DC UNIVERSE Month 12, Part 2

NIGHTWING #52 by Scott Lobdell, Fabian Nicieza and Chris Mooneyham. Ric Grayson deals with the repercussions of taking out the guy who tried to rob him last issue and learns that, despite having no memory of it, he has skills from his time as a superhero. Meanwhile, the autopsy of Andrew Wyman, releases a deadly gas that transforms all around it. Elsewhere, Detective Alphonse Sapienza gathers a team to take over for the missing Nightwing, ultimately leading to a confrontation between Grayson and the new Nightwing.

NIGHTWING #53 by Scott Lobdell, Fabian Nicieza, Travis Moore and Patrick Zircher. Ric Grayson meets with Detective Sapienza, who is now Nightwing. Sapienza goes off to save the kidnapped cab driver, which he does, despite some difficulty adjusting to the role of a superhero. Later, he shows up at Malcolm Hutch’ house, where he reveals he has been seriously injured. Meanwhile, a substance abuse session including Ric’s friend Tiny, goes bad when the doctor in attendance reveals himself to be The Scarecrow. Elsewhere, Ric goes on a breakfast date with his friendly neighborhood bartender.

PLASTIC MAN #6 by Gail Simone and Adriana Melo. Plastic Man battles the Durlan who is masquerading as him, leading to the pair ending up in the ocean. Only one comes out, and no one is certain which one, but it seems to be the alien. He heads off with Doctor Psycho, who takes him to his lair with his super-villain minions, leading to the group testing him to see if he is really Eel O’Brien or not. It turns out it IS the Durlan, but Eel has stowed-away inside of Psycho’s brain and now controls him. He negotiates a deal with the bad guys, threatening them if they ever mess with him or his friends again. In the end, Eel is reunited with Doris and the kid, who has revealed he is a boy named Pado Swakatoon. But what of Granite Janet? Well, her revenge is for a later time.

RED HOOD OUTLAW #28 by Scott Lobdell and Pete Woods. After a surprise appearance by Wingman, who was once Jason Todd, we go to Jason Todd in Appleton, where he is attacked and captured by the townspeople. When he wakes, he is forced to face a giant resident that, upon his destruction, turns out to be a robot. Batwoman arrives and they tussle, until more giant robots arrive.

RAVEN DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS #10 by Marv Wolfman and Pop Mhan. Baron Winters and company transport away from their attackers and wind up in San Francisco just after the great earthquake. Raven discovers she has been here before and sees herself helping some children. In Uruguay, Alice turns Skye over to the Shadow Riders and then leaves her there, returning to the present where she meets with Winters and company. She explains that Skye is actually one of the Riders and is known as the First Born. Raven heads back to her family, convinced that she won’t do this anymore and leave the family in a lurch. But she gets a message from Winters, wipes her family’s minds and goes off.

SIDEWAYS ANNUAL #1 by Dan DiDio, Grant Morrison, Ibraim Roberson and Will Conrad. Sideways and the New 52 Superman team up to battle the followers of the Insect Queen. The Unseen arrive and say that with the Insect Queen’s death, Rapid Entropic Decay will destroy their world. They team up to battle Perrus, freeing Superman and Sideways, who help to defeat the giant spiders menacing the Seven Soldiers. After defeating Gloriana, the Seven Soldiers and Sideways transport, leaving Superman to form a new Justice League on this world with The Unseen. In a back-up, the Unseen travel to our world and are met by the Fuginaut, who threatens to send them back to the Dark Dimension. When they reveal they know Derek, he gives them a pass.

SIDEWAYS #10 by Dan DiDio and Kenneth Rocafort. Derek comes back to his house to find it filled with reporters and police. It seems that Derek has been gone for a week and has missed his mother’s funeral, leading to him telling the police that he was with friends in Metropolis. After a confrontation with his father, he meets with Ernie and they transport to Paris for a long chat. In the process, terrorists arrive, and he helps save folks, before heading to the Eiffel Tower, where he sees that Bolt has arrived and threatens to kill Ernie. Also, Bolt knows Derek is Sideways and has been hired by Leto.

THE SILENCER #11 by Dan Abnett and Jack Herbert. Michael, Quietus and Hope make their way past Leviathan guards and inside their compound, where they meet Wishbone. The trio is attacked and discover that all the potential leaders of Leviathan are here just in time to be met by a resurrected Talia. She claims that she orchestrated all of the chaos as a test and that almost everyone assed. She no runs a rebuilt Leviathan filled with followers…mostly all followers.

SUICIDE SQUAD #48 by Rob Williams and Diogenes Neves. Amanda Waller has been captured by an old enemy from The People and had a brain bomb surgically installed. Meanwhile, Rick Flag has been talked into joining the team on a mission to the Eastern Siberian Sea in an effort to save Waller.  In the process, Flag is shown a video that shows him how Waller used him to get him on the team. He is given the trigger for the brain bomb and presented with a captured Waller, giving him the opportunity to kill her.

SUPERGIRL #24 by Marc Andreyko, Evan “Doc” Shaner and Karl Kesel. Kara is in an intergalactic bar asking questions about Rogol Zaar. She finds the person she wants to talk to, but her questions lead to a huge bar fight.  Once the fight has ended, Kara goes back to questioning her suspect when the bartender turns him to ash. She gets another crystal and gets saved by a new ally: a Coluan named Z’ndr Kol. He fixes her ship and they head off into space. Suddenly, she begins bleeding from her nose and passes out. They have ended up in Krypton’s former space and is being poisoned by Kryptonite.

SUPERMAN #5 by Brian Michael Bendis and Ivan Reis. Zod, in his imagination, tries to unite the House of El, the House of Zod and the House of Kandor before seeing the arrival of Rogol Zaar. When he wakes, his son tells him that there has been a message saying Earth was missing. Over in the Phantom Zone, Superman continues to battle Rogol Zaar. In space, Adam Strange encounters Zod, where they find a shrunken Earth, which starts to grow. It seems that The Atom shrunk the planet to allow it to escape from the Phantom Zone. Zod implored atom to fire the Phantom Zone projector at him, which means he is showing up as Superman’s ally against Zaar.

TEEN TITANS #24 by Adam Glass and Bernard Chang. The team is trapped in the rubble following last issue’s explosion. Working together, despite their differences, they get free. In the end, Djinn meets with Red Arrow, possibly in a dream, and tells her that she knows of her secrets, so it is best not to pry in Djinn’s.

THE TERRIFICS #10 by Jeff Lemire and Viktor Bogdanovic. Java has been revealed as Doctor Dread, but he has also unleashed the Dark Elder. The team, led by Mr. Terrific and Tom Strong, defeat the Dark Elder, taking a T-Sphere and escaping back to the Dark Multiverse. In the end, Plastic Man has disappeared, Rex retires, and Mr. Terrific breaks up the team.

TITANS #29 by Dan Abnett and Minkyu Jung. The team’s Boom Room has crashed, injuring many with Ms. Martian being injured the worst.  Steel tries to figure how to fix the broken ship while Ms. Martian flies off, falling due to her injuries and hurting herself even more. While Raven still struggles with having lost her soul self, Donna finds Ms. Martian and brings her back to camp. Steel creates a beacon, which attracts a primitive Beast Boy, destroying the Boom Room in the process. Ms. Martian gets tossed into the jungle and, because she is so weak, transforms to her true image: a White Martian.

TITANS #30 by Dan Abnett and Minkyu Jung. Miss Martian, changed to her true self, use her psionics to stop Beast Boy’s rampage. She then revels that she hid her true self because people have been told to fear White Martians. Steel gets another beacon online while Raven sees a vision of where her soul self is located. Donna explains she is having a hard time being a leader and reveals that Roy Harper as dead. With the beacon up and running, it attracts Kyle Raynor.

THE UNEXPECTED #6 by Steve Orlando and Ronan Cliquet. While Hawkman battles Onimar Synn, Neon and Firebrand are inside of his bones. Firebrand sees a glowing node which, it turns out, is made of Nth Metal and is designed to capture their souls. They encounter Phayde inside a similar node, as Phayde’s soul has also been captured. Our heroes break free and free all the captured, but very angry souls, in the process. Their energy is ready to overload the Nth Metal Isotope, so Neon transports them all away to Castle Frankenstein. They encounter a Tempus Fuginaut and then Mandrakk. Elsewhere, the Bad Samaritan lives again.

WONDER WOMAN #58 by G Willow Wilson and Cary Nord. Over in Themyscara, Ares goads Grail into attacking him with a sword, which leads to them being freed. Meanwhile, Diana has a dream about Steve Trevor and is awaken by a call from Etta, causing her to go off to save him, despite Etta imploring her not to. Steve is somewhere in Durovnia, where Diana saves a child from being shot by troops loyal to the warlord who rules. The child has, unbeknownst to Diana, a group of mythical beings with him. After meeting with an angry Etta, Diana gets into a fight with an armored man with an axe. It turns out to be Ares, who claims he is here to fight tyranny and injustice.

WONDER WOMAN #59 by G Willow Wilson and Cary Nord. We begin with the little boy and his mythical friends going to a ruined temple and reuniting with other mythical creatures, who have captured Steve Trevor. Ares tells Diana he has been given a second chance but, when the pair go to stop a missile, Ares turns it onto a group of civilians, in an effort to stop the tyranny of the ruling party. When she saves a pilot and his aircraft, Ares threatens to kill her, saying she has turned her back on justice. Steve learns that Diana is close by and tries to escape, only to be captured again. The creatures decide to take him to their leader.