DC UNIVERSE Month 79, Part 2

KNEEL BEFORE ZOD #8 by Joe Casey and Dan McDaid. After meeting with Sinestro, Zod continues with his plan, finally getting the rest of his crew in tow and heading off to Khundia.to wage war with them.

NIGHTWING #117 by Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo. Dick is still trying to conquer his newfound fears with Deadman. Later, he contacts Oracle who reveals that Dick had been poisoned by Shelton Lyle who they deduce is Heartless. At the same time, Nightwing two, AKA Bruce Wayne, is making his way into Shel Pharmaceuticals. Dick decides he must go back to the real world and Deadman sticks him on a mountain ledge, forcing him to conquer his fears. After 24 hours on the ledge, Deadman finally assist him to make the fall and travel back to Bludhaven. Meanwhile, Zucco has made his way to Dick’s sister and is threatening her and her mother when Nightwing arrives. He corners Zucco, saying he finally figured things out: that his parents were not supposed to die, Dick was.

OUTSIDERS #10 by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, and Robert Carey. Batwoman meets with Luke and tells him how she has figured out the plan, based on the Book of the Planetary, Meanwhile, Drummer and Carrier get ready to enact their plan, but carrier, who claims to be friends with all of the Outsiders, has not only invited Batwoman to this meeting, but also a creature bent on destroying everything. In the end, everything turns to white as the universe appears to be ending.

POWER GIRL #12 by Leah Williams and Travis Moore. Power Girl goes on a date to Valhalla with Axel, where they first meet Ratatosk and then Siegfried, who is Axel’s cousin. Later, they all eat in the great hall of fallen heroes before the pair go off together, where they share a kiss. Axel works for Asgard, collecting and protecting relics that could be dangerous to the mortal realm. The pair end up at Charnel House where Axel directs Power Girl to the Mirror of Mimir, telling her she can ask it anything. She asks it to show her what Omen is up to and she sees a horrible sight that seems to say Omen is a time-bomb ready to explode..

SHAZAM #14 by Josie Campbell and Emanuella Lupacchino. Freddy tells his captors he wants to parley while Billy, Mary and Uncle Dudley try to sort things out. A creature attacks and The Captain wants to be freed but Billy says he cannot trust him. Hoppy creates a portal that sends Dudley and Billy away. Mary does her best but cannot stop the creature. The Captain begs Billy to free him but he still refuses Meanwhile, Freddy enjoys a meal with his captors before discovering they are part of an underground race bent on conquering the surface world. He gets transported away and meets with the girl who opened the portal to King Kull in the first place and she asks him if he knows how to make a ghost, preparing to show him. Billy and Dudley see a child on the train tracks and try to help him but that leads them to a doorway that takes him to a field where the boy is. The boy is in a panic and tells Billy that the end of the world is here as it is now the Time of the Monsters.

SUPERMAN #17 by Joshua Williamson and Jamal Campbell. An ABSOLUTE POWER tie-in. In the past, Superboy is being beaten up by someone named Kid Warlock. In the present, Superman and Zatanna are in the abandoned headquarters of Justice League Dark, in search of the Map of Mordru. They continue to search, looking for Swamp Thing but find task force members trying to burn down the Parliament of Trees. They They find a short story written by the Queen of Fables and that allows them access to the Oblivion Bar. While there, Superman berates the magic users for hiding out and not helping, which once again brings him into conflict with Kid Warlock, defeating him this time. Again, he insists that someone needs to help and the person who volunteers is…Neron. Elsewhere, Lois, wearing one of Lex’s suits, has hidden Jimmy, Mercy and Lena in Lena’s apartment. But that could be problematic as the task force can probably track the suit.

TITANS #14 by Tom Taylor and Lucas Meyer. Cyborg and Nightwing reveal what they have discovered, showing the rest of the core team that raven is not who they once knew. That results in the arrival of The Spectre along with her brothers, who are determined to stop the dark-winged queen. As The Spectre leaves, the Titans rush off to get to Raven before The Spectre does. But they are late and raven absorbs her brothers, saying she just needs one more piece. As Gar tries to talks sense into raven, The Spectre arrives and splits her in half . But she puts herself back together again and dispatches The Spectre, growing in size and now becoming the unleashed darked-winged queen. Swamp Thing arrives and claims the Green is in pain, If that were not enough, Trigon arrives and teams up with his daughter, leading the Titans to say they need reinforcement from every hero.

WONDER WOMAN #12 by Tom King, Tony S. Daniel, and Belen Ortega. An ABSOLUTE POWER tie-in. Damian and Wonder Woman have captured Captain Boomerang and they repeatedly try their best to convince him to give up Waller’s secret prison, with Wonder Woman preaching love and kindness and Damian using fear tactics. They take him to meet with his son, thinking that reunion will soften Boomerang up but all that does is further the wall between them as Boomerang figures out that his son only did this to get some release time out of prison. Finally, in a moment of forgetfulness, Boomerang reveals the location as Gamorra Island. In the backup, the trio of future heroes spend an agonizing 73 days on their way to stop the Mongol of Infinite Earths. When they finally arrive, they take him out in quick fashion and realize that it will now be an agonizing 94 days heading home, leading them to ponder if they should wake Mongol and continue to beat him up.

ZERO HOUR 40^TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL #1 by Dan Jurgens, Ron Marz, Darryl Banks, Kelley Jones, Tom Grummett, Norm Rapmund, Jerry Ordway, Paul Pelletier, Howard Porter, and Brett Breeding.  While Wally West begs for help from his friend Kyle Rayner, Kyle gets sucked into a portal that takes him to Earth…but not the Earth he knew. Along the way, he meets alternate versions of The Flash, who dies in Kyle’s arms, Batgirl, an wheelchair bound older Bruce Wayne, Supergirl, Azrael, and The Ray: all of whom think he murdered The Flash. Meanwhile, The Fatal Five, having escaped from their world destruction, have teamed up with Parallax, who has made this pocket universe after he was defeated by Earth’s heroes following the destruction of Coast City. Ultimately, Donna Troy believes everything Kyle is saying and that leads to the heroes joining together against Parallax and the Fatal Five. Invisible Kid and Waverider arrive and Waverider explains that this place should never exist and takes Kyle back to his Earth, even as this Universe dissolves, but not before Donna gives him a memento to remember her by. Wracked by guilt, Kyle moves on, even as it appears the real Parallax has managed to escape the destruction.