DC UNIVERSE Month 4, Part 1

ACTION COMICS #999 by Dan Jurgens and Will Conrad. General Lane pays a visit to Lois and Jon, but that starts out badly as he immediately begins an argument about whether Superman should be trusted. Meanwhile, Superman saves the Earth by destroying an asteroid threatening the planet and finds a rare crystal in the process. Upon returning to Earth, he decides that the Phantom Zone is a cruel place to keep the Cyborg Superman. So he creates a cell to house him in out of the crystal. Releasing Henshaw, he convinces him to go into the cell, so he can live with the memories of his family and friends. Superman heads home and, as Clark Kent, gets General Lane and Lois to bury the hatchet.

AQUAMAN #34  by Dan Abnett and Kelley Jones. Corum Rath is bummed out because Aquaman has joined up with the Ninth Tride to take down the Silent School. He joins up with his longtime friend Kadaver and they go to the source of Atlantean magic where they confront the Old Gods. The Gods give Rath the opportunity to use the power ti defeat Aquaman, but they touch Kadaver, who is transformed by it.

BANE CONQUEST #10 by Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan. Bane has made his team and now they are off to get Kobra. But first, they trick a Korean General into giving up the codes that will allow them into the country to kill the Naja-Naja.  

BATGIRL #21 by Hope Larson and Scott Godlewski. Batgirl gets involved on a case involved several women who have been put into comas after using a face cream called Bio Glass. The results in Batgirl and Jim Gordan teaming up to get to the solution. It seems that Bio Glass is made from an alien organism that is trying to put itself back together by following the tubes of cream and sucking its’ arts from the victims. They confront the creature and manages to destroy it by hardening it with bleach.

BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY #20 by Julie Benson, Shawna Benson and Roge Antonio. It seems like the Birds are falling apart, as Gus is dead, Batgirl has been playing Oracle again and Huntress has been visiting her mom in prison. Fenice is up for release from prison, but the judge has been payed off and that sends her off to Arkham. Huntress scopes out the judge’s house, learning that Calculator is responsible for the payoff. She also runs into Burnrate in the process. They tangle and Huntress gets away. Later, Claculator and Burnrate break Blackbird and Fenice out of Arkham. Next stop: the Birds.

BATMAN #42 by Tom King and Mikel Janin. Ivy has taken over most the entire word, except for Batman, Catwoman and a boy who is allergic to vegetables. She is so upset by this, she has Superman beat Batman to death. But she brings him back from the dead. Bruce finds himself in a hospital where is nurse is Harley Quinn.

BATMAN #43 by Tom King, Mikel Janin and Hugo Petris. Batman talks to Ivy through Harley while Catwoman talks to Ivy directly. Ivy’s biggest problem is that she has been scarred by killing mobsters during The War of Jokes and Riddles. Bruce has Selena distract Ivy and knock her out, giving him time to free her from controlling Harley. Reunited with Harley, Ivy releases control on the world and agrees to seek treatment. Also, Bruce explains that Ivy DIDN’T kill the mobsters; that was really The Riddler’s doing.

BATMAN BEYOND #18 by Dan Jurgens and Phil Hester. Ten is battling Payback while 

Terry is saving his own life and that of Stalker. Stalker actually saves Terry, calling it payback for Batman saving him from Payback. Payback teleports Batman to him, where he is tortured. Bruce figures out that Payback is actually NOT Kenny, but Kenny’s father seeking revenge for his son’s death. Since Bruce can’t do it, Matt is off to save the day…as Robin.

BATWOMAN #13 by Marguerite Bennett and Fernando Blanco. Kate goes to visit Beth in the Sanatorium, only to find that she has gone out on a camping trip. Julia is on her way to meet with Kate in Brussels, where Kate is going after Safiyah. This leads her to her family home, which she hasn’t been to in 15 years. Safiyah is there and the pair begins to fight, with Safiyah insisting she had nothing to do with the attack on Coryana. She reveals that she is being set up  Knife is with the twins who run the Kali Corporation.  Just as she is about to slit the throat of the male twin, a mysterious voice convinces her not to. When she goes to the front of the plane they are in, we see Beth is now Alice.

BLACK LIGHTNING: COLD DEAD HANDS #5 by Tony Isabella and Clayton Henry. Cleveland is a war zone, cops are dead, Lightning is on the run and the police are interrogating the alien known as Sssears, who was responsible for the gunfight that left Cleveland a mess. Meanwhile, Black Lightning gets a tip and goes after Tobias Whale . He finds him in a warehouse, along with Miss Pequod. Using special gloves that shuts down Lightning’s electrical powers, Whale beats up our hero. Usagi shows up and turns off the juice, but he gets killed by Whale, meaning the gloves are off and Whale can kill Lightning.

DAMAGE #3 by Tony S. Daniel and Robert Venditti. After a flashback from Damage’s first mission, we go back to Damage battling Wonder Woman confronts Damage. The pair beat on each other before Damage runs out of time. Diana gets the lasso around him and they both see what he has had to deal with. Damage takes her out in his last few seconds and gets away. In the end, Wonder Woman meets with Batman while Colonel Jonas gets another team together to take out Damage.

DARK NIGHTS METAL #6 by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Greg Capullo and Mikel Janin. With the Earth fallen to the Dark, Wonder Woman and Kendra continue to fight their way towards Batman and Superman. As Wonder Woman tries to free the rest of the trinity, the heroes of Earth 53 arrive to continue the fight with the other heroes. The Trinity roars back into action, wearing armor made of the 10^th Metal, which they use to create armor for Aquaman and Green Lantern. Carter Hall remembers that he is NOT the Dragon, which leads him into battle against his former captor. The Batman Who Laughs has the Over Monitor captive and that leads to a battle between The Batman Who Laughs and Batman, with an assist from The Joker. Kendra defeats Barbatos and the heroes join together to use the power of Element X to restore the world. In the end, Bruce hosts a dinner party, where he explains that the Source Wall has been broken open, which means it is time for a new age of heroes to join the future fight. Batman has a pan and that includes a Hall of Justice for the heroes, which will lead directly into JUSTICE LEAGUE: NO JUSTICE.

DEATHSTROKE #29 by Christopher Priest and Diogenes Neves. Deathstroke kills Claire, but not really, as it’s a fake bullet with a red gel capsule. Tara attacks him for what he had done to her in the past and that’s when New Super-man arrives to engage in combat, as does his son, who just discovered that Willow killed Etienne, and his super powered ex-lover Isherwood. Together, they take down Slade, who has discovered that “Billy” is not an implant, but just his imagination. Slade is taken into custody and finds himself in Arkham Asylum. Meanwhile, Rose and Kiâu Jiao-Long settle their differences and Hosun finds out where he stands.

THE DEMON HELL IS EARTH #5 by Andrew Constant and Brad Walker. The gang continues to fight lesser demons while Belial continues his plan for world domination. In the end, even though Merlin has a way to defeat Belial, they are too late, and Belial is the ruler of the world.

DETECTIVE COMICS #976 by James Tynion IV and Javier Fernandez. After a flashback where Cass gets saved from the Yakuza by Clayface, we shift to a therapy session between Cass and Leslie Tompkins. Leslie tells Bruce that Cass needs some help. Meanwhile, the Talons are in the process of robbing a barge when Batwoman, Luke, Azrael, and the Colony show up to stop them. Later, they reconvene, and it looks like Batwoman is ready to take the lead position in the Colony. Tim meets with Bruce, who has figured out that Tim is looking to resurrect the Gotham Knights program. That leads to Tim storming out, but he comes face to face with Ulysses, ho has a jump drive with everything off of Future Tim’s computer.

DETECTIVE COMICS #977 by James Tynion IV, Javier Fernandez, Eddy Barrows, and Eber Ferreira. Future Tim Drake is in college and finds out that the Colony has gotten the President to declare Gotham as a No Man’s Land and Batman is now hunted. Batman initiates his Brother Eye protocol and finds himself staring down the barrel of Batwoman’s gun, ending the standoff with her shooting him. Tim, dressed as Robin arrives. This leads us back to the present, where all of this has been shown to present day Tim by Ulysses, who ants Tim to initiate Brother Eye now. After Luke Fox tells his sister that he is leaving Foxtech to join the Colony, Tim meets with Batman, where they team up to take out some bad guys with guns.

DOOMSDAY CLOCK #4 by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. The new Rorschach is revealed to be the son of Dr. Malcolm Long, who once spent time trying to work the case of the original Rorschach. Reggie Long’s parents died after the alien invasion and that leads to him ending up in an asylum, where he became friends with an institutionalized Mothman. After a time, Reggie decides to break out of the asylum with Mothman, who eventually changes his mind and goes back. Wearing a Rorschach mask that Mothman had made for him, he goes to Karnak to kill Ozymandias, who reveals he is dying from a brain tumor. Back on our world, we see that all of this was revealed because Saturn Girl was looking inside of his mind. We also see that the hospital psychiatrist who is treating him is really Batman in disguise and that he and Alfred believe he knows too much and they don’t know enough.

THE FLASH #42 by Joshua Williamson and Dan Panosian. While it looks like Grodd is no long for this world, Wally defeats Raijin, but still doesn’t know where Iris has been taken to. Barry is with Godspeed and the hero turned villain turned hero wants to make Barry proud, even if Barry is setting August up for a fall if it all goes bad. Wally and Avery take on Meena and Godspeed saves the day. Barry gets his powers back, but the results are disastrous as all of his friends are now under Grodd’s spell.

THE FLASH #43 by Joshua Williamson and Carmine Di Giandomenico. Grodd has tapped into the Speed Force but Barry, in an attempt to take it back, has allowed Grodd to take control of the “Flash Family”. S Barry is chased by Wally, he mentions Iris, which temporarily break’s Grodd’s control. This doesn’t last long before Wally is beating up his long-time mentor again. Barry ends up at Grodd’s feet, where he reveals he had gathered all of the pieces of the wand and proceeds to tough Grodd with it, curing him of the disease that was killing him. When Grodd tries to turn off the wand, it creates a Negative Speed force that appears to destroy Central City.

GREEN ARROW #38 by Ben Percy and Juan Ferreyra. Oliver Queen is finally on trial and things look grim. He makes his own opening statement, explaining that he has tried his best but is probably not the best person in the world. But he is no murderer. Things look bad until the murdered Wendy Poole arrives in court, allowing Oliver to go free and the Ninth Circle to finally be defeated. In the end, Star City is once again Seattle and Oliver is ready to make some great changes there.

GREEN LANTERNS #42 by Tim Seeley and V. Ken Marion. John Stewart is giving

Simon and Jessica the story of the Order of the Steed. Because the group is protected by their religion, the pair must convert and go under cover and find the kidnapped heroes. Once there, they hear from the High Rider, who has been arranging the kidnapping, so they can convert the heroes into avatars of the religion. In the end, Scrapps heads off on her own to take out the Night Rider, but Night Pilot has been turned and now stands in her way.

GREEN LANTERNS #43 by Tim Seeley and V. Ken Marion. Jessica uses her powers to try to free the captured heroes from control of The Steed, while Simon goes after the Durlan priest and Scrapps takes on the High Rider. In the end, all is restored, everyone is defeated and Simon reveals, after being reunited with Night Pilot, that he was a match for Jessica, who may have issues with her ring falling in love with her.

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #40 by Robert Vendetti and Rafa Sandoval. Hal is still imprisoned on Jekku by General Zod, which means, despite the Guardians angry about it, the Green Lantern Corps is invading the planet, led by Kyle, who is boosted from his injuries by Hal’s ring The Corps fights it out with Zod’s family and takes a bit of a beating. That’s when Hal uses his will power to get free and is ready to bring the fight to Zod.

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #41 by Robert Vendetti and Brandon Peterson. Hal Jordan is here to beat on Zod, who has gotten the residents on Jekku to worship him like a god. But the Guardians show up and make him back off, taking back Kyle’s ring in the exchange. In the end, Zod has a master plan, which includes having gained knowledge from the ring. That leaves an unaware Corps at odds with each other as what to do next.

HARLEY QUINN #39 by Frank Tieri and Inaki Miranda. The Penguin continues his crusade against Harley, who is continuing her war against the criminals in town. This leads her into a battle against Victor Zsasz, who duels with her in the middle of Yankee Stadium, who she defeats with some help from Red Tool. Meanwhile, Penguin has Signalman captive and his continuing army arrives, including The Ventriloquist. In the end, Coach figures out that the Harley doll ties into all of this. But she can’t reveal this as the doll dealer turns out to be False Face and he is working with Hugo Strange.

HARLEY QUINN #40 by Frank Tieri, John Timms and Moritat. Coach is held captive along with the real Frank, because False Face was the Fake Frank. Harley is in an ambulance and Hugo Strange is there to torment her. Bad idea, as Harley takes him down. Meanwhile, Croc and Mr. Freeze tangle until Harley shows up to take Freeze down. It seems Croc has some feelings resulting from the ay he was treated in the Freak Show back in the day. In the end, Coney Island is in flame and Harley asks Croc to help her put it back together.

THE HELLBLAZER #20 by Tim Seeley and Davide Fabbri. We find Constantine performing a dark ritual to conjure up his ex-girlfriend out of Hell, who will tell him what is going on with his other ex-girlfriend Margaret Ames.  She explains that the Day brothers have escaped from Hell and are possessing Margaret, which a bounty hunter being hired to find her and bring the Days back to Hell. Meanwhile the Days come across a gang of teens and, just about when a fight is looking to start, The Huntress arrives. As she prepares to shoot Ames, Constantine arrives and takes the arrow for his ex. The Days leave, and now John must face the gang alone.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #40 by Christopher Priest and Pete Woods. While part of the

Justice League and the JLA are trying to figure out how they're going to keep the Watchtower from crashing to Earth, the rest of the two teams are still dealing with the repercussions from the chemical spill in Estes Park. After a lot of arguing on the Watchtower, the team pulls together, and Frost uses her ice power to create a heat shield around it. That’s the good news. The bad news: it’s still crashing towards Earth.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #41 by Christopher Priest and Philippe Briones. As Simon and Jessica returns for space, we see that the Watchtower has crashed in Africa and the heroes are trying to stop two warring factions that are trying to salvage the ship. Red Lion shows up with the military to take control of Watchtower, leading to a battle where it looks like he has defeated Cyborg, but not before Wonder Woman is injured from a bullet ricochet. Meanwhile, Batman and Aquaman take down the Fan and try to figure out exactly ho he is.