminates them. With that, John leaves San Francisco and promises never to come back.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #36  by Christopher Priest and Pete Woods. After the incident that resulted in the death of a nun, the League is taking some serious heat. Things will certainly get worse when someone dressed as Batman, kills the Chairwoman of the special committee investigating them. Despite Batman ordering the team to not help a spy sub stranded in Chinese waters, team members do go, only to be chastised by the crew they save. In the end, Simon goes undercover to find the copycat and gets taken down by him in the process.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #37 by Christopher Priest and Philippe Briones. The fake Batman was injured as a child during a superhero battle before eventually becoming a war hero. But now, he has Simon locked up and dresses himself as a Green Lantern. Cyborg figures out their system has been compromised and it turns out this imposter was actually someone who worked on the Watchtower. Simon gets free and the imposter walks into a trap set by the League.  But the joke is on them, as he uses their own technology to transport them away.