DC UNIVERSE Month 6, Part 1

ACTION COMICS SPECIAL #1 by Dan Jurgens, Mark Russell, Max Landis, Will Conrad, Jill Thompson, and Francis Manapul. A villain is out to kill of Superman’s family, starting with Lois. Superman saves the dy and then discovers that the villain in Lex Luthor. But, it’s a time-travelling aged future Lex who is seeking revenge after so many years. While our Lex is saving Lois, aged Lex has a heart attack and is Luthor suit explodes, killing him. When our Lex asks who the bad guy was, Superman tells him it doesn’t matter. In the second story, Clark and Lois go to the White House correspondent’s Dinner, where Clark tells bad jokes and Lex finds himself the butt of some jokes. In flashbacks, we see this is sort of the way his younger life had been too. In the third tale, Superman stops a robber after he crashed into Lois’ beloved car, destroying it. In the end, Superman straps her into the car’s seat and takes her flying in it.

AQUAMAN #36 by Dan Abnett and Riccardo Federici. Aquaman and Murk take on Corum Rath and his minions, resulting in Murk getting fatally injured. Meanwhile, Dolphin reveals a secret to Vulko that might help win the war. And Elder Null arrives, just in time to lend more support.

AQUAMAN/JABBERJAW SPECIAL #1 by Dan Abnett, Paul Pelletier, Jeff Parker and Scott Kolins. After a series of shark attacks in Amnesty Bay, Aquaman meets the talking shark Jabberjaw who has traveled here from 2076. After confronting the angry sharks, the pair end up in Los Aquales in 2076 where they explore the deserted Sealab 2020 and meet up with Jabberjaw’s band The Neptunes. They get attacled by some mechanical sharks and that leads them to come face to face with the new Ocean Master. They all work together to defeat Ocean Master and restore peace to Aqualand. Aquaman takes in a Neptunes concert before heading back to present day. In the back-up, Spectre and the wizard Shazam observe Captain Caveman as he adjusts to life in the 21^st Century.

BATGIRL #23 by Hope Larson and Minkyu Jung. Trapped in a never-ending dream state that could kill her, Batgirl fights an MMA fight, meets Martina Falcone, reveals her identity to Kai and kisses him, which breaks the drug induced spell. She defeats the robbers who put her in this state in the first place and relishes in her role as Batgirl.

BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY #22 by Julie Benson, Shawna Benson and Roge Antonio. Because of her hynos, Blackbird is unable to control Huntress. So Calculator has another idea, which may mentally cripple her while revealing the Oracle information. The team shows up and takes down his computer, freeing Fenice from his conrol. Canary faces off with Blackbird while Batgirl battles Calculator, who uses Burnrate’s severed head to kill Fenice. Batgirl reveals she is Oracle, as do all the other team members, before taking the bad guys down. As the team recovers and Huntress buries her mom, Batgirl discovers that Gus had a secret place which has all the team’s memorabilia in it. Now they have a new sanctuary, if they choose to use it.

BATMAN #46 by Tom King and Tony S. Daniel. It’s a year after the last issue and Booster breaks Selina out of Arkham, convincing her that only she can save Bruce. Booster fashions a Catwoman suit and he plans to take her to Bruce, until a gun toting Batman arrives. Meanwhile, Bruce and Thomas Wayne discuss the future of Gotham, during which time Thomas has a heart attack, which he survives. Back at Wayne Manor, Thomas is recovering when Booster and Catwoman arrives. She promptly slices open Alfred’s throat with her claws.  Batman arrive with guns blazing, killing Thomas and Booster. He is about to kill Selina when she slices off his fingers. Using his other hand, he attempts to kill her again, but he kills Martha by mistake, leading Bruce to kill Batman.

BATMAN #47 by Tom King and Tony S. Daniel. It’s a year later and Booster has been a captive of Bruce Wayne’s all this time. He convinces Bruce to let him use a repaired Skeets to time-travel, taking him to the moment when Bruce’s parents are killed. With Bruce witnessing this, it snaps everything back to reality, except the events devastate Booster.

BATMAN PRELUDE TO THE WEDDING: ROBIN VS. RA’S AL GHUL #1 by Tim Seeley and Brad Walker. Damian and Selena are out fitting him for his clothes for the upcoming wedding, where he tells her he won’t call her “mom”. That night he sneaks out to go play Cheese Viking where he ends up battling a future version of himself. In actuality, he is fighting alone and has been drugged by his grandfather. He ends up back at the mansion where he and Selena come to an agreement. In the epilogue, Ra’s discovers that a great number of his assassins have been killed by what appears to be The Joker.

BATMAN BEYOND #20 by Dan Jurgens and Marco Castiello. Terry, with his brother Matt in tow as the new Robin, takes on a Jokerz gang member who has gone crazy and is troubled by a giant bat creature. Although Robin gets in trouble, the heroes come out in the end and Robin is promptly fired by his brother. In the end, a giant monster version of Batman meets Mellissa Stern, much to her horror.

BATWOMAN #15 by Marguerite Bennett and Fernando Blanco. After seeing Beth’s story told as if it was a storybook adventure, Kate tries to figure how to break into Beth’s ship. Finding no success, she turns her attention to stopping the bat plague coming to Gotham and uses her jet to emit ultrasonic sound waves to draw the bats away from Gotham. She leads them to Sarifah’s ship and, trapping them inside, blows up the ship, eliminating another piece of her memory of her former lover. At an impasse, she calls in help from Batman.

BLACK LIGHTNING/HONG KONG PHOOEY SPECIAL #1 by Bryan Hill, Jeff Parker, Denys Cowan and Scott Kolins. Set in 1976, Black Lightning battles against Cheshire, Bronze Tiger and Professor Presto. He goes to visit Hong Kong Phooey, who tells him the villains are after the god fist and he possesses the final part of the formula for that. Cheshire and Bronze Tiger capture Rosemary and trade her for the final part of the formula. ‘Luckily Phooey memorized the entire formula and uses his knowledge to defeat the bad guys. IN the back-up, the ghostly Funky Phantom gets involved in a Second Amendment debate and discovers what that is about, leaving him to teach proper gun handling.

THE CURSE OF BRIMSTONE #2 by Philip Tan and Justin Jordan. After the destruction at the end of last issue, Joe wakes and learns from his sister Annie that he was found naked in the middle of nowhere. It seems that HE is responsible for all this destruction. He tells her about the Salesman and she assumes that this isn’t the first town he has screwed with. They go to the hotel room the Salesman had rented and have an encounter with The Hound. She confronts Annie and this leads to Joe truing into Brimstone to fight her. But Annie has decided this all needs to end and hits Brimstone with her car.

CYBORG #22 by Marv Wolfman and Tom Derenick. A. When they try to hack into his

Mother Box, he reanimates and Dr. Bode Levine fills him in. He explains that they are Starlite Original and they make these giant robots. Claiming to be better than S.T.A.R. Labs, Cyborg convinces them to let him test out a robot in battle. He loses, but is  convinced they are the good guys. That night, Silas Stone does a partial memory wipe on his son, so he doesn’t interfere with his project. Unseen by them, a very old Japanese gentleman, with a robotic arm, and his robotic wife, look on.

DAMAGE #5 by Robert Venditti and Diogenes Neves. Poison Ivy has Damage captured and knocks him out, with Ethan waking up later with his new friend Jose. They decide to escape from Ivy and that leads to her unleashing her powers on Ethan, who turns into Damage again. But now she has back-up in the form of Gorilla Grodd and his ape followers. Meanwhile, the team put together by Col. Jonas continues their search.

DC NATION #0 by Tom King, Brian Michael Bendis, Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson, Clay Mann,  and Jorge Jimenez. Presenting three stories leading into future DC titles. First, Joker beaks into someone’s house and holds them hostage as he waits for his invitation to Bruce and Selina’s wedding. Next, Clark Kent, who’s wife is missing, meets Robinson Goode, a transplanted reporter from Star City who appears to have some ulterior motives. In the third tale, four different Justice League teams have come together to fight a new evil. They are Team Entropy (Batman, Lobo, Deathstroke, Luthor and Beast Boy), Team Mystery (Superman, Martian Manhunter, Starfire, Starro and Sinestro), Team Wonder (Wonder Woman, Raven, Zatanna, Etrigan and Doctor Fate), and Team Wisdom (Cyborg, Robin, Atom, The Flash and Harley Quinn).

DEATHSTROKE #31 by Christopher Priest and Carlo Pagulayan. After Jericho breaks the Fourth Wall and informs the reader about a bit of Slade’s past, we see Slade and Wintergreen on a plane that gets suddenly hit by a missile. Slade dons his Ikon suit and ands in the desert at Batman’s feet. Apparently, someone has stolen a Waynetech prototype chip and Bruce thinks Slade might be involved. The two fight and we learn that this Batman is a fake, leading to him running naked through the desert while Slade goes to search for his sword. Back in Gotham, Bruce and some hired thugs interrogate the guy ho stole the chip, which leads him to Slade’s ex-wife. Back in the desert, Slade fights Talia, who ends their confrontation with a kiss. Meanwhile, Wintergreen contacts Alfred about the plane being shot down. Alfred insists it had nothing to do with Bruce and their mission needs to continue.

DETECTIVE COMICS #980 by James Tynion IV and Scot Eaton. Tim and his Omacs arrive and that leads to a battle with Kate while Ulysses watches. Kate tries to convince Tim that he is wrong, and he needs to stop and he in turn shows her Batman makes his way into Belfry 2.0 with Jacob, Cassandra and Stephanie. While Tim shows Kate her future, Brother Eye shows Cass and Steph their future, where they both would have become Batgirls. All that does is give Stephanie access to her future timeline and that is how she is going to take down Ulysses.

DETECTIVE COMICS #981 by James Tynion IV and Eddy Barrows. While Tim continues his battle with Kate, Stephanie reveals that Ulysses hasn’t revealed the hole truth about Batwoman killing Batman. It seems that Bruce was dying and had Kate kill him out of mercy. Cass joins with Batman as a Bat and sends the video of the real events to Tim and Kate, which snaps Tim out of his conflicted state, allowing Steph to take down Ulysses once his programming is broken. In the end, all the team members go their separate ways, with Tim and Steph heading off together.

DOOMSDAY CLOCK #5 by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. As Hawk and Dove find themselves arrested in Russia for interfering in a police action, Ozymandias frees himself from his hospital bed and teams up with Batman. Rorschach and Saturn Girl hunt through a thrift store, where she finds her Legion flight ring, before heading off to find Johnny Thunder. Johnny has left his nursing home and ends up in Pittsburgh, where he discovers Alan Scott’s Green Lantern. As Lois meets with Luthor, Black Adam saves Jack Ryder and offers his country as a place for asylum to all metahumans. In the end, The Joker makes an appearance and may team up with two escapees from the Watchman universe. And where is Dr. Manhattan?

THE FLASH #46 by Joshua Williamson and Scott Kolins. Hunter Zoloman is sitting in jail and explains how he wanted to make things right and that just led to he and Flash fighting. Eobard Thawne shows up and offers Hunter a deal. Meanwhile, Barry has brought in Zatanna, Martian Manhunter, Jessica Cruz and Cyborg to help Wally with his flashback issues. Tired of being tested, Wally runs off to be by himself. Barry heads to the Batcave to ask Bruce to help, but the Batman is off with Booster Gold. Back in the future, Hunter tries to convince Eobard to stick to his on plan, but Thawne isn’t going with it and heads back to the 21^st Century to enact his revenge. Barrry finds Wally at the Flash Museum, which doesn’t even exist in this timeline. In the end, Thawne is ready to start a war.

THE FLASH #47 by Joshua Williamson and Howard Porter. While Wally tries to figure out what is going on with his memory flashes, the Renegades show up to arrest Iris for the murder of Eobard Thawne. After a lengthy fight between all the parties involved, Barry convinces them all to go back to the 25^th Century and the Temporal Court. But Wally is missing, due to a temporal anomaly. He ends up seeing images of Linda, their children and Impulse and that’s when Hunter tells him that he is going to help save those children.

THE FLASH/SPEED BUGGY SPECIAL #1 by Scott Lobdell and Norm Rapmund. Wally West finds himself being chased by a giant robot named Kilg%re. Suddenly a dun buggy burst through the creature and the driver takes them into the Speed Force, where he defeats the robot. The driver, Dr. M. Blanc, needs Wally’s help to test his speed buggy. Despite issuing warnings about the Speed force, the doc and Wally race through the Speed Force, which results in them ending up in the future and the doc being merged with the car. Savitar arrives with Speed Demon Buggy and Reverse Speed Buggy, trapping our heroes. Savitar sends Reverse Speed Buggy back in time to destroy the Doc’s lab, but our heroes get free. Wally battles Savitar while Speed Buggy goes back in time to stop Reverse Speed Buggy, causing the bad guys to be erased from time. In the end, six months have passed and Wally and Buggy race for charity.

GREEN ARROW #40 by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing and Marcio Takara. Ollie, critically injured last issue, wakes to find himself with the Last Free Kids in Rhapastan, who see themselves as a version of the Justice League. They apparently saved him by dunking him into a Lazarus Pit. They fight Ollie to show him they are a competent team and then head off to take on Nothing. In the end, Nothing is defeated and Ollie convinces them not to kill him.

GREEN ARROW ANNUAL #2 by Julia Benson, Shawna Benson and Carmen Carnero. In a tie-in to NO JUSTICE, Ollie is caught in the middle of a fight with Brainiac’s ship, where he discovers that all of Queen Industries satellites have been destroyed. After talking with Batgirl, he heads to Happy Harbor to find Ray, Canary and some of the other Justice League of America heroes in stasis. This leads to a fight with a bunch of robots that have taken the League’s powers. After defeating them, he ends up at the Fortress of Solitude, where he discovers that Amanda Waller was responsible for the satellite destruction. This leads into NO JUSTICE. In the end, he has been entrusted with a special weapon and he and Dinah head off on a road trip.

GREEN LANTERNS #46 by Tim Seeley and V. Ken Marion. While Jessica battles with the memories of hen her friends got murdered, Simon ends up battling his evil self. In the end, Jessica is ready to see the people who murdered her friends.

GREEN LANTERNS #47 by Tim Seeley and V. Ken Marion. Simon continues to ty and reach Jessica while she is actively trying to figure out who it was that murdered her friends. Singularity Jain doses the League with her powers and makes them all experience their worst fears. Inside the power ring, Sion reches Jess and convinces her that she is a hero. With that bolstering of her confidence, she manages to break free and save the League. Then she sends Jain off inside the ring world, so she can experience her own nightmares. In the end, the Guardians are convinced that Jess shouldn’t be a Lantern and it’s up to Hal Jordan t take her ring back from her.

GREEN LANTERNS ANNUAL #1 by Andy Diggle and Mike Perkins. The Lanterns deal with the myth of the Lost Lantern, before ending up at a ceremony celebrating that legend. Jessica has a meltdown while delivering her speech and that leads her to leave the planet. She ends up being captured at the tomb of the Lost Lantern, sending Simon to find her. She finds the Lantern and he reveals that he was forced to enslave his people. They return back to where it all began and he is tried, but forgiven for his crimes.

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #44 by Robert Vendetti and Brandon Peterson. Darkstar Tomar-Tu comes to Earth and kills Goldface, who was responsible for murdering his father. Hal shows up afterwards with The Flash. This leads Hal and the rest of the Lanterns to get some back-up in the form of Hector Hammond, Arkillo, Space Cabbie, and Zod. Unfortunately for Hal, Hammond’s jailer is the Atomic Skull.

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #45 by Robert Vendetti and Ethan Van Sciver. Lantern Weggett is transporting Star Phraoah to Lantern HQ when they are attacked and killed by Darkstars. Whie John gets Zod to help them and Hal gets Hector Hammond to do the same, after Hammond takes down the Atomic Skull, Guy secures Arkillo as part of the team. That’s when Tomar-Tu arrives and convinces Guy to become a Darkstar.

HARLEY QUINN: HARLEY LOVES JOKER #1 by Paul Dini and Bret Blevins. Cntinuing from the story that as a back-up in several issues of HARLEY QUINN, Harley is still trying to find a way to pay Jenna for renovations that she did. This leads to her getting involved in a caper with Joker that leads her into a confrontation with the Grison. Surprise: Mr. Jay invites Grison to join their gang!

HARLEY QUINN: HARLEY LOVES JOKER #2 by Paul Dini and Bret Blevins. With Grison on the team, Harley has a therapy session with herself, where she reveals she is jealous of the whole situation. The crew plans another caper and Harley calls Alfred to rat out Mr. J. and Grison. But then she realizes that Mr. J. is setting a trap for Grison, who is setting a trap for him. Harley saves Joker, leading to Batman arresting Grison and Harley and Joker getting away. They head back to their hideout but it gets blown up because they haven’t paid the bill for its renovations.

THE HELLBLAZER #22 by Tim Seeley and Davide Fabbri. The demon Nergal continues his plan to invade our world with a whole host of demons who hate Constantine. Meanwhile, John and The Huntress come across a tortured vampire gang member and, to save themselves, Constantine transforms him into a flaming creature who attacks his gang mates. In the end, the second Day brother makes his way to Earth.

THE IMMORTAL MEN #2 by James Tynion IV and Ryan Benjamin. Caden gets saved by the Immortal Men, as they fight against the Bloodless. Caden flees and jumps into a taxi, which is being driven by The Immortal Man. He gets taken to his house, where The Kill has murdered his parents. Reload and Stray show up to save Caden and, while Reload takes on Kill, Stray teleports Caden to safety.