ACTION COMICS #1026 by Brian
Michael Bendis and John Romita Jr. Superman
and the House of Kent fight the Parasite from another dimension, with Brainiac
5 blasting him and shrinking him to miniature. Superman flies off to battle Red
Cloud, with Red Cloud choking hi out. Meanwhile, at the Daily Planet, Leone
claims she is a victim of the evil alternate universe Lois Lane, raising
questions by asking how did Sam Lane die. With that, after she fires Perry
White, Lois is arrested.
AQUAMAN #64 by Kelly Sue DeConnick
and Miguel Mendonca. Orm’s interrupted the wedding and his Daigon forces have breached
and invaded Atlantis. While the battle rages, Vulko frees Mother Cetea. Orm
declares himself the ruler of Atlantis and that leads to a one-on-one battle
between Arthur and Orm. Arthur gets distracted and Orm defeats him, daring him
to call some fish, which looks like that is exactly what Aquaman will do.
BATGIRL #50 by Cecil Castellucci, Aneke, Emanuela Lupacchino
and Marguerite Sauvage. We begin with James’ funeral, before Barbara and her
father go to a diner, where her father badmouths Batgirl, leading to Barbara
storming out. She meets up with Jason, who is trying to convince a young girl named
Ryan Wilder (who will be the new Batwoman on the CW television show of the same
name) to go to a homeless shelter. Later, Jason says he accepts full
responsibility in framing her dad and wants to show Barbara he has changed. She
gets a call and heads to the Batcave, where Batman tells Batgirl, Nightwing,
and Tim Drake that he has lost much of his money and is no longer in control of
Wayne Enterprise. After convincing Batman to give money to a homeless shelter, Batgirl
tells Nightwing that things can’t just go back to normal and he will have to
earn her friendship back. Days later, Batgirl apologizes to Jason and later
Barbara tells him she wants to move forward with their relationship between
them. While she is meeting with Congresswoman Alejo, protesters throw a rock through
one of the office windows, Alejo, Barbara, and Jason then join the protestors
in marching through the city. Jim Gordon is also there and she convinces him to
join in the protest.
BATMAN #100 by James Tynion IV and Jorge Jimenez. Batgirl
is back in the Clock Tower, where she takes back her Oracle persona, using the
emergency channel to contact the Bat-Family and the police. Bullock decides to
do the right thing, throws down his badge and orders his men to join him. Batman
is dealing with the Joker, who has reanimated Alfred’s corpse. With his new Bat
costume, Joker gets the advantage, until Batman kills the lights and fights
back, although he gets stabbed by The Joker. Meanwhile, Punchline is pissed
that the explosion at ACE Chemical happened sooner than planned and the
Underbroker quits. That’s when Nightwing and the Bat-Family arrive. Back at the
Batman/Joer fight, things look bad for our hero until Harley Quin shows up and
shoots Mr. J. in the eye. She cuffs Joker and attaches the bombs to Joker and
herself, making Batman choose who to save. Batman decides to save her and
leaves Joker with the reanimated Alfred. The bomb explodes and we cut to a week
later, as we learn Joker apparently escaped and Batman, now broke, must start
over. In a series of epilogues, we meet the next villain, Ghostmaker. Batman
tracks down Bao Pham, who is Clownhunter. He says he used to believe in Batman,
but not anymore. In the end, two men are sitting in a coffee shop and one shows
the other video of Punchline appealing to the public for leniency. Then he
kills the other man with Joker toxin.
BATMAN #101 by James Tynion IV and Guillem March. While Bruce muses
about the past, he and Selina also talk about the future and how things are
going to change significantly. Flashback to a week ago where Batman is fighting
with Grifter, until Lucius Fox stops them. Lucius has hired Grifter as his
personal bodyguard, while he still deals with the effects of the Joker Toxin. The
city is in the process of electing a new mayor and the Joker is still at large.
With Selina having given Lucius the Wayne fortune, Bruce realizes he has had
his ability to support his Batman persona cut dramatically. As Batman leaves,
he meets Grifter and tells him he knows who he really works work and has a
message for them. Back in the present, he tells Selina he needs to move into
the city and they can’t tea up while she is still a wanted criminal. So they
agree to meet back up in a year and make the needed decisions.
BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #17 by Bryan Edward Hill and Marcio Takara. It’s the end of
the road for the Outsiders. Bruce has set up a horse farm for Sofia, and
the team decides what to do next. Bruce has tea with Shiva, who knocks him out
with iocane powder. Hen he wakes, the only person there is Shiva, who explains
that Jefferson, Tatsu, Duke have all headed off to Gotham and Cassandra is
going to meet with Stephanie Brown. She also reveals that Sofia is going off
with her, leaving behind a very upset Bruce.
BATMAN BEYOND #48 by Dan
Jurgens and Paul Pelletier. Matt and Terry meet with Bruce, who suddenly attacks
them, claiming they are here to kill him. Booster Gold shows up and pulls Terry
out of the attack, explaining that they need to go back in time, because some
villain had implanted a seed in Bruce’s brain long ago and today as the day it
went off. He also tells Terry that Matt is dead and there’s nothing they can do.
They head back to 2020, here they save a family whose house has caught fire
during the heroes confrontation with the villain Blanque.
One of the people is a young Warren McGinnis, who happens to be Terry’s father.
That’s when Batman shows up and tell him to release the boy.
BATMAN/SUPERMAN #13 by Joshua Williamson and Max Raynor. Batwoman and Steel head to the moon, where they are forced
to fight an army of robots. A rogue computer program hacked it's way into the
Batcomputer and now Batman and Superman are being tested, mentally and physically,
to defeat their robot copies of their Rogue’s Gallery. Batman puts a virus in
the system, causing a Joker robot to come to their aid. Batwoman and Steel come
to the rescue, but things aren’t done yet as the program has created a Batman/Superman
mash-up.
BATMAN: THREE JOKERS #3 by Geoff Johns and Jason
Fabok. Batman, Batgirl Jason try to figure out who The Joker really is, although
it seems Batman knows. He finds out that Joe Chill has been kidnapped and that
he also ha written lots o letters, undelivered, to Bruce Wayne. They track The
Joker to the Monarch Theatre, where he plans to drop Chill into a vat, turning
him into the new Clown Prince of Crime. After a battle, Batman saves Joe Chill’s
life and The Criminal Joker is killed by the Comedian Joker. In the end, Chill
dies and Batman reads the letters, Jason writes a love letter to Barbara which
she never gets to see and Batman reveals he has always known ho the Joker is,
but he can never tell the world because of what it will do to his family.
CATWOMAN #26 by Ram V and Fernando Blanco. The Penguin is not happy about
being played by Selina, so he hires a hitman named Father Valley. In the bad
part of Alleytown, Selina meets with Pit and cuts a deal. In the end, Father
Valley spies on Selina and Maggie.
DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL #4 by Scott
Snyder and Greg Capullo. Batman and Superman are in tough shape as they are
dealing with alternate versions of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS and FINAL CRISIS. Wonder
Woman is dealing with the alternate INFINITE CRISIS, where Superboy Prime tells
her that he promised The Batman Who Laughs Wonder Woman so he could be the hero
of the one world left. Elsewhere, Harley, Swamp Thing, and Jarro face Robin
King, who finishes off the disembodied Jonah Hex. Wonder Woman convinces
Superboy Prime join the heroes and he destroys the antenna, which frees Batman
and Superman and resets everything. Or not, as the world is still devastated and
Wally, sitting in Metron’s chair, is no longer in the blue suit.
DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL: ROBIN KING #1 by Peter J. Tomasi
and Riley Rossmo. Robin King gloats at his apparent
victory and thinks back to how he came to be. Following his parents death, young
Bruce Wayne decided to take down the heroes of his Earth. His actions bring
attention to the Batman Who Laughs who convinces him to join him and doses him
with a pill while he pits him in the Robin Pit, finalizing his transformation.
In the back-up, the Signal and his team take down a Batman/Chemo mash-up to
free Gotham Narrows.
DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL: RISE OF THE NEW GOD #1 by James
Tynion IV and Jesus Merino. The Chronicler moves through time and space,
meeting with various characters and observing the cosmic battle between Darkest
Knight and Perpetua. With him is the Codex
Omniversa: a book which contains worlds he has witnessed rise and fall. In the
end, he decides this world is worth saving. In the back-up, John Stewart and a
handful of Lanterns make their way through the Bleed to meet with the surviving
heroes from the other worlds of the Multiverse.
DETECTIVE COMICS #1028 by Peter J.
Tomasi and Nicola Scott. Batman investigates a series of murders perpetrated as
revenge by the son of a former policeman. In the end, the vigilante son is
arrested and Christopher Nakano announces his candidacy for Mayor, claiming he
wants to get rid of the “masked and dangerous”.
DETECTIVE COMICS #1029 by Peter J.
Tomasi and Kenneth Rocafort. The Mirror is introduced,
and his plan is to start a revolution where he and his followers can unmask and
eliminate the Bats and his various teammates. Meanwhile, Bruce is boxing up the
belongings the Wayne Manor as he prepares to move out and into the city. Later,
he helps stop an apparent attack during a Nakano for Mayor gala. In the end, he
goes to examine the Black Casebook, only to find it blank. It seems Damian has
stolen the book.
THE FLASH #763 by Kevin
Shinick and Clayton Henry. Barry and Iris are at the Central City Farmer’s Market when he realizes that his ring
that holds his costume is missing. This eventually leads him to Trickster’s arcade
and his ring is being offered as a prize. After a series of tests, Trickster
has a final test: tell him why the ring is special. Barry tells him the ring has
special powers. Trickster decides to use the ring himself, the costume comes
out into his face, knocking him out, allowing Flash to regain the ring. In the
end, Dr. Alchemy is in Iron Heights and has a plan.
THE FLASH #764 by Kevin
Shinick and Will Conrad. The news reports that
Dr. Alchemy is breaking out of Iron Heights and Barry races off. During the
battle, Alchemy blasts him and Flash’ mask turn to Mercury. The CCPD shows up
and shoots at Alchemy, who turns the bullets into gas that will kill the men.
Flash uses his speed to disperse the gas. Alchemy is using the philosopher’s
stone to achieve his tasks and that leads to Barry researching the stone. He
heads to the museum to check out a Metal Men exhibit and hopefully talk to Will
Magnus. There he confronts Alchemy, who has used his powers to drain the Speed
Force from Flash’s body. He tells him that he could kill everyone in the
building, but he would rather show the people there that The Flash can’t stop
him.
GREEN LANTERN: SEASON TWO #8 by Grant Morrison and Liam
Sharp. In a tale this plays in reverse, the war in the Anti-World is coming and
somehow Sinestro is now involved.
HAWKMAN #28 by Robert Venditti and Fernando Pasarin. Hawkman
and Hawkgirl are in 1940 and Carter is remembering his death from Hath-Set. He is also having issues with the thought of actually
dying and staying dead. The Nth Metal dagger has been stolen and is being used
by Anton Hastor, the current version of Hath-Set, to find Hawkman. Hawkman uses
his mace to psychically link to the dagger, which leads them to a train, where
Anton has used the power of Anubis to make everyone on the train a zombie, that
our heroes have to fight and kill. In the end, Hastor uses the dagger to stab
and possibly kill Hawkman.
JUSTICE LEAGUE #54 by Joshua Williamson and Xermanico.
Continued from JUSTICE LEAGUE ODYSSEY #25, Cyborg
and Starfire join the team of Nightwing, Hawkgirl, Bobo and Luthor. They have
to make their way across the wastelands through a field filled with giant
Starros. The giant stars are placing false memories in the heads of the team
and it takes Luthor to snap them out of it to face off with Starro.
JUSTICE LEAGUE #55 by Joshua Williamson and Robson Rocha.
The team continues to fifth with the Starros, which have not combined to become
a giant Starro. They board Luthor’s pirate ship, which he has named Lana, and
head across Brimstone Bay to free the Legion of
Doom. Hawkgirl senses Martian Manhunter and heads off to free him. That results
in the team being attacked by the Omega Knight, as J’onn has been compromised.
