DC UNIVERSE Month 17, Part 1

ACTION COMICS #1010 by Brian Michael Bendis and Steve Epting. While Kate Spencer, who is not really Kate, meets with Bones, Lois and Clark meet up with Tiger from Spyral under the guise of Chaz and Andi. Superman goes off and fights a super powered creature and, when he returns, Lois and Tiger are gone.

ADVENTURES OF THE SUPER SONS #9 by Peter J. Tomasi and Scott Godlewski. Over on Leone-5, a robot version of Jonah Hex is being held up by bandits who work for Tommy Tomorrow, when our heroes pop in through a Vroom Tube and knock them out. Hex offers to help them get off planet” and knock out the bad guys. After quickly catching Robo-Hex up, he offers to help them get off the planet. After several days of travel and “four untold adventures”, where Damian may have made out with a princess, they make their way to assault the central battery at Engine City. They succeed and then head off in a space train to their next destination. Meanwhile, Rex and his Injustice Army prepare to invade Earth.

AQUAMAN #47 by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Robson Rocha. Aquaman battles against Namma, who has transformed into a dragon. The Young Gods show up to help and sacrifice themselves to stop her. Caillie suggests Aquaman use his telepathy on her, which causes the Young Gods to burst forth, destroying Namma. The water God appears, saves Aquaman and presents him with a trident, as he is told he belongs to the sea.

BATGIRL #34 by Mairghread Scott and Paul Pelletier. The Terrible Trio, Fox, Vulture and Shark, discuss that they must go after Batgirl now that Cormorant is dead. Babs is at work as an intern at newly-elected Congresswoman Alejo’s headquarters. The mail delivery results in a box with a severed hand in it. The office is closed for the day and that means Batgirl can investigate the hand, which she finds contains leads to three possible people. Alysia calls to tell her there is a possible hostile takeover of Gordon Clean Energy, resulting in all their assets being frozen. Batgirl heads off the opening of a social club known as “The Den,” where she is captured by the Terrible Trio. Meanwhile, Jason Bard goes to Barbara’s apartment to find that she has been evicted.

BATMAN #68 by Tom King Dan Panosian, John Timms, Mikel Janin and Amanda Conner. KNIGHTMARE continues with the days before Batman’s wedding that never was. Clark and Bruce enjoy a quiet Bachelor Party involving talk and chess while Selina and Lois go to the Fortress of solitude and get very drunk. But again, it’s all part of Batman’s Knightmare.

BATMAN #69 by Tom King and Yanick Paquette. Batman and Catwoman, while Batman is still inside of his Knightmare, discuss why they can’t get married. In the end, she reveals that he needs to be really scared to defeat the Fear Toxin. Meanwhile, Bane battles Thomas Wayne.

BATMAN BEYOND #31 by Dan Jurgens and Rick Leonardi. Bruce Wayne goes to visit Arlham Asylum when the lights go out. Shortly after they come back on again, Bruce hurriedly leaves, but seems different somehow. Back at the Batcave, his mood continues to be off. There have been a rash of thefts at the old Powers Tech facility and Batman goes off to investigate He gets attacked by a super villain team known as Splitt, who proceed to capture and attempt to kill Batman. Bruce could care less. In the meantime, someone at Arkham has been locked away and maybe this wil explain why Bruce is different-he’s not Bruce!   

THE BATMAN WHO LAUGHS #4 by Scott Snyder and Jock. Batman has created a Batman Who Laughs mask and broken the anti-toxin vial as the toxin has taken over his mind. He fights to maintain his sanity. It’s revealed that the Grim Knight has been using the electrical grid for the city to make use of Dark Metal to open portals to bring the various Bruce Waynes to Earth. After meeting with a still living Joker, Batman heads to Blackgate Prison, which houses a small deosit of Dark Metal, when he is transported to another Earth where Bruce Wayne runs Backgate. They pop back into our Blackgate, where The Batman Who Laughs, disguised as a prison guard, kills Wayne and blames it on Batman, causing the police to open fire on the Dark Knight. Meanwhile, the Grim Knight releases Gordon and sends the Robin Hounds after him.

CATWOMAN #10 by Joelle Jones and Fernando Blanco. Catwoman goes after Penguin to get back the letter from Holly, resulting in a trade of sorts. She’s visits her sister, who is an invalid, before she heads off with Carlitos to meet with a forger named James. Meanwile, Raymond Creel is forced to take a break from his campaign to meets with his mother and brother.

DAMAGE #16 by Robert Venditti and Aaron Lopresti. Ethan and Congo Bill get free from Ehidna’s clutches, releasing Congorilla and Damage in the process. They take on the collection of monsters before finally defeating her. The monsters change back to normal size and then Congo Bill shows Ethan a raft and sends him back home, where he will deal with his issues by himself.

DEATHSTROKE #42 by Christopher Priest and Carlo Pagulayan. THE TERMINUS AGENDA Part 2. Slade has been captured by Robin, who has sent the Teen Titans out to capture Blackrock. But that leads to a battle between he and the team. It is revealed that he was trying to turn himself in and his powers have ruptured a gas line, meaning the team needs to save everyone. Meanwhile, Deathstroke has freed himself and he tells Robin that not only did he flinch regarding his team, Robin’s jail is out of mayo.

DETECTIVE COMICS #1001 by Peter J. Tomasi and Brad Walker. Bats are mysteriously dying throughout Gotham City and Batman can’t find an answer. He goes to visit Francine Langstrom, who injects herself with serum and changes into a Man-Bat. She rides her all the way to Gotham Park Zoo, where he gives her the antidote and she changes back to human form. There is an explosion in the night sky, which turns out to be some sort of self-generating light, followed by the Knights of the Sun. Batman gets shot with a barrage of arrows and finds himself gravely wounded with Arkham Knight standing over him. 

DETECTIVE COMICS #1002 Writer: Peter J. Tomasi and Brad Walker. Batman has been gravely wounded and now the Arkham Knight is ready for the killing blow. But GCPD arrives and stops him. After a standoff between he police and the Knights of the, Knight leaves saying there will be another time for this. Gordon helps Batman into the Batmobile, which takes him back to Batcave where Alfred starts patching him up. Damian heads off to find the remains from hunts down residuals from the Day Bomb, but gets captured by Arkham Knight. He eventually frees himself, but is confronted by the Knight who removes his helmet to reveal himself to Damian.

DIAL H FOR HERO #2 by Sam Humphries and Joe Quinones. Miguel and Summer have made their way to Grand Junction, Colorado. The mysterious phone keeps ringing, leading to the owner threatening to throw them out. A strange man observes it and is being told to answer it, but Miguel answers it first and is told by the Operator to beware of the Thunderbolt Club. Miguel ties a rope around the phone and throws it in the river, but the strange man retrieves it and activates it, becoming Jobu, the Zonkey King. He starts firing off blasts at a boat and that causes Miguel to jump into action, grabbing the H-Dial and becoming Iron Deadhead. The two battle before Miguel gets the upper hand. In the end, a lady police officer, a member of the Thunderbolt Club, takes the H-Dial.

THE FLASH #68 by Joshua Williamson and Scott Kolins. The Trickster is interrogating Commander Cold when he is joined by Axel. We see they have taken over Iron Heights, where the prisoners get put in a machine and made happy. Barry recalls the original Trickster and also remembers that if he vibrates right he can walk through the machine without being affected. He heads off to an old Rogue hideout to save Cold, but gets attacked by Axel before he can free him. After taking out Axel, Trickster captures Cold and Flash and explains that he made the call to bring Flash back to Central City, not Cold. Cold gets free and they capture Trickster, but they discover that people are attacking each other to keep their happiness. Flash goes off to save them, but is captured by Cold, who is under Trickster’s spell. When he wakes, Barry discovers that his legs have been amputated.

THE FLASH #69 by Joshua Williamson and Scott Kolins. The Trickster appears to have won and is enjoying the chaos he has created. He has captured his parents and asks them if they are proud of him. Meanwhile, Flash is dealing with his missing legs when Commander Cold convinces him it is just an illusion created by the Sage Force.  Flash faces off with Trickster, but needs to let him escape to save Central City’s citizens. Cold constructs a device to stop the effects of the Sage Force, which Flash wears, running through the city and saving the people. Arriving at Iron Heights, it explodes, leaving no bodies behind. Later at CCPD, Barry is met by a strange hooded man who tells him that to save the Multiverse, Barry must go remember something he has forgotten. Barry is next seen as a young boy reading comics before being called downstairs by his mother.

THE GREEN LANTERN #6 by Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp. To prove his allegiance to the Blackstars, Hal must kill Adam Strange. Hal does that, which allows him an audience with Controller Mu, who wants Hal to unlock the secrets of his Power Ring so he can bring his own version of peace to the universe. Mu reveals that he knows Hal is a mole and he shows him a universe-collapsing bomb that will go off if he dies. Dam, who was only put into a temporary coma, charges at Mu, but Hal stops him. The Guardians power up Hal, who uses his new powers to stop Mu. But the ensuing blast traps Hal inside his own ring with a case of amnesia.

HARLEY QUINN #60 by Sam Humphries and Sam Basri. Harley Quinn breaks into S.T.A.R. Labs in order to steal some cancer-curing drugs for her mom. But there is an interdimensional breach that causes Harley to fight off some creatures with lasers while also dealing with hallucinations. Mirand’r shows up and explains that this is just one of the trials which has been manipulated by the Lords of Chaos and Order to make it really difficult. Harley figures it all out and manages to send the baddies back to their own dimension. In the end, Enchantress arrives and is ready to take on Catwoman.

HAWKMAN #11 by Robert Venditti and Bryan Hitch. Hawkman takes on the Deathbringer army with all of his past lives in tow as back-up. Hawkman battles Idamm, who commands his Deathbringers to incinerate the Earth.

HEROES IN CRISIS #8 by Tom King, Mitch Gerads and Travis Moore. It is revealed that Wally had a bad time with therapy and ran outside, unleashing a Speed Force supernova. Other heroes heard the alarms and ran outside, getting killed by the blast. So Wally used Sanctuary’s holodeck to show Booster and Harley two different scenarios where Wally was dead and that the other had killed everyone. Then he destroyed the Sanctuary robots and reset the scene to no longer implicate him, including bringing his body from the future to the site.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #21 by Scott Snyder and Jorge Jimenez. Superman battles his older self, who tells him he created this pocket universe just to hold Superman. Back in the 6th Dimension, Bruce and Dick are enjoying some quiet time until Batman is called into a psychic conference called by Martian Manhunter. Just before Shayne can reveal what is going on, the older Superman shows up and explains he is the son of Perpetua and brother to the Monitor and Anti-Monitor. He is also the World Forger. He explains that to save the Multiverse, his created world must replace the existing one. The heroes vote him down and he sends them to Apokolips where Lois Lane rules. Meanwhile, the rest of the team battles a possessed Mxyptlik.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #22 by James Tynion IV and Francis Manapul. Mera and Starman are menaced by the Legion of Doom when Bat-Mite shows up to try and save the day. Twenty billion years ago, Perpetua assigns her three sons to create the Multiverse, Barbatos, and Earth which is cool but feels more like filler than it should. Over the next billion or so years, the brothers realize their mother has plans to change the Multiverse with her Doom plan, so the Source Wall becomes a place to lock her away.