DC UNIVERSE month 27, Part 1

ACTION COMICS #1020 by Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita, Jr. Young Justice has assembled at the Hall of Justice and immediately jump into a battles between Superman and the Legion of Doom. After getting blasted halfway around the world, he flies back and assigns Young Justice to help the people of Metropolis. While most of the team goes off, Connor introduces himself and sticks with his half-father to bring the fight to the bad guys. While Superman fights the Legion. Connor knocks their headquarters into the sea.  The Justice League arrives and joins the fight. All the while, Leviathan watches and Mark Shaw reveals that Luthor was part of his plan all along.

AQUAMAN #57 by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Robson Rocha. After the battle of Amnesty Bay, Mera has fallen ill. Aquaman takes her to hospital, where there is not only an epidemic but also survivors of the battle. Aquaman learns that Mera is put into a coma and that Vulko is her fiancé. Orm shows up, leading to angry words. In the end, the medical staff presents Arthur with his newborn daughter.

BATGIRL #44 by Cecil Castellucci and Cian Tormey. On Unearth, Batgirl and Jason continue to fight the dragon. Part of the problem is the creature feeds on fear and love and Jason has a fear of telling Barbara his feelings, causing the dragon to grow bigger. Batgirl talks with Jason about his fear and Travesty sacrifices himself. It is finally decided that a sword forged by the Maker and Margaret is the only thing that can kill the dragon, but Jason is mortally injured in the process. Margaret tells Maker to give Batgirl the dragon scale, the only thing that can save Margaret. Jason lives and they both come home. Barbara goes to see Jason but…he might actually be a monster. Either that or something from Unearth has come to our world.

BATMAN #88 by James Tynion IV and Guillem March. Selina is digging up a grave while making a phone call to The Riddler. While he tells her of a potential deal made with Joker and The Riddler, she opens the grave and finds Joker’s body. A green gas comes out of Joker’s body and she gets attacked by a gang of thugs. Just as they are about to bury her alive, Harley arrives, freeing Selina and saying this goes deeper than she thinks. Elsewhere, Batman defeats Cheshire and apprehends her, before heading to a meathouse where Penguin has tied up the assassins, including Deathstroke, who gets free. Penguin offers the assassins double their rate to leave Gotham. Deathstroke turns is down and attacks, slitting Penguin’s throat. Batman gets Penguin and he reveals the assassins’ target is Bruce Wayne.

BATMAN #89 by James Tynion IV, Carlo Pagulayan and Guillem March. Pnguin stumbles into Gotham Mercy Hospital and, before he is taken into surgery, orders the doctors to call a certain number he gives to them. Batman is off battling Gunsmith while Catwoman and Harley Quinn are in the graveyard battling a bunch of thugs. It is revealed that the body in Joker’s grave is a double and he has been making plans, which explains why she came back to Gotham. Batman takes down Gunsmith and then heads to a warehouse, where he encounters Mr. Teeth. Batman takes him out before realizing he is in the Riddler’s hideout. He accesses Riddler’s computer, solves the riddle and views video footage with a masked figure with a D on his mask. Catwoman and Harley Quinn arrive and Catwoman says the masked man is called The Designer. She reveals she and all the villains made a deal with him many years ago and she’s sorry. In the end, Punchline, Joker’s new partner, tells Joker that they found the clue, they are wrapped up

BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #10 by Bryan Hill and Dexter Soy. The team, or most of it, is trying to reset themselves. Bruce Wayne has gotten information on Martina Dementieva and Kaliber. It turns out Jefferson is in Cambodia, meeting with Shiva, who wants to take down Ra's. They take down Martina and that’s when Kaliber shows up. Luckily, so does the Outsiders.

BATMAN BEYOND #41 by Dan Jurgens and Sean Chen. Blight is preparing to transfer himself into Terry’s body when Batwoman shows up and throws a monkey wrench into his plans, just as he remembers who he is. Batwoman breaks him out and it looks like Blight could be ready to die and take Bruce Wayne with him.

BATMAN: PENNYWOTH R.I.P. #1 by James Tynion IV, Peter J. Tomasi, Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, Chris Burnham, Marcio Takara, Diogenes Neves, David LaFuente and Sumit Kumar. The Bat Family gather to pay tribute to Alfred with stories of how he affected them. But there is a lot of hard feelings about how Batman could let this happen.

BATMAN/SUPERMAN #7 by Joshua Williamson and Nick Derington. After revealing the history behind Kandor and how Brsainiac stole it, Superman and Batman head to Stryker's Island to investigate the grave of the Kryptonite Man. They get attacked by Ra's Al Ghul, who reveals that Zod plans on using a Lazarus Pit to resurrect the inhabitants of Kandor. This leads the trio to The Lost Temple of Quetzacoatl, where they find Ra’s guards slain and Zod ready to throw Kandor in the pit. He reveals he has already emptied Kandor and that can’t be good.

CATWOMAN #20 by Joelle Jones and Fernando Blanco. Raina's locks her son Adam with the other zombies, but he breaks them out and they surround Creel Mansion.  Selina is with Maggie, but suits up and leaves her cats to care for her sister, heading to Creel Mansion, we get a convoluted and ambiguous explanation of what Raina might be doing and how she has for a final showdown with Raina. 

DETECTIVE COMICS #1020 by Peter J. Tomasi and Brad Walker. Two-Face has made his way to Gotham City and kills the brothers of a black market coin operation, stealing coins from 1922. But he gets shot before killing them and is forced to go to a doctor to get the bullets removed. Not happy with the pain level of the surgery, he kills the doctor and pulls the second bullet out by himself. Batman hears about the shooting at the clinic and investigates, getting attacked by thugs with scraped coin emblems on their shoulders. They set fire to the place and Batman gets them out, by they set off a brain bomb that kills them. In the end, Two Face gives coin communion to his followers.

DIAL H FOR HERO #12 by Sam Humphries and Joe Quinones. Captain Thunderbolt is ready to dial up a change to the Multiverse but Summer and Miguel use the hope in their hearts to call up a battery of heroes and transform Thunderbolt back to Robby Reed. Summer dials C-M-Y-K and that sends Robby back to his grandfather…but actually as an aged character in a classic DIAL H FOR HERO story in HOUSE OF MYSTERY. Summer and Miguel dial H-O-P-E and travel through moments in the Multiverse before ending up with The Operator. He sends them back home, Miguel gets Chidozie’s number and all is good with the world.

THE FLASH #88 by Joshua Williamson and Howard Porter. Paradox was studying the Time Tream at the point where Barry Allen was struck by lightning. His machines pick up the readings and he sees the multiverse. Continuing his research, Flash fights King Turtle during Year One. He and his family go to watch the battle and he disappears, finding himself in a wasteland with a group of survivors. He finds a crashed ship and begins stripping it to rebuild his research laboratory. He creates a tower, but it sucks the life force from the other survivors. Totally connected to the time stream, he sees The Flash’ entire life and comes back to his family, who doesn’t recognize him. He heads to the future to start a new life, but meets Eobard Thawne and is arrested. He reveals to Godspeed that he was able to escape when Force Barrier was destroyed. He vows to take down The Flash and reveal him as a monster.

GREEN LANTERN: SEASON TWO #1 by Grsant Morrison and Liam Sharp. Hal Jordan is back with The Green Lanterns and gets teamed up with Rykaktoro of Karalyx to go to Maltus and see the birth of the newest Guardians of the Universe. After a battle that was just a test for Rykaktoro, the new Guadians are born and send Hal to his newest assignment: Earth.

HARLEY QUINN #70 by Sam Humphries and Sam Basri. Harley is a wrestling queen and she is forced to battle her best friend Alicia the Crusher. She has mixed emotions but Booster Gold, who she finds singing Karaoke, convinces her to do the job. She battles her best friend and wins. But when she goes to the locker room, she finds Alicia has been killed.

HARLEY QUINN & POISON IVY #6  by Jody Houser and Adriana Melo. Harley and Ivy confront the other Ivy, only to learn that her road buddy is only a garment of the whole and not the real Ivy. She reveals that the fire Harley started to save Ivy from the copies may have done more damage than she thought. The real Ivy is pretty pissed about everything and unleashes her minions to fight Harley. The fake Ivy gets Harley out and then heads back into Ivy’s realm, where she gets absorbed. Harley hits the road and feels sad.

HAWKMAN #21 by Robert Venditti and Fernando Pasarin. Hawkman, possessed by the Sky Tyrant, goes up against the Titan paladins, who are protecting the key. Sky Tyrant wins but Hawkwoman, Adam Strange and the Atom race to get to the key before Sky Tyrant does. Atom gets inside Sky Tyrant and short circuits his brain, taking him don. Adam gets to the key and they all leave. Now they have to figure how to destroy the key and save Carter from the Sky Tyrant.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #40 by Robert Venditti and Doug Mahnke. The League encounters an injured Daxamite named Yat, who reveals the world is I danger because of The Eradicator. They head off to face The Eradicator, who has used the Daxamites to recreate his version of Krypton on Earth. Meanwhile, Batman meets with Madame Xanadu.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #41 by Robert Venditti and Aaron Lopresti. Our heroes battle the Daxamites while  Batman tries to recruit Madame Xanadu. The team is taking a beating until Xanadu joins the battle. The team defeats the Daxamites and flee. But they learn they left Wonder Woman behind and The Eradicator has her. He broadcasts to the world that, within the hour, Krypton will take over Earth.

JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #20 by Ram V, James Tynion IV and Kyle Hotz. Mysterious

spores are infecting people and then controlling them to go off to infect others by having the carriers heads explode. Animal Man visits the team to make them aware of this. Since Jason Woodrue is locked up, that leads them to believe it was something to do with Abigail Arcane-the Avatar of The Rot. But Woodrue may still have his hands in all of this.