DC UNIVERSE: Month 44, Part 1

ACTION COMICS #1035 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Sean Lewis, Daniel Sampere and Sami Basri. Superman battles a confused Thao-La and convinces her to break the chains, even though it may cost the lives of her people, promising her that he will go to Warworld and release the slaves. She ends up in stasis as Superman prepares to leave. The Justice League shows up to lend a hand, but they already know he has selected a team to assist him. He says goodbye to Jon and Lois, before meeting with his new team, The Authority, before heading to Warworld. In the backup, The Guardian tracks down a kid who is getting everyone to play a game that summons a tech demon called Dismember.

AQUAMAN: THE BECOMING #1 by Brandon Thomas and Diego Olortegui. Jackson is fighting on Apokolips in a virtual training session being overseen by Aquaman. When finished, he goes to lunch with his mother where he takes an interest in his server and the server does the same. He leaves and takes down a new criminal called the Human Flying Fish. Later, he goes to The Well and gets arrested for crime against the Atlantean Empire.

BATMAN: FEAR STATE: ALPHA #1 by James Tynion IV and Riccardo Federici. Months ago, Simon Saint meets with Jonathan Crane, who develops the idea of creating a “Fear State” in Gotham and hints that they were responsible for A-Day. In the present, Scarecrow is tormenting Batman and a drugged-out Peacekeeper-01races through Gotham. At the Clock Tower, a new Oracle takes over the system, spreading lies to Gotham and claiming that Batman is dead.  Under Gotham, Harley and the Gardener convince Queen Ivy to allow the Unsanity Collective to hide here. In Alleytown, Selena cares for the other Ivy as the Magistrate stalks the area. Elsewhere, the Second Son contemplates putting on the suit.

BATMAN #112 by James Tynion IV, Brandon Thomas, Jorge Jimenez and Jason Howard. Batman finally escapes the Scarecrow and heads to the Clock Tower, where he learns that the Anti-Oracle has corrupted Oracle and is spreading misinformation to Gotham. Ghostmaker is in a jungle in the sewers of Gotham where Harley and the Gardener ae trying to convince Queen Ivy to join the fight. Meanwhile, Peacekeeper-01 is dosed with Fear Gas and on the loose, causing Simon Saint to create Peacekeeper-X.  In the backup, Clownhunter, faces off with Scarecrow and it might kill him.

BATMAN #113 by James Tynion IV, Brandon Thomas, Jorge Jimenez and Jason Howard. The Anti-Oracle is spreading false messages over the airwaves to ensue panic among Gotham. Batman visits Commissioner Renee Montoya and tells her everything about Simon Saint, the Magistrate, and Mayor Nakano. When he leaves, he encounters the Magistrate’s Cybers. He meets up with Ghostmaker, who uses an old VR headset to get into Batman's mind to find anything the Scarecrow left behind in his head. What they discover is Ghostmaker's memories reveal his connection to Jonathan Crane during his school years where Crane had already written a paper regarding Fear State. In the end, Peacekeeper-X confronts Peacekeeper-01 while Scarecrow watches. In the backup, Clownhunter finds himself in a nightmare where his parents are still alive and he is facing up against monster-sized Jokers.

BATMAN/CATWOMAN #7 by Tom King and Liam Sharp. In the past, Bruce and Selina have sex and then explains his anger on how he could smell that The Joker was there before him. In the present, a naked Bruce has been locked up in a bank vault naked and has to fight the police. He covers his face with blood and fights his way out. In the future, Selina is arrested for the murder of the Joker and Huntress.

BATMAN: REPTILIAN #4 by Garth Ennis and Liam Sharp.Batman confronts Croc, explaining that the creature hunting the villains of Gotham is Croc’s child, that apparently, he gave birth to.

BATMAN SECRET FILES: MIRACLE MOLLY #1 by James Tynion IV and Dani. Molly and the Unsanity Collective break into a home that turns out to be her family. From there, we learn that Molly is actually Mary Kowalski, who is working as a tech for a company that doesn’t value her input. This leads her down the rabbit hole and discovers the work of Master Wyze. Frustrated, she breaks into a meeting at work to present her robotics designs, but that gets her fired. At the same time, she loses all of her research to the company, which plans on announcing it as their own designs. Later, she tries to get her notebooks back and she gets in a confrontation with her former boss, who she kills in a fit of rage. She tracks down Master Wyze who transforms her into Miracle Molly.

BATMAN/SUPERMAN #22 by Gene Luen Yang and Paul Pelletier. Calendar Man, who died during A-Day, is resurrected by Mr, Mxyzptlk, explaining that all of reality is just organized int little boxes. When he embraces this, he goes off through the comic panels and discovers Batman’s secret identity. After dispatching some other villains who doubt him, he goes after Batman and Superman in a panel breaking battle. Calendar Man accidentally loses one of his arms because of a magic erasing pen. Superman stops the bleeding and the bad guy ends up in Blackgate, where Mxyzptlk shows up and restores his arm and removes the memory of Bruce Wayne being Batman.

BATMAN/SUPERMAN 2021 ANNUAL by Gene Luen Yang, Francesco Francavilla and Paul Pelletier. On the World of the Knight, Superman battles a variety of villains, eventually leading him to the Spider Lady. On the World of Tomorrow, Batman and Robin face off against Bizarro Two-Face, Martha Wayne and Alfred, who transforms into Doomsday. Luckily, Superman and Spider Lady come through a film burn and defeats Doomsday.

BATMAN: THE DETECTIVE #5 by Tom Taylor and Andy Kubert. Batman and Squire break up an Equilibrium created hostage taking and later meets with Ducard, who is recovering from being shot. He reveals that Equilibrium is a former student of his named Charlotte LeSerf. One day, Batman saved the life of John Gallagher who eventually kills Charlotte’s husband and son in a car accident, leading her to believe that this made Batman an Agent of Caos and that people he had saved needed to die.

BATMAN: URBAN LEGENDS #7 by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Tim Seeley, Guillaume Singelin, Kenny Porter, Max Dunbar, Juan Ferreyra and Baldemar Rivas. In the future, Bruce Wayne is dead, having been killed by a super A.I., leading Terry to avenge him and fully take on the mantle of the Bat. To be continued in BATMAN BEYOND: NEO-YEAR #1. In Batman 666, Damian Wayne is a Batman in a future where he fights a new generation of villains. In the third tale, Future State Batgirl Cassandra fights against the Magistrate. In the final tale, Batman One Million, who has the ability to change into Batman’s of the past, fights against Hades-the son of Vandal Savage and descendant of the Bane Dynasty.

BLACK MANTA #1 by Chuck Brown and Valentine De Landro. Black Manta and his crew chase down an ancient relic with connections to Atlantis. The relic is causing Manta extreme pain and someone long buried in Atlantis is reborn.

BLUE & GOLD #2 by Dan Jurgens and Ryan Sook. Blue Beetle rescues Booster from certain death, but all Booster cares about is that it didn’t get livestreamed. Later, the pair take out some bad guys in the Adirondacks. Ted Kord gets fired from his own company and is now broke. But that news gets to Booster too late as Booster holds a press conference to announce Blue & Gold Restoration.

CATWOMAN #35 by Ram V and Nina Vakueva. Hadley as died saving Selina’s sister and her sister has left Alleytown for good. While her team of former villains fight crime, Selina meets with Leo and learns of Anti-Oracle’s message saying that Batman is dead. This forces her to make the decision to go to Gotham and help out with the Fear State situation. In the process she encounters the Magistrate and teams up with Lian. She also learns that the Anti-Oracle is giving false information and that Batman is still alive. Elsewhere, it’s revealed that Riddler and the Penguin are working together, and the Penguin believes if they can find Ivy, they can reengineer her power and Riddler can use it to control Alleytown.

CHALENGE OF THE SUPER SONS #6 by Peter J. Tomasi and Max Raynor. Jon and Damian battle Faust and Savage and get some help from the Justice League. But they’re not really the Justice League: they are just trolls created to look like the greatest heroes due to a spell from Rora. She gives the boys a scroll to go save the League in the present. But can they do this before the bad guys can stop them?

CHECKMATE #4 by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev. Guardian and Merlyn are in the old Watchtower when they are confronted by Green Arrow and Manhunter. On Earth, Bones and company examine some of Guardian’s blood, discovering that Shaw has found a way to brainwash people into being sleeper agents by splicing alien DNA into their blood. Elsewhere, Lois explains what has happened to Clark before opening the snowman statue and finding the birth certificate for Leonardo Lane: her brother she did not know she had. At Checkmate’s headquarters, Leviathan attacks. But Robin reveals they are not here to kill Checkmate…but to transport them to Shaw.

CRUSH & LOBO #4 by Mariko Tamaki and Amancay Nahuelpan. Crush is still stuck in prison and dealing with her cellmate, prison fights, memories of her girlfriend Katie and trying to convince prison officials that she is not her daddy. She convinces prison officials that she is not who they believe her to be and they give her an hour to track Lobo down.

DEATHSTROKE INC. #1 by Joshua Williamson and Howard Porter. H.I.V.E. is using people as incubators for nanotech to turn them into weapons. T.R.U.S.T. dispatches Deathstroke and Black Canary, with an assist from Toyman 2.0, to capture the H.I.V.E. queen. Also, Slade reveals he has accepted this job because he is dying.

DETECTIVE COMICS #1043 by Mariko Tamaki and Dan Mora. With Gotham in turmoil, many of Nakano’s security force attempt to assassinate him. When that fails, the team kidnaps Nakano, leading to Batman intervening and freeing him. They escape to the sewers, where they find Vile’s creature egg cache. In the backup, Batman saves Donovan and Red Hood joins in the fight. But Jason is captured and offered a job…leading Task Force Z

THE FLASH #774 by Jeremy Adams and Christian Duce. Wally West and his daughter Irey are going off to a "Daddy/Daughter" dance. When they arrive at the party, they discover everyone is unconscious and that Dr. Nightmare is responsible. Irey grabs Nightmare’s nightmare inducing hat and uses the creatures from her dreams to defeat him. In the end, the pair travel to Paris and dance the night away.

FUTURE STATE: GOTHAM #5 by Joshua Williamson, Dennis Culver, Rafae Grampa and Giannis Milonogiannis. White Rabbit takes out Mad Hatter, much to the surprise and dismay of the Arkham Knight. In the present, Warmonger continues to force Batman and Peacekeeper Red fight each ither, while revealing to Astrid that he was responsible for blowing the bat shaped hole in the middle of Gotham. Jason figures out that they are being controlled by Mad Hatter technology and manages to diffuse it. Cybers and the Arkham Knights team shows up, leading to Astrid’s release and Warmonger flees. Astrid reveals how Warmonger was Supercop Zero and was a failed prototype for the Peacekeeper program. Later, Nightwing meets with his team and discovers that Batman has been arrested by… Peacekeeper Red. In the backup, the Joker continues his never-ending battle against crime, which is assisted by Alfred disguised as The Joker.

GREEN LANTERN #6 by Geoffrey Thorne, Marco Santucci and Tom Raney. Jo Mullein faces off against the Sinestro Corps. Eventually, she meets with Sinestro, who denies that he destroyed the Central Power Battery. Elsewhere, Kilowog is stuck in the Dark Sectors with no ring power. But without a working ring, he may not stand much of a chance of survival. John Stewart gets told the history of the Gold Centurions and prepares to head to Anacitus when he confronts Lonar of New Genesis, who was on Oa before it blew up.

GREEN LANTERN  2021 ANNUAL by Ryan Cady, Sami Basri and Tom Derenick. The Sinestro Corp ring has chosen Jessica Cruz and she delivers Low, Ugg-I, and Lyssa Drak to New Korugar. Sinestro sees her potential in Jessica teaches her to use the power of fear. She finds a refugee ship escaping from Oa and tries to help by putting the First Officer and her security team in charge. Hal Jordan arrives and criticizes her for siding with Sinestro. She quickly realizes that the First Officer and her security team are really space pirates and quickly fixes the situation.In the end, she embraces the power of the Yellow Lantern…for now.

HARLEY QUINN 2021 ANNUAL by Stephanie Phillips, David LaFuente, Marco Failla and Jon Sommariva. Kevin and Solomon Grundy take on Mr. Freeze with predictable resilt. Grundy gets frozen and Kevin tries to explain how he ended up here. Harley runs into Keepsake who insists they go to dinner. They do, but it goes bad fast and Keepsake kidnaps Harley. Grundy and Kevin end up at Penguin’s house, who sends them to find Cheshire, who sends them on a continuing trail of villains in search of Keepsake’s location. Freeze give the pair the info they need, for a price, tracking him to the Ace Chemical Factory. Harley gets free and the two end up in a chemical vat, where Grundy saves her. Later, the team performs at the birthday party of Freeze’ niece. But Keepsake is still on the loose and he will seek revenge in HARLEY QUINN #7.

HARLEY QUINN #7 by Stephanie Phillips and Riley Rossmo.Keepsake and Hugo Strange put together a team of villains Keepsake calls the Caucus of Corruption. It also leads to Strange taking on the role of Batman. He also reveals he needs Poison Ivy to complete his plan. Meanwhile, Harley and Kevin go through the woods looking for a lost dog and run into a bear. They find the dog and Bela finds them, revealing she has found Ivy.

I AM BATMAN #1 by John Ridley and Oliver Coipel. Jace dons his Batman uniform and begins his role as the Caped Crusader. While his predecessor, presumed dead, hid in the shadows, Jace wants to be seen by the people of Alleytown as their protector who doesn’t just fight super villains. In the end, GCPD finds the dead body of…Anarky?

ICON & ROCKET: SEASON ONE #3 by Reginald Hudlin and Doug Braithwaite. Icon and Rocket take out the drug trade in Afghanistan, sending many countries into a tizzy as it is doing damage to their economy, including in the United States, where even the President is concerned. It is revealed the U.S.  was visited by an alien baby in 1939 and the government had him killed. The President calls for Mr. Lord, who turns out to be an alien Icon knows and is now hunting Rocket’s mom. Luckily, a certain lawyer with a sword intervenes, but that may not be enough.

INFINITE FRONTIER #5 by Joshua Williamson, Tom Derenick, Jesus Merino and Paul Pelletier. Omega Psycho Pirate is making a deal with Mr. Bones and Machine Head, claiming that the work of the heroes of Earth-0 are destroying the Multiverse. On Earth-Omega our heroes confront Bones and find Barry Allen running in his imposed fantasy. This leads t a battle between the heroes and Injustice Incarnate. Omega Psycho Pirate tells Roy that is he sides with him, he will spare Earth-) and save Liam. Roy unleashes the Black Lantern power and ends up being controlled…by Darkseid.

INFINITE FRONTIER #6 by Joshua Williamson and Xermanico. Darkseid has arrived and has control of the Omega Lantern. Obsidian saves Roy and, in disgust, Darkseid kills Machinehead. Darkseidsends the heroes back to their headquarters, where they decide to find The Flash and the crack in the Omniverse before Darkseid does, which will be resolved in JUSTICE INCARNATE #1. In the end, Darseid gathers his team so he can control The Great Darkness. Barry continues to run, ending up in Multiverse-2, where he meets with Pariah, sending Barry to a happier time on Earth-Flash-1, where he is living his life with his friends and family, including his mother.

THE JOKER #7 by James Tynion IV, Sam Johns, Guillem March and Sweeney Boo. In Santa Resica, someone is trying to turn the prison int a Bane theme park. That person turns out to be Julia Pennyworth and she ends up in a shootout with the potential buyers. Meanwhile, Gordon is under being interrogated by detective Isabella Hallows, who wants his help in bringing down The Network. He agrees, but adds there may be a problem named Vengeance, who interrupts the dinner date between Gordon and Hallows. Elsewhere, Barbara gets attacked by a Talon and it takes the Batgirls to help her out. In the backup, Alexis searches Blackgate Prison for Harper Row and gets an assist while hiding from Orca. Harper makes her way through the prison and finally finds  Kelly Ness. Meanwhile, Cullen learns that his boyfriend is closely connected to the Royal Flush Gang.