DC UNIVERSE Month 94, Part 1

ABSOLUTE BATMAN #14 by Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta. Waylon and Bruce are in a lab and a doctor tells Bruce there is only two doses of venom in his system. Meanwhile, Mayor Hill goes out on television and says that Batman is a terrorist while also denying there are monsters under Gotham and calling off the big fight, although Bullock gets ba call telling him to keep people away as it is still on. Bane is also preparing for the fight as Doctor Arkham tell him that Batman has at least one more dose within him. With Harley streaming the fight, Batman and Bane battle, with Batman using projectiles in the fight to weaken Bane, who continues to fight as he grows larger due to Arkham pumping venom into him. The fight is vicious, with Batman pulling out one of Bane’s eyes. Waylon is released into the fight, both distracting bane and taking a beating in the process, with Bruce severing Bane’s spine to save his friend. Batman orders Selina to take a shot with the venom but the shot goes into Bane, filling him with so much venom that he explodes in a puddle of goo that Batman dumps into the sea. In the end, Selina leaves Gotham, but takes a vial of venom with her. What is left of Bane floats in stasis when he is visited by a video of Joker, telling him this is a setback and now Bane can retire.

ABSOLUTE FLASH #9 by Jeff Lemire and Nick Robles. While Wally has an outer body conversation with Barry, the Rogues try to convince Wally to join them in their plan to find Wally’s father, confront Thawne and stop Project Olympus. Although he is filled with concern, Wally agrees. Thawne tells Rudy West she is expecting the Rogues and they will all die, but Wally is the key to her interdimensional machine and that of Olympus. Enroute to Olympus, Wally is plagued by visions and Jesse betrays the team, telling Thawne the package is secured, which leads to Thawne blowing up their ship. Jesse and Wally are together and Grodd saves the others who work together to survive, leading to Wally defeating Jesse. The team continues on their journey even as Thawne reveals that Barry built the doorway and Wally will help her to open it.

ABSOLUTE GREEN LANTERN #8 by Al Ewing and Jahnoy Lindsay. Sojourner Mullen’s story before the events in Evergreen are related. Her father moves her to Evergreen as a young child and she grows up influenced by her friend Harold, with the assumption that Harold is actually Hal Jordan. She eventually becomes an officer on the Evergreen Police Department where she meets Renee Montoya, who she eventually shares a very brief kiss with. When she discovers corruption in the department and the chief is willing to slide it under the rug, she quits and moves to Coast City. One night, in a gay bar, she meets Cameron Chase and starts a relationship with. Because of the responsibilities of Chase’s job, Sojourner is ready to end the relationship when Cameron proposes, leading to their marriage. Sometime later, a chance meeting between Mullen and Montoya leads to a relationship between them. When Mullen confesses, the marriage ends. In the present, Mullen has brought an injured Hal to her ex-wife’s door.

ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #13 by Jason Aaron and Rafa Sandoval. It is six weeks after Lazarus rolled into Smallville and Superman, suffering from previous encounters, is having Sol make any decisions while strengthening the town. In response, Lazarus builds a concentration camp to house citizens even as the resistance sets up a radio network to get the word out to the citizens, while they are hiding themselves in tunnels dug out by Superman. At the same time, the mail carrier for the Kents reveals he was the person who outed Superman, who rebuffs him and refuses to forgives the man. Meanwhile, Ra’s and Talia are utilizing Father Box to develop new weapons containing Kryptonite. Brainiac uses his psychic abilities to disable Sol. Ra’s and Talia attack, capturing Superman’s friends, with Ra’s demanding that Kal-El accept his position as Ra’s son.

ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #14 by Kelly Thompson and Matais Bergara. Diana faces off against the entity in Delphi with no positive results. She then is visited by a vision and she links her magic to Diana, possibly cursing her in the process. Back at the Heiron, Diana reveals that the only way she can defeat this extension of herself is to die. Back in battle, she does indeed die but has a conversation with Gaia, who ultimately agrees to help her. The entity is defeated thanks to Gaia herself. While talking with Steve, they hear a broadcast from Gotham saying that a burning symbol was found near the body of a murder victim and Diana recognizes it as the Mark of Hecate.

ACTION COMICS #1092 by Mark Waid and Cian Tormey. Superboy still finds himself adjusting to his powers and rescuing people in both Smallville and around the world. All seems to go well except for one instance when he saves a blind woman who does not speak English, which leads to outrage from civilians who do not understand. He also finds himself struggling, as Clark, with his attraction to Lana, who only has eyes for Superboy. Smallville is suffering as families are disappearing and farms are facing foreclosures. General Lane and his men roll into town to apprehend Superboy and Lana asks him to go with them to keep the peace. But the townsfolk rally behind him, leading to he and Lane sitting down for a conversation where Superboy agrees to work with them as long as it does not involve anything illegal or unethical and they leave Smallville alone. Unbeknownst to him, a mysterious item in the Metropolis Science Museum is seeking him out.

ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN: BOOK OF EL #3 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Scott Godlewski. Inside the Fortress, Superman and Ronan battle Brainiac and his forces. Superman says that Kryl-Ux brought him here but is told that Kry-Ux fears Superman and has been waiting for this and now will destroy the planet. Meanwhile, Jimmy is trying to save the records when he is confronted by the Summer Men. Jimmy survives their attack and transforms into a giant turtle. Ronan arrives to assist Superman and they cause Brainiac to shut down, but not before he says that he has seen every Multiversal reality and Ronan fails in all of them. That night, Superman prepares to travel back in time to stop everything that has happened but Jimmy tells him that the twins are gone and if Superman goes back in time he will never find where they were taken by Kril-Ux. They soon are visited by a vision of Kril-Ux telling them he has gathered four of the God-Aspects of Olgrun and orders Superman to find the other three if he ever has a chance of seeing the twins again. A portion of Lois’ diary reveals that she traveled to Oa after Clark and the twins disappeared where she ate a solar empyrean seed to give her temporary powers and that Jimmy ate the other, which reacted to his previous time as Turtle Boy.

AQUAMAN #11 by Jeremy Adams and Nimit Malavia. Garth manages to open a portal, allowing escape from Atlantis but there is only room for one to leave and that is Mera. Meanwhile, Aquaman and Justice League Blue go to a cruise ship that is being attacked by Parademons. After saving the people on the cruise, the team goes underwater to find the Deep Six trying to replicate the firepits of Apokolips, leading to Aquaman unleashing his new powers on them and shutting down their operation. Meanwhile, Mera returns to Xebel, where she meets with Nereus.

BATGIRL #13 by Tate Brombal and Takeshi Miyazawa. Cass is still troubled and haunted by the people in her life who have died. Along with Jade Tiger and Angel Breaker, who is trying to rekindle her romantic relationship with Nyssa, head off to take on the Unburied. Disguised, they head into a tunnel where Batgirl sees that Samsara belonged to The Unburied and that Nyssa has lied to them. She is filled with mixed feelings and, when Kaldeen arrives, Jade Tiger is ready to act.

BATMAN #3 by Matt Fraction and Jorge Jimenez. While working on a school project, Huston Gray stumbles upon a crime scene where Vandal Savage is planting evidence implicating Batman in the death of the police officer in the previous issue and captures it on his phone, leading him to meet with newspaperman Jack Dean. While many of the officers are in the hospital following those events, Savage bullies one of them into implicating Batman. At the same time, with Bruce visiting an injured Tim, Bernard arrives, basically telling Bruce that the relationship Bruce has with Tim is borderline abusive. Later, at a Wayne Enterprises meeting, Bruce rejects the idea of creations being used for the military and refuses to have his family name put on any of it. Later, batman meets with Gordon and Bullock who inform Batman that Savage has issued “shoot to kill” orders. The Bat visits The Riddler who is in a state of mania, forcing Batman to sedate him. Thanks to the help of a ghostly Alfred, he deduces that Nygma was trying to tell him that Dr. has been using his experimental brain device on Arkham inmates.

BATMAN #162 by Geof Loeb, Jim Lee, and Scott Williams. Batman is confronted by the rest of the Bat Family and is forced to inject Barbara, paralyzing her and bringing back unpleasant memories. As he flees, he is confronted by Selina and the two have a long chat, with her saying all she wants is what is best for him. Midway through the conversation, he is lassoed by Damian, who drags him through the streets of Gotham until they encounter The Riddler, who immediately begins to pummel Batman until the Dark Knight shocks him with electricity. He talks with Nygma and this sends Batman back to Dick and Barbara, just as Hush arrive and shoots at them, with them getting saved by The Huntress. Batman arrives and finds himself in a confrontation with Jason. When Batman goes to leave, Nightwing demands he stop but Batman gets in the Batmobile and an explosion is triggered, meaning he has saved them. Unfortunately, it has dropped him below the surface and right in the clutches of the villains, including The Joker.

BATMAN AND ROBIN #27 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Fico Ossio. Batman and Robin find themselves in the middle of the fight between The Penguin, Two-Face, and The Quiet Man, who is upset that Batman is risking Robin’s life during all of this. He saves Robin and flees, allowing Robin to save Batman who has been buried beneath of pile of fallen metal. Batman calls Simone Blair, who is taking care of Arnold Wesker. Wesker has had his memory erased and has no memory of his time as The Ventriloquist. Bruce decides not to do a training session, as he has invited Clark and Jon to the house. Jon and Damian go out for food from Mojo’s, which ends up with them hanging out with some kids in Robinson Park. Bruce asks Clark how he manages to handle having a child, having concerns he is not raising him right. In the end, Penguin and Two-Face show up at Blair’s business because they have business with Wesker.

BATMAN/STATIC: BEYOND #1 by Evan Narcisse and Nikolas Draper-Ivey. In the future, an adult Static talks about going from a Physics student to being a part of an intergalactic alliance. Together with Batman, Superman, Icon, Warhawk and the members of the League test a superluminal spacecraft, but are ambushed by the Khunds in the process, but get help from Green Lantern. Later, in Neo-Gotham, a student protest over the Q-Grid power station gets violent as the Jokerz arrive, leading to Terry and his teammates intervening. One of the Jokerz fires a bazooka and that may have cost Terry’s friend Melvin his life.

BATMAN/SUPERMAN: WORLD’S FINEST #45 by Mark Waid and Adrian Gutierrez. Bruce and Clark are watching a football game when Clark hears an alarm from S.T.A.R. Labs where they have been developing an artificial neuroenhancer. As the heroes arrive, Luthor disappears, having been taken away from the scene courtesy of a dematerializer developed by The Joker. In his lair, The joker shows him the object of what he wants to possess: the Absorbacon, which he claims provides the key to infinite knowledge. They make their way to Midway City and break into the museum, bringing them into direct contact with Hawkman. Batman and Superman arrive and Lex brings the roof down, allowing the villains to escape. But they continue to fight over the Absorbacon and fall to the ground below, resulting in a huge explosion. When the dust clears, the two villains have merged and are now dematerialized, meaning they cannot be touched, now or ever.

BIRDS OF PREY #27 by Kelly Thompson and Sami Basri. The team make their way into The Seam and Batgirl heads to the Unreality Building and visits Vivi, telling her that she needs to stop the game because of the super-villain threat. Vivi explains that her twin sister was taken many years ago and she has been looking for the entrance to the seam to find her ever since. The rest of the team enters the game again and battles with the Shadow Army, even as Oracle is betrayed by Inque. During the battle, Sin is shot with an arrow and falls.

CATWOMAN #81 by Torunn Gronbekk and Danilo Beyruth. At the ball, Selina finally gets to meet The Goddess. Later, she is confronted by Aldo, who threatens to kill her but she fights back and subdues him, even wile asking why Carmine is looking to sell the pearl. In the end, a meeting between Zervas and Carmine could be foreshadowing of what is to come as carmine appears to have a plan.

CHEETAH & CHESHIRE ROB THE JUSTICE LEAGUE #4 by Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott. The team continues to plan their heist with Jade benching Cheetah because Wonder Woman is the Officer of the Watch, leading to Lian offering to step in instead. Meanwhile, Hazard and Klarion head to Baja where she uses her power to trigger a small crack on the fault line before heading to the Beaver Valley nuclear plant. L:ian transport up with a membership card saying she is Lian but the card identifies her as Sideways, leading to the Justice Leaguer’s having their suspicions. When the Challengers open an arriving craft, rats come flooding out, along with Cheetah, who has stowed away on it, but gets discovered by Wonder Woman.

DC K.O. #2 by Scott Snyder, Joshua Williamson, Javi Fernandez, and Xermanico. In a flashback,  Clark, Bruce, Lois and Diana are playing a game where they each have to pick what they would be if they didn’t have their current roles. In the present, the 32 champions are tasked to hunt one of 16 powerful artifacts, including such items as the God Killer Sword, Lantern rings, the Lasso of Truth and a mystery item. Wonder Woman battles Etrigan for Atom’s belt when The Joker arrives, seemingly killing Etrigan. Plastic Man and Metamorpho fight over the God Killer Sword with Metamorpho using his powers to melt Plastic Man. Lex battles Superman, skewering him  with Kryptonite shards. Starro is able to control Aquaman, Wonder Woman and others to grab the remaining artifacts but Zatanna uses magic to fight back. As heroes and villains alike fight for the items, Luthor grabs a Black Lantern ring and reanimates the corpses of the gods Darkseid had killed. Superman deduces that the mystery item is the Omega Sanction, which he claims and uses to kill the reanimated elder gods. The Heart of Apokolips announces the first round is over as all items have been claimed. Of the 32 combatants, there are now only 16 left; pairing as follows: Superman vs. Captain Atom, Guy Gardner vs. Jay Garrick, Aquaman vs. Hawkman, Luthor vs. Etrigan, Wonder Woman vs. Lobo, Swamp Thing vs. Cyborg, The Joker vs. Red Hood, Zatanna vs. Harley Quinn. On the Watchtower, Darkseid steps into the arena as he has taken over Booster Gold.

DC K.O. KNIGHTFIGHT #1 by Joshua Williamson and Dan Mora.  After the events in DC K.O., Batman is resurrected in a future Gotham where the city is filled with Robins: all of whom have been trained by Dick Grayson, who has become Batman. Bruce is labeled ‘The Bat Who Fell’ and finds himself hunted by the Robins. Dick shows him the Bat-Tower and reveals that the heroes have banded together for a new Gotham; even as Bruce wonders who won the tournament. Eventually, Bruce confronts Dick, who reveals that his mentor’s obsession about being Batman led to Gotham’s downfall. The two fight and Dick reveals that Damian, Tim, and Jason are not around because irt was Bruce who killed them.

DETECTIVE COMICS #1103 by Tom Taylor and Mikel Janin. Batman is still suffering from the effects of the virus as Superman rescues him from the Batplane. Batman insists he needs to go to Metropolis and meet with lois while he sends Superman to the destroyed mountain base of The Lion in Kasnia. He asks Lois to help him get into S.T.A.R. Labs to investigate their connection to The Lion. She meets with Dr. Lee, inquiring about the recent spate of deaths and Lee explains this was all a part of Project Courage. Lois and Batman go to meet with the last survivor of the project, only to find that Intergang has him.. Batman defeats Intergang but the doctor flees out the window, being rescued by Batman before he can die. They interrogate him and learn there is a cure if they can find it. Meanwhile, Scarecrow has been taken by The Lion and that may be just what he has in mind to lead to a confrontation with Batman.

THE FLASH #27 by Mark Waid, Christopher Cantwell and Vasco Georgiev. Impulse is in the hands of the Legion of Darkseid and Max Mercury. Bart flees and Wally, seeing this, gives chase, only to find himself embroiled in a battle with Max and the Legion. Bart ends up in Siberia and is briefly taken down by XS before the pair fight on the Trans-Siberian Express. Wally arrives, finding that Bart refuses to fight this version of his cousin. The rest of the League arrives and the speedsters now have to save the train and everyone on it while the villains escape.

GOTHAM ACADEMY: FIRST YEAR #2 by Brendan Fletcher, Becky Cloonan, Karl Kerschl, and Marco Ferrari. Olive continues to try and fit in at Gotham Academy, helping a student named Heathcliff with his studies and striking up a friendship while also becoming closer to Kyle. They eventually kiss and she spends a weekend at his family’s home, where she meets his sister Mia. Mia takes to her room and show off her fascination with all things maps; a foreshadowing of her future nickname.. Later, Olive goes to visit her mother and finds the staff in a panic as Scarecrow has gotten loose. As she makes her way through the prison, encountering Clayface and Mr. Freeze in the process,  When she finally gets to her mother, she is met with angry comments. The Scarecrowd comes upon her and asks her to help him get out so they can help her mother while also hoping to blow up the prison in the process.

GREEN ARROW #30 by Chris Condon and Montos. Ollie faces off with Vraney, who reveals he has managed to cheat death several times and remade himself each time. Ollie fires an explosive arrow that hits the chemical tank, causing a huge explosion. Lian and Roy see it and race to the scene where Green Arrow is evacuating the injured workers. A helicopter arrives to help Vraney escape but Arrow and his partners thwart that. As they all battle, Vraney takes the worst of it; being peppered with arrows. As he goes to stand one ast time, he falls off the rooftop; presumably to his death.

GREEN LANTERN #29 by Jeremy Adams and Carmine Di Giandomemico. Hal is finding it hard to deal with some of what he has learned of late, thanks to the Book of Oa, and that leads him to teaming up with his old partner Green Arrow. Arrow relates how a company called Omega Construction has been properties around their headquarters as of late. It’s a company that didn’t exist until Darkseid exploded in the ALL IN SPECIAL. The heroes go to the corporate offices and discover X-Tingency: a metanoid that has been tasked ith protecting the building as it became aware last year of the pending crisis and the building is a state of the art survival bunker.  They get attacked by a giant robot tasked with killing them. The pair team up and thanks to a giant bow and arrow construct defeat the robot. In the end, X-Tingency ends up at The Watchtower and Hal heads off to meet with someone who might help him unravel the thoughts in his head, meaning he is off to Gotham City..