DC UNIVERSE Month 79, Part 1

ABSOLUTE POWER ##2 by Mark Waid and Dan Mora. Over 80% of the superheroes have either been depowered or captured by Waller and her Task Force VII and prepares her team for a full assault on the other 20%, At the Fortress of Solitude, many of the heroes are trying to get a plan together, with Superman livid because his son had been turned against him. Nightwing takes charge of the meeting, as Superman unveils special tactical suits and weapons to replace their missing powers. Jon and the Brainiac Queen arrive and attack the heroes. Aquaman breaks open the Bottle City of Kandor and all of those superpowered individuals invest the Brainiac Queen. Mister Terrific and Blue beetle, along with Air Wave, create a temporary exit and Superman initiates a self-destruct code that destroys the Fortress.while Dreamer, fed up with Waller’s actions, detains the villains, apparently sacrificing herself in the process. In the end, Ollie finds Hourman’s hourglass and declares that time is up.

ABSOLUTE POWER ORIGINS #2 by John Ridley and Alitha Martinez. After the death of part of her family, Amanda Waller has made power moves to assure that she will someday eliminate the superhero problem. Amanda convinces a captured Cyclotron to join Task Force X. Later, she meets with a man named Dante, who is in a relationship with her daughter and threatens him. Task Force X comes together with Lobo as some sort of leader. Their first mission is to take on the powered heroes of dictator The Great Sun. In the process, Cyclotron tries to convince the rest of the team to not be Waller’s puppets, leading Waller to order Lobo to kill him. He does and that sets off a nuclear explosion that apparently kills everyone. In the end, it is revealed that Amanda managed to get some material from Cyclotron’s remains that she can now use to negate the powers of supers.

ABSOLUTE POWER: TASK FORCE VII #4 by Pornsak Pichetshote and Claire Roe. In the Maze of the Owls, Voodoo finds herself confronted by Failsafe. Meanwhile, Nightwing, Robin, Miss Martian, and The Ray work on ways to defeat the villains without their powers. Just as Voodoo is about to be captured by Failsafe, Nightwing appears and rescues her. But that only appears to be temporary as Failsafe reboots and repairs itself. On Nightwing’s orders, the maze tunnels are blown up, apparently killing Miss Martian in the process. Elsewhere, on Gamorra Island, Trevor sees that a giant Boom Tube is being built.

ABSOLUTE POWER: TASK FORCE VII #5 by Alex Paknadel and Pete Woods. In Central City, another Amazo, powered by the Speed Force attacks, leading to a battle with Barry Allen. On Gamorra Island, Waller fires it up and brings forth a new band of supers; evil powered and led by Donna Troy.

ACTION COMICS #1068 by Gail Simone, Rainbow Rowell, Eddy Barrows, and Cian Tormey. With the carrier crafting, Superman must use all of his strength and intelligence to save Lois and Jimmy and deposit the carrier into the water, mostly safely. Lois and Jimmy, as Superman’s seconds, are transported into space to take his place. Superman gets revived and heads into space where he sees his next challenge is to save the Bottle City of Kandor from being destroyed by the alien’s creation, which he does. Now will come the next challenge: a Daxamite. In the backup, Clark continues to find himself given regular assignments, separating his life as Superman from his job as Clark Kent.

BATMAN #151 by Chip Zdarsky, Tini Howard, Marianna Ignazzi, and Mike Hawthorne. An ABSOLUTE POWER tie-in. Bruce and Selina go undercover to infiltrate Okinowa, in search of the Mother Box. Batman gets attacked by the Suicide Squad but manages to defeat most and confuse Bizarro, allowing him to escape and meet up with Catwoman, who shows him the functioning Boom Tube. They go into the active Boom Tube and it leads them to where the Mother Box is, which is actually Czarnia. The pair are taken down by Gunsmith just as the Suicide Squad arrives. In the backup, Harley becomes the hero, having to stop The Riddler from blowing up the Gotham Power Plant.

BATMAN AND ROBIN #12 by Joshua Williamson and Juan Ferreyra. As Damian heads off, on a pterodactyl to fight the man who killed Alfred, Vengeance battles Batman. Damian is being badly bested until he gets the upper hand through deception. Vengeance explains that Bane is trying to preserve the island from Kobra and use Venom for his own machinations. But Kobra turned on him and now they are trying to defeat them. Maya arrives and knocks out Vengeance. Damian defeats Bane and is prepared to execute him but changes his mind. Batman and Maya arrive but so does Venance who shoots Damian with a dose of Venom, transforming him.

BATMAN: OFF WORLD #5 by Jason Aaron and Doug Mahnke. Batman continues his fight with the Thangarian, eventually defeating and capturing him. The Blakksun twins arrive at Hudu-Goom and manage to stop the rebellion by killing everyone.-over 12 billion. Ione arrives and turns on him, capturing him and delivering him to the twins.

BATMAN/SUPERMAN: WORLD’S FINEST #30 by Mark Waid and Gleb Melnihov. In the past, Batman, Robin, and Superman head to Themyscira for their first meeting with the Amazons. They have been called here to investigate a murder of the scientist Dyatrine. This leads Superman and Robin to meet with Magala, who is bound to the Well of Souls. Once there, she claims she was attacked by some sort of monster. Meanwhile, Batman and Wonder Woman continue to investigate, finding out that there is no Dyatrine, but Apate used magic to convince the Amazons otherwise. There was no murder: Apate used this to distract everyone from her brother Dolos stealing the Flame of Prometheus.They begin to shift reality until Wonder Woman gets Superman and Batman to grab her lasso, using their combined power to defeat the duo and seal them behind Doom’s Doorway. In the end, Diana agrees they will forever be comrades in arms.

BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #16 by Tim Seeley, Jay Faerber, Allex Segura, Stephanie Williams, Kelley Jones, PH Holden, Andy McDonald, and Asiah Fulmore. Nightwing continues his journey, meeting with what he believes are his parents along the way. Deadman, still inhabiting Acton’s body, learns that .she is following The Unfallen, who Deadman describes as the Aniti-Rama Kushna. She tries to convince Deadman to stay in Acton body, as her brother is suffering from vascular dementia and he agrees to give her the obol coin. But Deadman actually made a deal with Charron, who takes Stella. Nightwing defeats his demons and the two reunite, where Dick realizes that his vision of his parents was actually Rama Kushna. In the second story, two Metropolis cops learn the lesson that you don’t have to be Superman to be a hero. In the third story, Montoya continues to deal with the person tormenting her and responsible for the attacks on her friends. But she may have also been outed as The Question. In the final story, Mak Duncan and his new wife try to enjoy their honeymoon, but end up breaking up a heist in the process.

BIRDS OF PREY #12 by Kelly Thompson, Javier Pina, and Gavin Guidry. Stuck in the Pocket Dimension, the Birds jump into a portal that takes them into an Anime inspired place where they find themselves battling gun toting bunnies. They defeat the bunnies and attempt to leave but are stopped by Maia. Thanks to Megaera, they capture Maia and head back into the portal. Back on Earth, Constantine enlists the help of Xanthe Zhou and she heads into the portal.

BLUE BEETLE #11 by Josh Trujillo and Adrian Gutierrez. Jaime gets a visit from his family, which drives him crazy as that is the last thing he wants right now. At a Kord Board of Directors meeting, ted asks his sister to step down and, as she leaves in a huf, she is arrested for Brenda’s attempted murder. As Paco gets to spend some time with his girlfriend, Praying Mantis attacks, leading her to transform and defeat the villain. Elsewhere, Traci meets with Madame Xanadu and, because this is the way to save the world, awakens Javier. During his family’s shopping trip, Oo’li shows up, telling Jaime that Ood has decided to stay in Palmera City, followed by her kissing him. Jaime turns into Beetle and flies off to start his Freshman year,

DETECTIVE COMICS #1088 by Ram V and Dan Watters. Joker’s daughter has taken her anger out on the Shadow Angel and reveals that she has placed bombs throughout Gotham and either Batman can save them or the citizens have to help each other and save themselves. Shavhod has been taken out of the picture by the Ten-Eyed Man, angering the Orgham Queen. Batman slowly and dutifully begin removing the Queen’s gang from the table. Neang has been put on ice by Mr. Freeze but manages to chip himself free, but the addition of an anticoagulant in the ice means that Neang’s body is causing him a painfully death. Tenclaw catches Two-Face, but he shoots himself to kill Neang. Batman meets up with the Orgham Queen and, during the battle, she tells Batman that she has hooked up his brain to the Thelemus Engine and now that will cause the citizens to know fear, even as she seemingly transforms into something akin to an insect queen. In the backup, Talia resurrects the Golden Child and now pans to accompany him as he heads back to take revenge on the mother who killed him.

THE FLASH #12 by Simon Spurrier and Ramon Perez. As Wally does his best to get his bearings after the Arc Angles destroyed The Stillness, the rest of the Flash Family try to find him and save him. Jai is able to reach him, although Wally is unresponsive. Using her new powers, Linda makes her way to him. The rest of the family reach out to him and assist him on his run. But it’s Barry who finally reaches him and tells him that together they need to cut out the poison that still is attached to Wally.

GOTHAM CITY SIRENS #1 by Leah Williams and Matteo Lolli. A young woman named Jaina hears the rumble of hoof steps as White Rabbit finds herself feeling from cowboys on horseback. Catwoman sneaks behind the woman, telling her to be quiet as the cowboys continue their pursuit. In Gotham Park, Harley Quinn observes bisons followed by cowboys on ATVs pursuing them. Harley catches them and, as she is questioning them,, one of them utters a phrase and they immediately seem to die. Apparently, there has also been riots in the demand for something called XO Punch. Later, as Harley disposes of the bodies of the two men, Jaina explains how she was asked to participate in a game and when she turned it down, she was hunted. Her other self is White Rabbit, who has been captured by the cowboys. It appears this game, known as Trigger Warning, is a first person shooter with live targets and is being run by…Punchline.

GOTHAM CITY SIRENS #2 by Leah Williams and Daniel Hillyard.  The Sirens concoct a plan to go to the distillery where Punchline is making XO Punch and also has White Rabbit captive. Punchline explains to White Rabbit that XO Punch will eventually give her complete control of a person’s body and mind. Selena and Harley pay off a bodega worker to take his newest truckload of XO Punch. Dressed as cowgirls, they end up hijacking the truck. But when they arrive at Punchline’s, they discover it is all a trap and are so gassed and put to sleep.

GOTHAM CITY SIRENS #3 by Leah Williams and Matteo Lolli. The girls have been captured and the heat is being turned up on them in an effort to get them to crack and drink the XO Punch. Meanwhile, a group of high-rollers arrive and begin their hunt, shooting live animals they believe to be virtual, which infuriates a helpless White Rabbit. She clones herself and releases her alter ego Dumb bunny, who breaks the girls out of their prison. Escaping from pursuing cowboys, Ivy uses her powers to set up a blockade of plants. But, as Punchline and her guests escape in a helicopter, zombified game players make their way to attack our heroes.

GOTHAM CITY SIRENS #4 by Leah Williams and Daniel Hillyard.  Ivy uses her powers to break the gamers from being zombified while Harley goes after the helicopter. A giant Ivy snatches the helicopter  and brings it crashing to the ground, killing all onboard except Punchline, who shoots Dumb Bunny, injuring White Rabbit in the process. White Rabbit and Catwoman break into the lab and capture a scientist, asking about what she knows about XO Punch. She directs them to a flash drive in her pocket but that releases XO gas which puts the pair on a bad trip. Dumb bunny frees a captured Ivy and tells her that XO Punch is made from one of her own pheromone compounds, causing her to react and defeat Punchline, freeing all the captured animals being used for sport in the process.

GREEN ARROW #15 by Joshua Williamson and Amancay Nahuelpan. An ABSOLUTE POWER tie-in. Ollie digs up a mysterious glowing box once given to him by Martian Manhunter. When he tries to order in retrieval, he is told that Bright has the task force and that Ollie ordered Bright on a mission. Elsewhere, the rest of Red Arrow, Arsenal, Red Canary, Speedy, Arrowette and Connor are dealing with an attack from Tomorrow Woman, who is searching for Ivo. Ivo is on the task force plane, where Jade and Lian are hiding. Ivo cuts a deal with Jade to betray Roy that will allow them to free him. Bright intervenes and confronts Roy. Bright captures Jade and Lian and threatens to kill them. That is when Ollie arrives, telling Bright to leave his granddaughter alone.

GREEN LANTERN #14 by Jeremy Adams and Fernando Pasarin. An ABSOLUTE POWER tie-in. A captured Hal Jordan has managed to get free and gotten his ring in the process, but now finds himself on the run from his captors. Meanwhile, Alan Scott is playing chess with the Amazo robot who he allowed to capture him, which he has named Jadestone. In the course of Hal’s escape, he encounters Jadestone, who is now set on capturing him once again. Hal fights back, using magic to stall the robot and transport himself to Themyscira. Elsewhere, Carol Ferris is in the Tower of fate where the heroes are convincing her to be their eyes and ears. She makes her way to Hub City but, despite being cautious, arouses the interest of a super powered being, who insists she will know their sorrow. In the backup, it is the sad tale of a Shadow Lantern who ends up doing the bidding of Thaaros.

GREEN LANTERN: WAR JOURNAL #12 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Montos. As the heroes approach the heart of the Star Shroud, Byla is mortally wounded by Ajna, freeing the Radiant Host. Byla tells John to take Olgrun’s ring and keep it safe. John uses the ring to face off against Ajna, apologizing to her as he defeats her and the Radiant Host. Meanwhile, John’s mother continues to flee from the Star Shroud, using the construct to turn her into a knight, but she is mortally wounded by Varron. John arrives, with Shepherd and Guy to defeat Varron. As she lays dying, John uses Olgrun’s ring to remove the Radiant from within her. Together, John, his sister and his constructed, restored mother, go off to help restore things in Botswana.