DC UNIVERSE Month 3, Part 1

ACTION COMICS #997 by Dan Jurgens and Brett Booth. Superman and Booster Gold are trapped in an alternate timeline where they find themselves battling Zod, along with his wife and son, along with the Eradicator. Our heroes get captured and are about to be executed by Zod and company. To make matters worse, Zod destroys Skeets. Meanwhile, Lois finds herself in Logamba, where she is trying to free her father. Just as it looks as if she is going to be shot, she discovers she has a Guardian Angel with her in the form of her son, Jon. Arriving at where her father is held, there is a first time reunion between child and grandfather. Freeing General Lane, they ll make their escape, only to be trapped by Logamban troops who apparently kill the General and his daughter.

ACTION COMICS #998 by Dan Jurgens and Will Conrad. As Zod and his family are bout to burn Superman and Booster Gold to death with his heat vision, we find out that Skeets has been able to make his way into one of the Eradicator and saves them. They make their escape through the Time Sphere and head back to the past, to make sure this future never happens. Along the way, Superman convinces Booster to let him go to the destruction of Krypton, to prove that Mr. Oz is really his father. He sees the rocket carrying himself jet off the planet, watches his mother die and sees Jor-El be taken by the blue light. Back in the present, Superman goes off to find Lois and Jon, when Booster finds out that Lois and her father have been killed in Logamba. Booster alters time, which is totally against the rules, to save their lives before they are killed.

AQUAMAN #33 by Dan Abnett, Rick Leonardi  and Riccardo Federici. Aquaman and Undercurrent make their way into the palace in an effort to destroy the Crown of Thorns. King Shark joins the fray and helps the group succeed. Meanwhile, Sister Cetea makes Mera the Queen of Atlantis, followed by Aquaman bring her to the surface before she drowns.. With Tula caring for her, he heads back to the sea to take care of Corum Rath once and for all.

BANE CONQUEST #9 by Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan. Bane continues to recruit members for his new team, in an effort to recapture the future Kobra leader from the villains. After building his team, by any means necessary, they head to Jakarta, where they capture one of Kobra’s members, who gives up the information the team needs.

BATGIRL #20 by Hope Larson and Sam Basri.  Barbara uses her eidetic memory to make her way to Qadir, who has been beaten up and someone has stolen his Trust Ray, which allows people to be compromised to think what the user wants them to. Looking at a recording, she finds out that it’s Ethan Cobblepot, who stole the machine to help The Penguin in his run for Congress. She tracks the villain down, defeating him and destroying The Penguin’s stolen device. In the end, she decides she needs a change, because she is not a kid anymore.

BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY #19 by Julie Benson, Shawna Benson and Roge Antonio. The Birds continue their war against Gotham’s criminal element, eventually crossing paths with a robot named Burnrate, that is bent on finding out who Oracle is for his master. Fleeing the villain, they end up at Gus’ house, only to find that Burnrate has beaten him to near death because he won’t reveal Oracle’s secret. They defeat the robot, but at the cost of Gus’ life. Barbara decides to give up her career as Oracle while The Calculator, the master behind Burnrate, observes Huntress as she goes to prison and visits her mother.

BATMAN #40 by Tom King and Joelle Jones. Catwoman demands that The Gentle Man brings back Wonder Woman and Batman, which he agrees to do, but not until he has had a chance to visit his wife. At truce and Diana have spent decades fighting the enemy on The Gentle Man’s world. The Gentle Man gets to have a tearful reunion with his wife, before opening the gate and changing places again. But she reminds him that the next time this happens, it will be Catwoman and Batman making the trip.

BATMAN #41 by Tom King and Mikel Janin. Bruce wakes from a dream about

Poison Ivy and it seems Selina is having the same dream. He knocks out Alfred, who is infected, and heads to the Batcave, where he inoculates himself and Selina. They both ass out and, when they wake, they’re in bed, in their costumes and are told by a possessed Alfred, that she has taken over the world by tapping into the Green. In the end, she tells them that she knows everything about everything and Batman and Catwoman are the last defense for the planet.

BATMAN AND THE SIGNAL #2 by Scott Snyder, Tony Patrick and Cully Hamner. Duke is getting beat-up at Arkham Juvenile Center until Detective Aisi arrves, aong with a silent signal sent to the teens by the mysterious person in charge of them. Duke does a vanishing act and ends up at The Hatch, where Riko quits. This is all observedby the mysterious person, who is disappointed that he is siding with Batman instead of himself, since he has set everything in motion. Detective Aisi tells Duke that they found a piece of Nth Metal in one of the Afkham teens , which sends Duke to visit Batman. It seems the Bruce Wayne housing project has a bunch of sdolsr panels and the powers of the sun is activating powers in everyone in the Narrows…and not in a good way.

BATMAN BEYOND #17 by Dan Jurgens and Phil Hester. Terry manages to avoid his unmasking by Striker, while his brother considers donning the Robin costume to go help him. Ten, who is the person that stole the picture of Terry from Wayne Manor, dons her costume and heads off to help Batman. Payback, the villain who hired Stalker in the first place, arrives and is done with Stalker, cutting off his legs in the process. Batman saves Stalker, but Payback launches a bomb at them, while he kidnaps Ten and blows up the skyscraper that Batman and Stalker are in.

BATWOMAN #12 by Marguerite Bennett and Scott Godlewski. Batwoman is on her way to Safiyah’s island of Coryana, to confront her former lover. In flashback, we learn that Safiyah has deduced that Rogue Warloard Maksim is responsible for the sickness that is affecting the creatures on the island. She has him captured and tried, but sends him away. The other warlords are waiting for him and they kill him. Later, Kate learns that she is actually the person who was responsible for bringing the bacteria to the island which was killing the creatures. Kate tries to leave, but Tahani is sent to keep her on the island. The air battle inside the lighthouse, which catches fire and explodes, allowing Kate and the others to escape the conflagration. Back in the present, Kate prepares to meet her former lover.

BLACK LIGHTNING: COLD DEAD HANDS #4 by Tony Isabella and Clayton Henry. Black Lightning continues his fight against White Thunder, while the police are protecting the kids and the entire neighborhood is under siege. Meanwhile, as the town watches what is happening on television, Jefferson’s daughters are experimenting with their newfound powers. Jefferson is captured and arrested, but one of the officers allows him to escape. Tobias has his assistant Miss Pequod use the alien gun to eliminate some loose ends, deciding he is going to take on Lightning by himself.

BLUE BEETLE #18 by Christopher Sebela and Scott Kolins. Jaime’s life has been in the toilet since he and Naomi broke up. But she reaches out to him and gives him one last chance. Before his date that night, Ted Kord invites him to the facility to show him his newest experiment, which goes amok and they end up fighting a A.I. that doesn’t want to be replaced. Jaime manages to come up with a solution which shuts the A.I. down. And he makes it to his date in time. The End.

CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE/SWAMP THING SPECIAL #1 by Jon Rivera and Langdon Foss. MILK WARS Part 4. Because of Retconn’s milk, Cave Carson, along with his daughter and Wild Dog, end up working in an office complex filled with endless cubicles. During a break, the milk causes Cave to vomit green gunk everywhere, which turns out to be Swamp Thing. He makes Chloe and Wild Dog do the same and explains that he managed to hide in Cave’s stomach, while Cave’s cybernetic eye went into hiding. The eye reveals that Retconn is changing history, even going as far as to make over the story of Christ. They make their way to the Human Resources department, where they find that humans are being stored and their minds are being harvested by Retconn. As the Retconn folks arrive to capture them, Cave orders Swam Thing to take Jack and Chloe away, leaving himself to surrender. The back-up, by Magdelene Visaggo and Sonny Liew, is a further reboot of ALPHA 13, which features a character who will reappear soon as ETERNITY GIRL.

DAMAGE #2 by Tony S. Daniel and Robert Venditti. We begin by seeing Ethan’s first mission as Damage. When Ethan wakes up, he finds himself in a homeless shelter where he ended up being taken after being found when he transformed back. As Damage, he has laid waste to a town. Ethan leaves to call his parents, but that just leads to him being found by Deadshot and the Suicide Squad. He transforms into Damage and takes the team apart. Luckily Wonder Woman shows up at the end, promising she will take him down.

DARK KNIGHTS RISING: THE WILD HUNT #1 by Scott Snyder, Grant Morrison, James Tynion IV, Joshus Williamson, Howard Porter, Jorge Jimenez, Doug Mahnke and Jamie Mendoza. Detective Chimp began life as a chimp in a circus, who was abused by his captors. Then he was cared for by a man named Fred, who was killed by the men. Chimp ran away and ended up gaining the powers of intelligence and speech. In the present, Chimp is with Will Magnus, the Metal Men, and the conclave of evil geniuses on Blackhawk Island, as they try to figure out how to stop the threat from the Dark Multiverse. Meanwhile, Flash and his team ae journeying through the Multiversal Bleed as they too are trying to stop the evil. The Dark Multiverse villains catch up with the ship and prepare to board it, leading to a battle between the heroes and the villains. Flash manages to use the Speed Force to transform the Dark Flash, who realizes that he is fighting for the wrong side and teams up with Flash. Red Death buys the team time to escape and it costs him his life. The team decides to use their ship to ram the Dark Multiverse vessel and destroy it. Back on Blackhawk Island, T.O. Morrow opens the door and Red Tornado is also awakened, revealing that his awakening means the end of the world. Detective Chimp has a revelation and the ape creatures from another Multiversal world convince him to team up with the heroes and save the world.

DEATHSTROKE #28 by Christopher Priest and Diogenes Neves. After a future vignette concerning the Hmong sword, we see Deathstroke back in the present-back in his familiar garb. Devestated by Tanya's apparent suicide, he has gone back to his old ways. Jericho is still trying to figure out who killed Etienne while Wintergreen confronts Slade and announces that he is trough with all this and promptly quits. Willow, who is in the company of a transformed Isherwood, learns that she is really Rose and then discovers that she is the person who killed Etienne-or at least her Willow personality did. After getting in to it with Kong Kenan, Slade apologizes to Tara for taking advantage of her as a teen. It’s a good thing that got patched up, as now they have to deal with The Forgotten.

THE DEMON HELL IS EARTH #4 by Andrew Constant and Brad Walker. The team continues their journey through the Hellscape. Etrigan eats a giant snake while Madame Xanadu and Jason talk about the relationship that went source during DEMON KNIGHTS. It’s also revealed that the split-up Jason/Etrigan can only be less than 100 feet apart from each other. Hey finally reach the center of the demon invasion and things look really bad for planet Earth.

DETECTIVE COMICS #974 by James Tynion IV and Philippe Briones. Clayface is dead and Batwoman is to blame. Batman, Robin and Orphan confront her and batman removes her symbol off her chest and fires her, which may result in Azrael and Batwing joining her in her departure. Three days later, Glory Griffin is administered the cure which transforms her from being Mudface back to her old self. This was Basil’s parting gift. Back at Ronin’s Nest, Stephanie breaks up with Tim. Meanwhile, Kate recuperates at her father’s place and he has decided it is time for her to fight on her own and alongside him. In the end, it looks like Ulysses Armstrong’s plan to cause havoc and make sure the future timeline falls into place is proceeding right along.

DETECTIVE COMICS #975  by James Tynion and Alvaro Martinez. After a flashback shows a young Kate and Bruce at her mother’s funeral, we move to the present where Batman has brought most of the family together to discuss what to do about Batwoman. Batgirl arrives, accusing Batman of starting the program to keep Kate from going don the wrong path and be more like him. Meanwhile, Kate is taking down Gorilla Boss with the help of Luke. Kate later visits her mother’s grave and says she killed Clayface to save Cassandra, who she deeply cares for. Her father arrives and she decides to join his team.

DOOM PATROL/JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA SPECIAL #1  by Steve Orlando, Gerard Way, Dale Eaglesham, and Nick Derington. MILK WARS Part Five. Milkman Man is torturing Cave Carson until the Justice League, along with the Doom Patrol, arrive to combat him. Because of all this, the Retconn deal goes bad and one of the powers that be decides to eradicate the universe. In the process, Casey consoles her son, Milkman Man and Rita Farr breaks free of her prison. In he end, the universe is restored, Rita is back with Doom Patrol and Cliff Steele becomes human again.

THE FLASH #40 by Joshua Williamson and Carmine Di Giandomenico. Grodd is dying and he wants the Speed Force to be drained from Barry to save his life. Raijin attacks and Barry orders Kid Flash and Avery away. Grodd tells Barry that he is nothing without being The Flash and it turns out that Meena ends up being the one to rip the Speed Force from our hero. Our Wally arrives to rescue a now powerless Flash, who turns over the job of the Scarlet Speedster to him.

THE FLASH #41 by Joshua Williamson and Carlos D'Anda. As Lord Grodd looks over the kingdom he has built for himself in Central City, Barry tries to figure out how to deal with being powerless. He looks at Grodd's Lightning Rod as a way back, but also tells the Flash team that they must evacuate everyone in Central City or they will all die. While Wally works on the evacuation, Kid Flash and Avery go off to save Meena. Wally sees a frozen Iris but, before he can act, is attacked by Raijin and Multiplex. He realizes he must go an protect Barry, but Barry has gone to Iron Heights to free Godspeed.

GREEN ARROW #37 by Benjamin Percy and Juan Ferreyra. Emi has been mortally wounded and Ollie and company prepare to face of against the remains of the Ninth Circle. Emi fights for her life as her mother faces off against Ollie’s mom, ending with them falling into a flaming pit together. Just as Merlyn is about to kill Dinah, Diggle arrives to save the day. With Emi recuperating, and Diggle back as part of Team Arrow, Ollie prepares for trial. Meanwhile, Detective Ros is prepared to kill Ramsey, but her lawyer arrives and eliminates the threat by sinking a knife in the Detective’s head.

GREEN LANTERNS #40 by Tim Seeley and Barnaby Bagenda. Jess and Simon help Firestorm, Blue Beetle and Ms. Bulleteer save folks from a hurricane. Ms. Bulleteer mentions that she is concerned about Night Pilot, who is missing. This leads our heroes to the Watchtower, where they learn that may heroes have gone missing after using a dating app. Called Caper. Along the way, they meet up with one of the Omega Men and we learn that all of these missing heroes have been placed into a massive space dungeon.

GREEN LANTERNS #41 by Tim Seeley, Barnaby Bagenda, and Tom Derenick. While Jessica bemoans the fact that she is matched up to Simon on the Caper dating app, they, along with Scrapps, head to Garnet to meet with Scrapp’s tech buyer. Even though the Lanterns are in disguise, that soon goes awry, and the Lanterns end up in a fight. They catch up with the tech dealers, who agree to change information for pictures of them with the Lanterns beat up, so they can post and boast on their social media. In the end, the information leads the Lanterns to the Order of the Steed, where they are trying to convert Night Pilot to their way of thinking.

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #38 by Robert Vendetti and Ethan Van Sciver. Hal and Kyle have been imprisoned by Zod and company, leaving The Eradicator to try and crack the secret of the rings. Hal discovers that his ring, which he created is still connected to him, and he calls it to him, which rips through the Eradicator’s head in the process. The Lanterns fly off to free Zod’s slaves, only to discover they are actually followers of Zod. Hal give Kyle his power ring and sends him off to get the rest of the Corps.

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #39 by Robert Vendetti and Rafa Sandoval. Zod still has Hal Jordan tied up while Kyle, juiced up do the Hal’s ring and despite having life threatening injuries. Meanwhile, the Guardians tell John Stewart that they will let him know when they can go save Hal. John is pretty pissed off and the Lanterns go to Jekku anyway.

HARLEY QUINN #37 by Frank Tieri and Mirka Andolfo. Harey has gone to Hell’s Kitchen where she plans on being a hero for hire. Her intentions are good but her execution tends to leave a bit to be desired, as she leaves destruction in her wake. Meanwhile, The Penguin continues to gather his army of villains to take Harley out of the game permanently.

HARLEY QUINN #38 by Frank Tieri and Mirka Andolfo. Penguin’s gang of villains attack Coney Island, leading the Gang of Harley’s to defend the place. Villains include Condiment King, Mr. Freeze, King Tut, Film Freak, Ratcatcher, Johnny Karaoke, Zebra Man, and Egghead. Meanwhile, Killer Moth has a run-in with Killer Croc, who declares that all of Coney belongs to him now. Harley faces of with the Gorilla Gang and helps save Hell’s Kitchen. Spoondale sends her off on a new mission, which means she doesn’t get the message from Coach requesting help at Coney Island.

THE HELLBLAZER #19 by Tim Seeley and Davide Fabbri. John is back in London and he’s looking Margaret Ames. When he comes to her flat, he finds out that it has been turned into a portal to Hell. This is because a priest, who is part of a crime organization, has performed an exorcism and swapped her soul with that of his brother. IN the end, it seems the Day brothers have someone else to worry about: The Huntress.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #38 by Christopher Priest and Marco Santucci. While the team tries to figure out how to deal with the problem regarding the Fan, Flash saves an astronaut, almost at the cost of both their lives. Batman makes a decision to leave the team. After a tearful kiss from Jessica, Bruce Wayne leaves the team and puts Cyborg in charge.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #39 by Christopher Priest and Ian Churchill. After a flashback where Aquaman is in the desert and meets w is taking the stand. He is represented by his lawyer, Regina Cole. There is also a quick visit from J’onn J’onzz. Meanwhile, Batman and the JLA are working at a train derailment. J’onn visits the Watchtower and that means the Justice League is off to help the JLA.  While the two teams solve the train problem, social media is exploding with comments of how the Justice League is only about helping the rich. Cyborg transports to the scene and that’s when it’s revealed that Cole is really The Fan in disguise.