DC UNIVERSE Month 26 Part 1

ACTION COMICS #1019 by Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita Jr. Last week, after Leviathan had been revealed, Mark Shaw met with the Legion of Doom to reveal his future plans, including taking them to Leviathan Island. Two days ago, Luthor and Leviathan met with Red Cloud, revealing they are taking the fight to the Justice League in Metropolis. Right now, the Justice League battles the Legion of Doom.

AQUAMAN #56 by Kyle Higgins and Aaron Lopresti. Set before REBIRTH, the people of Amnesty Bay have gathered to celebrate the upcoming marriage of Arthur and Mera. After the party ends, the Trench attacks. In the end, Arthur manages a truce. In the present, Arthur and Mera awaits the birth of their baby.

BATGIRL #43 by Cecil Castellucci and Cian Tormey. A monster attacks a woman in the ark and Batgirl saves the day. What she discovers is that the monster comes from Unearth and the woman is Margeret Lew, who was the editor of the Unearth books. It seems Ernest Hinton is lonely and is trying to create a companion based on Lew. She gets teleported into Unearth, where he woos her. She reveals she has a terminal illness and agrees to stay. But that means a dragon must be slain to gather the ingredients to save her, which leads to Jason Bard and Batgirl facing the dragon.

BATMAN #86 by James Tynion IV and Tony S. Daniel. Cheshire kills a man by melting his face with the poison of a jellyfish before she enters a building to meet with Merlyn, Gunsmith and Mr. Teeth. A shadowed figure gives them an assassination job. Meanwhile, Selina is acting as Bruce’ representative at the unveiling of a new Wayne Campus. She changes into Catwoman and tracks down a man who dies in the same grisly manner as the doorman earlier. Lucius Fox has developed a new machine he calls Nightclimber which is eventually sent to Batman, who has been brawling with Deathstroke: the shadowed figure giving out the assignment to Cheshire and company. In the end, it seems the Joker is still around and has plans.

BATMAN #87 by James Tynion IV and Guillem March. A highly deformed Riddler is speaking to Oswald Cobblepot, who claims he is in the process of solving Gotham. The Penguin, surrounded by a bunch of bodies, says he is preparing for war. They make a deal, saying that The Designer is coming to collect. After meeting with Commissioner Bullock, Batman heads to the place where the assassins have been taken: the Black Block. Batman visits Deathstroke here in an effort to get information, but gets nothing. He also observes that Cheshire is gone and has been replaced with a clay double. With Lucius’ help, he tracks her down and eventually apprehends her. Back at the GCPD, Slade and his assassins are able to free themselves and take down Bullock but leaves him alive. In the end, we learn the Penguin knows about the plan, as he was one of the first creators of it.

BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #9 by Bryan Hill and Dexter Soy. Jefferson's friend Tina was killed last issue and he wants revenge, even though Batman tells him rage is not the answer. Meanwhile, Duke and Cass are taking down some thugs in Metropolis and later, Bruce shows up and criticize them. Superman arrives and tries to talk sense into Bruce, with little effect. In the end, Jefferson gets a visit from Lady Shiva, who promises to help him kill Ra’s.

BATMAN BEYOND #40 by Dan Jurgens and Sean Chen. Terry and Dr. Constance Gustinov, who was masquerading as a homeless person, meet with Blight, who offers him a job. Blight finds it humorous thar Terry doesn’t know who he is or that Blight ruined his father’s life. Meanwhile, Batwoman continues to battle crime and, at one point, she gets rescued by a mysterious person on a motorcycle. Batwoman flees and Bruce, Matt, Melaine and Barbara arrive. The mystery person reveals himself as Dick Grayson and tells everyone that he is worried about his daughter Elainna, who it is revealed is Batwoman.

BATMAN/SUPERMAN #6 by Joshua Williamson and David Marquez. Batman and Superman interrogate Infected Jim Gordon in an effort to try and get the cure for the infection, with no avail. They seek out Wonder Woman who is upset by lies and secrets, as she is upset about what happened to Donna Troy. Saying she can’t trust Batman and Superman anymore, she flies off. Batman comes up with a plan to go against the Batman Who Laughs by developing a database of their enemies to share with the heroes of the world. In the end, Zod meets with Ra’s and declares the Lazarus Pits belong to Kandor.

CATWOMAN #19 by Joelle Jones, Geraldo Borges, Aneke, and Inaki Miranda. While zombies attack where Carlos and Maggie are holed up, Selina races to the scene. Together, she and Carlos fend off the attack. Carlos’ aunt saves the day but pays for it by being run through by a stray zombie. The zombie is dispatched and 9-1-1 is called. After a terse exchange, Selina heads off. Meanwhile, Raina has a new plan and maybe zombie Adam will play into it.

DETECTIVE COMICS #1019 by Peter J. Tomasi and Scott Godlewski. Bruce battles the Viking from last issue and defeats him when the Viking hits a lighting cable with his ax. Back at the Batcave he finds the Viking is a man named Sorel Rinsdale. Batman heads to the Botanical Gardens where he's attacked by the guy in charge of this cult. Sorel was supposed to be one of the sacrifices, but got free and became delusional, thinking that he was a Viking. The cult summons a demon and Batman battles it. In the end, the demon kills and eats the leader and Sorel is restored.

DETECTIVE COMICS ANNUAL #3 by Peter J. Tomasi and Sumit Kumar. In a flashback, we see Alfred in his spy days, escaping Ukraine and getting help from Agent H. In the present, Batman gets a visit from Marigold Sinclair: Agent H. She enlists Batman to bring a former agent, now gone rogue, to justice. In the Ukraine, Batman encounter a NKVDemon, where he is knocked out and captured by the traitor. Marigold shows up and together they take out the traitor. In the end, Marigold brings Bruce a book with pictures from Alfred’s life.

DIAL H FOR HERO #11 by Sam Humphries and Joe Quinones. The Operator tells Summer she must battle the Super Miguels, so she dials up Lo Lo Kick You. She battles the Reign of Super Miguels. She loses, which allows Mister Thunderbolt to acquire the last of the cardinal H-Dials. The foursome try to unite as one, but that results in Super Miguel and Thunder Montez. Montez joins with Mister Thunderbolt, who dials up Fifty Two, which sends him to the Overvoid, where he can remake the Multiverse.

THE FLASH #86 by Joshua Williamson and Rafa Sandoval. King Cold muses about all the times that he was beaten by The Flash. But now he is beating The Flash, thanks to his augmented power and the unstable Speed Force. Cold lowers the temperature of the battlefield, but the allows Flash to normalize his powers and he flees, freeing his allies. He returns to fight Cold, with backup from the Rogues. Mirror Master is hesitant to fix things, but the Rogues convince him to help. He finally agrees, which brings Central City back to normal. Glider tries to reach her brother, but Cold sees the Flash as turning his family against him. Flash becomes unhinged and beats on Cold. The police arrive, the Rogues escape and Flash and Cold are arrested.

THE FLASH #87 by Joshua Williamson and Christian Duce. Captain Cold and Flash are being taken to Arkham. Glider is being taken to Blackgate. Cold’s henchmen are still on the run.  Iris is now helping Kid Flash and Avery get normalized, where Meena is running tests. Iris makes a call, bringing The Pied Piper to Arkham to help. Piper reveals he has fund a solution to the Speed Force problem, although it’s a painful process. He uses the process to save the speedsters. Just the, they are made aware of a breakout and Cold has been freed by Glider, who has broken out of Blackgate. In the end, the future version of Barry arrives, saying that stopping the loop from Year One, they created a paradox, at which point . Future Barry begins to decay, telling them to get Commander Cold. When Barry reveals Cold is dead, Future Barry tells him it is too late and Paradox is coming for him. He then melts away.

GREEN LANTERN: BLACKSTARS #3 by Grant Morrison and Xermanico. Superboy has sided with the Blackstars, leading to a battle between Earth’s heroes and the Blackstars, resulting in Jon accidentally killing his father. Earth now embraces the Blackstar way. But Hal starts an uprising after learning of Belzebeth’s traitorous ways, leading to a battle with her. He reveals that he has used his ring to create all of this in Universe-15 and he has trapped her there. Although she has eliminated Controller Mu, all the computers are still following Mu’s ways and eliminate her.

HARLEY QUINN & POISON IVY #5 by Jody Houser and Adriana Melo. Harley and Ivy head to Manhattan for a showdown with the Flouronic Man. They see how plants have taken over Manhattan and, with help from Batwoman, who was there to capture Ivy, they attack the plants. Together they free some captured people. But. In the end, Ivy finds a giant flower and a version of Ivy comes out of it.

HAWKMAN #20 by Robert Venditti and Fernando Pasarin. Sky Tyrant continues to read the Black Journal to learn the secret of a weapon created from a past life and kill his enemies. He travels to a land where he counters a Giant Hawkman who is determined to protect the key needed for the weapon. Meanwhile, Hawkwoman works with The Atom and Adam Strange to find a way to cure the infection.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #39 by Scott Snyder, Jorge Jimenez, Daniel Sampere and Juan Albarran. Martian Manhunter is alive again and is trying to connect with the people of Earth to break Perpetua’s spell. While the Justice League continues to battle the Legion, the people of Earth choose Doom, despite Manhunter’s effort. She sends the time displaced heroes home and the League finds themselves meeting with the Quintessence, who saved our heroes from ultimate death. They open a door which connects past, present and future and the team heads off to face Perpetua.