DC UNIVERSE Month 43, Part 1

ACTION COMICS #1034 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Becky Cloonan, Michael W. Conrad, Christian Duce and Michael Avon Oeming. The Phaelosians kill Thao-La’s companions and that sends her into a rage and kills the warriors with a blast from her eyes. Meanwhile, things escalate between Atlantis and the military leading to Superman forcibly taking the Warworld artifact and, along with Jon and Kara, head back to the Fortress. Upon arrival, he finds the carnage, leading to a confrontation between Thao-La and himself. In the backup, Midnighter and Shilo Norman continue to take out Trojan Solutions soldiers on their trip to confront Andrej.

BATMAN #111 by James Tynion IV, Jorge Jimenez and Clayton Cowles. Peacekeeper-01 is ready to kill Miracle Molly and Squeak, but Squeak and Molly use their abilities to help them get away. As the pair flees, Breaker gets involved and takes on Peacekeeper-01, allowing the pair, including a wounded Squeak, to reunite with Master Wyze. Batman, Ghostmaker and Harley show up to lend a hand takes down Peacekeeper-01, allowing them to escape. While Ghostmaker operates on Squeak, Batman decides to take on Scarecrow, who is having problems of his own. Saint realizes the Scarecrow is out of control and orders Peacekeeper-01 to take him down. But Scarecrow has upped the Fear Gas level and Peacekeeper-01 is now under his control.

BATMAN/CATWOMAN #6 by Tom King and Clay Mann. In the past, Selina decorates a Christmas tree with The Joker and talks about how she stole all the ornaments. In the present, Batman goes to rescue Selina from Phantasm,leading to Selina taking him down and telling Andrea that it’s time to go kill The Joker. In the future, Commissioner Grayson lights the Bat Signal and old lady Catwoman arrives with her daughter, going out and fighting crime together. Selina also reveals she did kill The Joker.

BATMAN: REPTILIAN #3 by Garth Ennis and Liam Sharp. The creature has taken out most of Gotham’s villains and Batman is trying to figure out what it is and why it is on a rampage. He learns of a hostage situation enacted by The Joker and goes to the site. He confront The Joker, who is attacked by the creature and mutilated by it.

BATMAN SECRET FILES: CLOWNHUTER #1 by Ed Brisson and Rosi Kampe. Two years ago, Bao Pham was a kid at Gotham Academy who got bullied and beaten up. A year later, he learned to fight back, even though he continued to get beat up. Now, he is the vigilante Clownhunter and is tracking down clowns. One of them sets off a bomb, injuring Bao, leaving him at the mercy of the clown. While Punchline teases him vis video chat from her place in prison, he fights back. But that victory is short lived as a large group of clowns attack him. He keeps fighting overwhelming odds and eventually gets saved by Red Hood, who offers to train him and take down the Joker together.

BATMAN/SUPERMAN #21 by Gene Luen Yang and Ivan Reis. Superman, Batman, and Robin battle Etrigan while Alanna of Rann and El Diablo fight off demons. Superman finally convinces Etrigan the Auteur.IO is not God and Etrigan turns on him, freeing the other Superman and Batman in the process. The worlds get separated, Auteur.IO’s armor now serves him, and he becomes Observer.IO.In the end, a Paradaemon brings one of the archive film reels to Darkseid. To be continued in  BATMAN/SUPERMAN 2021 ANNUAL #1.

BATMAN: URBAN LEGENDS #6 by Chip Zdarsky, Matthew Rosenberg, Meghan Fitzmartin, Joshua Williamson, Eddy Barrows, Scot Eaton, Marcus To, Chris Sprouse, Belen Ortega and Trevor Hairsine. Jason repurposes a Batsuit and heads out to save Batman, who is under the effects of Cheerdrops. Jason gets dosed but fights off the effects long enough to give Batman the antidote and release him from the drug. Tyler’s mom recovers and Bruce and Jason patch things up, with Jason declaring he’s done using guns. In the first backup, Zealot mixes it up with Wonder Woman, as both have gone after Maxwell Lord. The fight ends in a draw, but Zealot acquires some of Diana’s blood and is bringing it back to the WildC.A.T.S. In the second backup, Tim teams up with his friend Bernard to save him, leading to a reunion in the end and a potential date for the pair. In the last story, Black Canary becomes a member of T.R.U.S.T. after saving the life of Juliette Ballantine from hat turns out to be a staged assassination attempt. After learning her parents were members, Canary is sent on a mission with Deathstroke. But who was behind the assassination attempt? Talia. Continued in DEATHSTROKE INC. #1.

CATWOMAN #34 by Ram V and Fernando Blanco. Detective Hadley fires up the Bat Signal, telling Batman about Father Valley’s plan to kill Selina. He saves her from last issue’s cliffhanger and gives her a drive with all the information he has been able to gather on Valley. She tracks down Valley and they fight. But he has a plan, as he has a sniper rifle aimed at her sister. He triggers the gun, sets off a bomb and flees. Maggie doesn’t get shot…but Hadley does.

CHALLENGE OF THE SUPER SONS #5 by Peter J. Tomasi, Max Raynor and Evan Stanley. The boys save Aquaman and discover their names on next on the scroll. In the distant past, they team up with Rora, who may still be an agent of Faust and Savage.

CHECKMATE #3 by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev. Weeks ago, Superman invaded the country of Markovia, now known as Leviathan, so that he could rescue Talia Al'Ghul. Today, Mark Shaw has kidnapped Lois Lane and teleports her from the country of Leviathan to the Hall of Justice. Lois meets with Checkmate and reveals that she believes Shaw’s endgame is to get into the Hall of Justice computer system. Trevor meets with Talia in jail, but we learn that she was visited by Shaw and she may actually be working with him. In the end, Mr. King meets with Toyman, who says it may be time for King to reveal who he is.

CRIME SYNDICATE #6 by Andy Schmidt, Kieran McKowen and Bryan Hitch. The Crime Syndicate attacked Alexander Luthor's Watchtower. Now, the hidden member of the Legion of Justice, Ultragirl, is battling it out with Utraman while the remainder of the team faces off against Sinestro and Emerald Knight. Superwoman severs the ring from John Stewart’s hand and the ring kills Sinestro, leading to Stewart siding with the Syndicate. Atomica makes her way inside of Ultragirl’s head and kills her. With that, the Crime Syndicate now rules Earth 3. In the backup, Atomica muses on how she met and learned from Johnny Quick. But Luthor is now a captive of the Syndicate and she will make him her plaything.

CRUSH & LOBO #3 by Mariko Tamaki and Amancay Nahuelpan. Lobo and his fellow prisoners are in a group therapy session while Crush waits to meet with her dad. He bares his soul to his daughter, before taking her hand and leaving the meeting. Amazingly, Lobo gets scanned as a visitor and walks out of the prison. This is because he transferred his prisoner monitor chip to his daughter when he held her hand and now she is recognized as Inmate 2981. The Main Man is free, and Crush is now incarcerated.

DETECTIVE COMICS #1041 by Mariko Tamaki and Dan Mora. Gotham is in disarray. Mayor Nakano sends his people out to search for Worth and Vile; the latter of which is being experimented on. With his house gone and the sewers blown up and leaving him away from his Bat Caves, Oracle sends him to the docks, where he gets one of his classic blue and grey suits. He meets with The Jury, who puts him on trial for the death of Sarah Worth. He is found guilty and, while he escapes, he gets shot with a bullet containing some of Vile’s blood. Batman is now infected. In the backup, Deb Donovan gets a note slipped into her pocket, which leads her to the morgue where she sees the bodies of Bane and Man Bat and the empty drawer which had contained the Arkham Knight. Later, she meets with Vicki Vale who agrees with Batman. Donovan goes home and finds the person who gave her the note sitting in her apartment-Red Hood. This leads into TASK FORCE Z, coming in October.

DETECTIVE COMICS #1042 by Mariko Tamaki and Viktor Bogdanovich. Batman has been shot with a bullet containing Vile's venom and now he is infected Vile, thought to be dead, arises and escapes while Batman defeat Worth. Huntress confront Vile and the infected Batman arrives. Huntress throws Batman at Vile, which forces the parasite out of it. She kills the creature which in turn kills Vile. Even with Vile dead, Huntress admits that she still gets visions of his victims. In the end, the coroners notice eggs escaping from Vile’s body. In the backup, Deb Donovan and Red Hood team up to try and find out why dead people are being abducted from the morgue.

THE FLASH #773 by Jeremy Adams and Will Conrad. Wally is late for his first day at work and is tasked with getting copper rods to power a temporal energy device. When he learns of an incident elsewhere in Central City, he heads there, which puts him in battle with Heat Wave. He learns that Mick is dying and, even though he is apprehending him, offers to help him. Waly races back to work, where he installs the copper rods. He goes home to dinner with his family while Amanda Waller meets with Mick, offering him a purpose. This ties into recent issues of SUICIDE SQUAD and THE SWAMP THING. Elsewhere, Jessica Cruz, now a Yellow Lantern encounters something in space that could prove dangerous.

FUTURE STATE: GOTHAM #4 by Dennis Culver, Michael Golden, Nikola Cizmesija and Jason Pearson. Hunter Panic enters the fray, as Harley searches for Punchline. The three end up in an all-out battle, with Punchline being subdued. Her message: the Net Joker is coming. In the mostly silent backup, Batman battles a bunch of clowns, who learn to late that the Joker will sacrifice anyone if it leads him to Batman.

GREEN LANTERN #5 by Geoffrey Thorne, Tom Raney, Marco Santucci and Andy MacDonald. Keli Quintela has headed to New Korugar to take on Sinestro and his Yellow Lanterns. A mysterious Yellow Lantern battles her and Simon Baz, with the Lantern making the decision to let them go…a Lantern who knows who Simon is. Meanwhile, Joan Stewart evacuates the planet in an effort to save them from the Slavers. They go to Oa, where John gets a cool reception. But there is no time for that as a distress call comes in from Killowog.

HARDWARE: SEASON ONE #1 by Brandon Thomas and Denys Cowan. Curtis Metcalf is a genius who, at a young age, was supported monetarily and emotionally by Edwin Alva. The genius inventor worked for Alva Industries to improve his world. But that was before the Big Bang and now he is being blamed for it as Alva has made him the scapegoat. To save himself, Curtis creates a suit of armor and fights back.

HARLEY QUINN #6 by Stephanie Phillips and Laura Braga. Harley is searching for the manufacturing facility making Strange's drug which leads her to Alleytown. She teams up with Catwoman and they find the facility, but not before Harley gets dosed and saved by Selina. Elsewhere, Strange meets with Scarecrow, who is not happy that Keepsake stole his toxin and modified it.