DC UNIVERSE Month 3, Part 1

ACTION COMICS #997 by Dan Jurgens and Brett Booth. Superman and Booster Gold are trapped in an alternate timeline where they find themselves battling Zod, along with his wife and son, along with the Eradicator. Our heroes get captured and are about to be executed by Zod and company. To make matters worse, Zod destroys Skeets. Meanwhile, Lois finds herself in Logamba, where she is trying to free her father. Just as it looks as if she is going to be shot, she discovers she has a Guardian Angel with her in the form of her son, Jon. Arriving at where her father is held, there is a first time reunion between child and grandfather. Freeing General Lane, they ll make their escape, only to be trapped by Logamban troops who apparently kill the General and his daughter.

ACTION COMICS #998 by Dan Jurgens and Will Conrad. As Zod and his family are bout to burn Superman and Booster Gold to death with his heat vision, we find out that Skeets has been able to make his way into one of the Eradicator and saves them. They make their escape through the Time Sphere and head back to the past, to make sure this future never happens. Along the way, Superman convinces Booster to let him go to the destruction of Krypton, to prove that Mr. Oz is really his father. He sees the rocket carrying himself jet off the planet, watches his mother die and sees Jor-El be taken by the blue light. Back in the present, Superman goes off to find Lois and Jon, when Booster finds out that Lois and her father have been killed in Logamba. Booster alters time, which is totally against the rules, to save their lives before they are killed.

AQUAMAN #33 by Dan Abnett, Rick Leonardi  and Riccardo Federici. Aquaman and Undercurrent make their way into the palace in an effort to destroy the Crown of Thorns. King Shark joins the fray and helps the group succeed. Meanwhile, Sister Cetea makes Mera the Queen of Atlantis, followed by Aquaman bring her to the surface before she drowns.. With Tula caring for her, he heads back to the sea to take care of Corum Rath once and for all.

BANE CONQUEST #9 by Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan. Bane continues to recruit members for his new team, in an effort to recapture the future Kobra leader from the villains. After building his team, by any means necessary, they head to Jakarta, where they capture one of Kobra’s members, who gives up the information the team needs.

BATGIRL #20 by Hope Larson and Sam Basri.  Barbara uses her eidetic memory to make her way to Qadir, who has been beaten up and someone has stolen his Trust Ray, which allows people to be compromised to think what the user wants them to. Looking at a recording, she finds out that it’s Ethan Cobblepot, who stole the machine to help The Penguin in his run for Congress. She tracks the villain down, defeating him and destroying The Penguin’s stolen device. In the end, she decides she needs a change, because she is not a kid anymore.

BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY #19 by Julie Benson, Shawna Benson and Roge Antonio. The Birds continue their war against Gotham’s criminal element, eventually crossing paths with a robot named Burnrate, that is bent on finding out who Oracle is for his master. Fleeing the villain, they end up at Gus’ house, only to find that Burnrate has beaten him to near death because he won’t reveal Oracle’s secret. They defeat the robot, but at the cost of Gus’ life. Barbara decides to give up her career as Oracle while The Calculator, the master behind Burnrate, observes Huntress as she goes to prison and visits her mother.

BATMAN #40 by Tom King and Joelle Jones. Catwoman demands that The Gentle Man brings back Wonder Woman and Batman, which he agrees to do, but not until he has had a chance to visit his wife. At truce and Diana have spent decades fighting the enemy on The Gentle Man’s world. The Gentle Man gets to have a tearful reunion with his wife, before opening the gate and changing places again. But she reminds him that the next time this happens, it will be Catwoman and Batman making the trip.

BATMAN #41 by Tom King and Mikel Janin. Bruce wakes from a dream about

Poison Ivy and it seems Selina is having the same dream. He knocks out Alfred, who is infected, and heads to the Batcave, where he inoculates himself and Selina. They both ass out and, when they wake, they’re in bed, in their costumes and are told by a possessed Alfred, that she has taken over the world by tapping into the Green. In the end, she tells them that she knows everything about everything and Batman and Catwoman are the last defense for the planet.

BATMAN AND THE SIGNAL #2 by Scott Snyder, Tony Patrick and Cully Hamner. Duke is getting beat-up at Arkham Juvenile Center until Detective Aisi arrves, aong with a silent signal sent to the teens by the mysterious person in charge of them. Duke does a vanishing act and ends up at The Hatch, where Riko quits. This is all observedby the mysterious person, who is disappointed that he is siding with Batman instead of himself, since he has set everything in motion. Detective Aisi tells Duke that they found a piece of Nth Metal in one of the Afkham teens , which sends Duke to visit Batman. It seems the Bruce Wayne housing project has a bunch of sdolsr panels and the powers of the sun is activating powers in everyone in the Narrows…and not in a good way.

BATMAN BEYOND #17 by Dan Jurgens and Phil Hester. Terry manages to avoid his unmasking by Striker, while his brother considers donning the Robin costume to go help him. Ten, who is the person that stole the picture of Terry from Wayne Manor, dons her costume and heads off to help Batman. Payback, the villain who hired Stalker in the first place, arrives and is done with Stalker, cutting off his legs in the process. Batman saves Stalker, but Payback launches a bomb at them, while he kidnaps Ten and blows up the skyscraper that Batman and Stalker are in.

BATWOMAN #12 by Marguerite Bennett and Scott Godlewski. Batwoman is on her way to Safiyah’s island of Coryana, to confront her former lover. In flashback, we learn that Safiyah has deduced that Rogue Warloard Maksim is responsible for the sickness that is affecting the creatures on the island. She has him captured and tried, but sends him away. The other warlords are waiting for him and they kill him. Later, Kate learns that she is actually the person who was responsible for bringing the bacteria to the island which was killing the creatures. Kate tries to leave, but Tahani is sent to keep her on the island. The air battle inside the lighthouse, which catches fire and explodes, allowing Kate and the others to escape the conflagration. Back in the present, Kate prepares to meet her former lover.

BLACK LIGHTNING: COLD DEAD HANDS #4 by Tony Isabella and Clayton Henry. Black Lightning continues his fight against White Thunder, while the police are protecting the kids and the entire neighborhood is under siege. Meanwhile, as the town watches what is happening on television, Jefferson’s daughters are experimenting with their newfound powers. Jefferson is captured and arrested, but one of the officers allows him to escape. Tobias has his assistant Miss Pequod use the alien gun to eliminate some loose ends, deciding he is going to take on Lightning by himself.

BLUE BEETLE #18 by Christopher Sebela and Scott Kolins. Jaime’s life has been in the toilet since he and Naomi broke up. But she reaches out to him and gives him one last chance. Before his date that night, Ted Kord invites him to the facility to show him his newest experiment, which goes amok and they end up fighting a A.I. that doesn’t want to be replaced. Jaime manages to come up with a solution which shuts the A.I. down. And he makes it to his date in time. The End.

CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE/SWAMP THING SPECIAL #1 by Jon Rivera and Langdon Foss. MILK WARS Part 4. Because of Retconn’s milk, Cave Carson, along with his daughter and Wild Dog, end up working in an office complex filled with endless cubicles. During a break, the milk causes Cave to vomit green gunk everywhere, which turns out to be Swamp Thing. He makes Chloe and Wild Dog do the same and explains that he managed to hide in Cave’s stomach, while Cave’s cybernetic eye went into hiding. The eye reveals that Retconn is changing history, even going as far as to make over the story of Christ. They make their way to the Human Resources department, where they find that humans are being stored and their minds are being harvested by Retconn. As the Retconn folks arrive to capture them, Cave orders Swam Thing to take Jack and Chloe away, leaving himself to surrender. The back-up, by Magdelene Visaggo and Sonny Liew, is a further reboot of ALPHA 13, which features a character who will reappear soon as ETERNITY GIRL.

DAMAGE #2 by Tony S. Daniel and Robert Venditti. We begin by seeing Ethan’s first mission as Damage. When Ethan wakes up, he finds himself in a homeless shelter where he ended up being taken after being found when he transformed back. As Damage, he has laid waste to a town. Ethan leaves to call his parents, but that just leads to him being found by Deadshot and the Suicide Squad. He transforms into Damage and takes the team apart. Luckily Wonder Woman shows up at the end, promising she will take him down.

DARK KNIGHTS RISING: THE WILD HUNT #1 by Scott Snyder, Grant Morrison, James Tynion IV, Joshus Williamson, Howard Porter, Jorge Jimenez, Doug Mahnke and Jamie Mendoza. Detective Chimp began life as a chimp in a circus, who was abused by his captors. Then he was cared for by a man named Fred, who was killed by the men. Chimp ran away and ended up gaining the powers of intelligence and speech. In the present, Chimp is with Will Magnus, the Metal Men, and the conclave of evil geniuses on Blackhawk Island, as they try to figure out how to stop the threat from the Dark Multiverse. Meanwhile, Flash and his team ae journeying through the Multiversal Bleed as they too are trying to stop the evil. The Dark Multiverse villains catch up with the ship and prepare to board it, leading to a battle between the heroes and the villains. Flash manages to use the Speed Force to transform the Dark Flash, who realizes that he is fighting for the wrong side and teams up with Flash. Red Death buys the team time to escape and it costs him his life. The team decides to use their ship to ram the Dark Multiverse vessel and destroy it. Back on Blackhawk Island, T.O. Morrow opens the door and Red Tornado is also awakened, revealing that his awakening means the end of the world. Detective Chimp has a revelation and the ape creatures from another Multiversal world convince him to team up with the heroes and save the world.

DEATHSTROKE #28 by Christopher Priest and Diogenes Neves. After a future vignette concerning the Hmong sword, we see Deathstroke back in the present-back in his familiar garb. Devestated by Tanya's apparent suicide, he has gone back to his old ways. Jericho is still trying to figure out who killed Etienne while Wintergreen confronts Slade and announces that he is trough with all this and promptly quits. Willow, who is in the company of a transformed Isherwood, learns that she is really Rose and then discovers that she is the person who killed Etienne-or at least her Willow personality did. After getting in to it with Kong Kenan, Slade apologizes to Tara for taking advantage of her as a teen. It’s a good thing that got patched up, as now they have to deal with The Forgotten.

THE DEMON HELL IS EARTH #4 by Andrew Constant and Brad Walker. The team continues their journey through the Hellscape. Etrigan eats a giant snake while Madame Xanadu and Jason talk about the relationship that went source during DEMON KNIGHTS. It’s also revealed that the split-up Jason/Etrigan can only be less than 100 feet apart from each other. Hey finally reach the center of the demon invasion and things look really bad for planet Earth.

DETECTIVE COMICS #974 by James Tynion IV and Philippe Briones. Clayface is dead and Batwoman is to blame. Batman, Robin and Orphan confront her and batman removes her symbol off her chest and fires her, which may result in Azrael and Batwing joining her in her departure. Three days later, Glory Griffin is administered the cure which transforms her from being Mudface back to her old self. This was Basil’s parting gift. Back at Ronin’s Nest, Stephanie breaks up with Tim. Meanwhile, Kate recuperates at her father’s place and he has decided it is time for her to fight on her own and alongside him. In the end, it looks like Ulysses Armstrong’s plan to cause havoc and make sure the future timeline falls into place is proceeding right along.

DETECTIVE COMICS #975  by James Tynion and Alvaro Martinez. After a flashback shows a young Kate and Bruce at her mother’s funeral, we move to the present where Batman has brought most of the family together to discuss what to do about Batwoman. Batgirl arrives, accusing Batman of starting the program to keep Kate from going don the wrong path and be more like him. Meanwhile, Kate is taking down Gorilla Boss with the help of Luke. Kate later visits her mother’s grave and says she killed Clayface to save Cassandra, who she deeply cares for. Her father arrives and she decides to join his team.

DOOM PATROL/JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA SPECIAL #1  by Steve Orlando, Gerard Way, Dale Eaglesham, and Nick Derington. MILK WARS Part Five. Milkman Man is torturing Cave Carson until the Justice League, along with the Doom Patrol, arrive to combat him. Because of all this, the Retconn deal goes bad and one of the powers that be decides to eradicate the universe. In the process, Casey consoles her son, Milkman Man and Rita Farr breaks free of her prison. In he end, the universe is restored, Rita is back with Doom Patrol and Cliff Steele becomes human again.

THE FLASH #40 by Joshua Williamson and Carmine Di Giandomenico. Grodd is dying and he wants the Speed Force to be drained from Barry to save his life. Raijin attacks and Barry orders Kid Flash and Avery away. Grodd tells Barry that he is nothing without being The Flash and it turns out that Meena ends up being the one to rip the Speed Force from our hero. Our Wally arrives to rescue a now powerless Flash, who turns over the job of the Scarlet Speedster to him.

THE FLASH #41 by Joshua Williamson and Carlos D'Anda. As Lord Grodd looks over the kingdom he has built for himself in Central City, Barry tries to figure out how to deal with being powerless. He looks at Grodd's Lightning Rod as a way back, but also tells the Flash team that they must evacuate everyone in Central City or they will all die. While Wally works on the evacuation, Kid Flash and Avery go off to save Meena. Wally sees a frozen Iris but, before he can act, is attacked by Raijin and Multiplex. He realizes he must go an protect Barry, but Barry has gone to Iron Heights to free Godspeed.

GREEN ARROW #37 by Benjamin Percy and Juan Ferreyra. Emi has been mortally wounded and Ollie and company prepare to face of against the remains of the Ninth Circle. Emi fights for her life as her mother faces off against Ollie’s mom, ending with them falling into a flaming pit together. Just as Merlyn is about to kill Dinah, Diggle arrives to save the day. With Emi recuperating, and Diggle back as part of Team Arrow, Ollie prepares for trial. Meanwhile, Detective Ros is prepared to kill Ramsey, but her lawyer arrives and eliminates the threat by sinking a knife in the Detective’s head.

GREEN LANTERNS #40 by Tim Seeley and Barnaby Bagenda. Jess and Simon help Firestorm, Blue Beetle and Ms. Bulleteer save folks from a hurricane. Ms. Bulleteer mentions that she is concerned about Night Pilot, who is missing. This leads our heroes to the Watchtower, where they learn that may heroes have gone missing after using a dating app. Called Caper. Along the way, they meet up with one of the Omega Men and we learn that all of these missing heroes have been placed into a massive space dungeon.

GREEN LANTERNS #41 by Tim Seeley, Barnaby Bagenda, and Tom Derenick. While Jessica bemoans the fact that she is matched up to Simon on the Caper dating app, they, along with Scrapps, head to Garnet to meet with Scrapp’s tech buyer. Even though the Lanterns are in disguise, that soon goes awry, and the Lanterns end up in a fight. They catch up with the tech dealers, who agree to change information for pictures of them with the Lanterns beat up, so they can post and boast on their social media. In the end, the information leads the Lanterns to the Order of the Steed, where they are trying to convert Night Pilot to their way of thinking.

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #38 by Robert Vendetti and Ethan Van Sciver. Hal and Kyle have been imprisoned by Zod and company, leaving The Eradicator to try and crack the secret of the rings. Hal discovers that his ring, which he created is still connected to him, and he calls it to him, which rips through the Eradicator’s head in the process. The Lanterns fly off to free Zod’s slaves, only to discover they are actually followers of Zod. Hal give Kyle his power ring and sends him off to get the rest of the Corps.

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #39 by Robert Vendetti and Rafa Sandoval. Zod still has Hal Jordan tied up while Kyle, juiced up do the Hal’s ring and despite having life threatening injuries. Meanwhile, the Guardians tell John Stewart that they will let him know when they can go save Hal. John is pretty pissed off and the Lanterns go to Jekku anyway.

HARLEY QUINN #37 by Frank Tieri and Mirka Andolfo. Harey has gone to Hell’s Kitchen where she plans on being a hero for hire. Her intentions are good but her execution tends to leave a bit to be desired, as she leaves destruction in her wake. Meanwhile, The Penguin continues to gather his army of villains to take Harley out of the game permanently.

HARLEY QUINN #38 by Frank Tieri and Mirka Andolfo. Penguin’s gang of villains attack Coney Island, leading the Gang of Harley’s to defend the place. Villains include Condiment King, Mr. Freeze, King Tut, Film Freak, Ratcatcher, Johnny Karaoke, Zebra Man, and Egghead. Meanwhile, Killer Moth has a run-in with Killer Croc, who declares that all of Coney belongs to him now. Harley faces of with the Gorilla Gang and helps save Hell’s Kitchen. Spoondale sends her off on a new mission, which means she doesn’t get the message from Coach requesting help at Coney Island.

THE HELLBLAZER #19 by Tim Seeley and Davide Fabbri. John is back in London and he’s looking Margaret Ames. When he comes to her flat, he finds out that it has been turned into a portal to Hell. This is because a priest, who is part of a crime organization, has performed an exorcism and swapped her soul with that of his brother. IN the end, it seems the Day brothers have someone else to worry about: The Huntress.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #38 by Christopher Priest and Marco Santucci. While the team tries to figure out how to deal with the problem regarding the Fan, Flash saves an astronaut, almost at the cost of both their lives. Batman makes a decision to leave the team. After a tearful kiss from Jessica, Bruce Wayne leaves the team and puts Cyborg in charge.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #39 by Christopher Priest and Ian Churchill. After a flashback where Aquaman is in the desert and meets w is taking the stand. He is represented by his lawyer, Regina Cole. There is also a quick visit from J’onn J’onzz. Meanwhile, Batman and the JLA are working at a train derailment. J’onn visits the Watchtower and that means the Justice League is off to help the JLA.  While the two teams solve the train problem, social media is exploding with comments of how the Justice League is only about helping the rich. Cyborg transports to the scene and that’s when it’s revealed that Cole is really The Fan in disguise.

DC UNIVERSE Month 2, Part 2

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #22 by Steve Orlando and Neil Edwards. Frost has been cured because she made a wish and Tsaritsa, the Queen of Fables, answers it. Frost passes out, and that frees Tsarita, allowing her to run wild. Frost is at a cross-roads, knowing if she helps the JLA defeat Tsarita, she will end up with her powers again. They all fight, during which Sanctuary is destroyed and it appears Mari is killed. Meanwhile, in Vanity, Ray continues his fight with the Three Devils.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #23 by Steve Orlando and Neil Edwards. Tsaritsa was once the Queen of Fables, until she was turned into a story by use of a spell. This caused her sister Freya to starve herself and that meant Tsarita wants revenge. She sees Frost as the incarnation of her sister and tries to convince her to rule the world together. While Tsaritsa plans to create Immateria, Ray heads to help while Mari regenerates herself thanks to the Red. They all battle Tsarita’s followers, who is then confronted by someone who tells her she must pass through fire first. That person is Promethea.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA/DOOM PATROL SPECIAL #1 by Steve Orlando, Gerard Way, Hugo Petrus and Aco. Part One of MILK WARS. Retconn fires off a missile that turns everyone in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island, including the JLA, into 1950’s characters. This is maintained by a character known as Milkman, who is really a transformed Superman, who provides the residents with mind controlling milk. The Doom Patrol arrives and get into a fight with the JLA, now known as the Community League of Rhode Island, we have some good and weird high-flying action. Retconn explains that superheroes descend from the god of superheroics, Ahl and Superman is a direct descendant. Crazy Jane whips up some art and shows everyone that they are all subjects of comic books. This changes all of the JLA back, except for Siperman, who is revealed to be the child of Casey Brinke and Terry None. Cave Carson arrives and tells the heroes they need to meet with him and Swamp Thing, which will continue the story in CAVE CARSON/SWAMP THING SPECIAL #1. The back-up features the origin of Formless Girl, which feels a lot like the origin of Elastic Girl Rita Farr.

NEW SUPER-MAN #19 by Mariko Tamaki and Brent Peeples. Taking place around issue #7 of this series, it focuses on Laney Lan as she tries to get information from Kenan and Baixi regarding what is going on at the Ministry of Defense, while also dealing with her confusing family life.

NIGHTWING #36 by Sam Humphries and Bernard Chang. Nightwing continues his desperate search for The Judge, who continues to affect the lives of those in Bludhaven with his powers. Meanwhile, The Judge pays a visit to the Mayor, who commits suicide, leaving behind a whole series of revelations regarding corruption and the casinos.

NIGHTWING #37 by Sam Humphries, Klaus Janson, and Jamal Campbell. While Lucy Weatherton deals with the dramas about the casinos in Bludhaven being shut down, we get a flashback to the first days of The Judge. Dick was still Robin and Lucy was a vigilante known as Baby Ruthless. In the present, Guppy is still dealing with his father’s illness and, thanks to The Judge’s casino coin, he may soon eliminate dad…permanently!

RAGMAN #4 by Ray Fawkes and Inaki Miranda. While Etrigan trains Rory to use his powers, Fanshawe and his minions are targeting Frank’s house, where his wife and child are. That leads Ragman to the house where he battles, and slays, some of Fanshawe’s minions. He finds Frank’s wife and asks about his son. It seems that Frank Jr. has been possessed.

RAVEN DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS #1 by Marv Wolfman and Pop Mhan. Raven is hanging with her friends at a bonfire and she reveals some parts of her past: how she was part of a cult with no TV or Internet. Meanwhile, Baron Winters predict that Raven must die, because that’s how it is written. She dreams of a meeting with Trigon and then ends up trying to help a girl known as Azure, who is being hunted. She saves the girl and, after believing the girl is really Trigon, discovers the girl is really someone with a huge head and big eyes. What is the connection between this character, Azar and Trigon?

RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #18 by Scott Lobdell and Sergio Sandoval. Red Hood is taking on the H.I.V.E. Queen and gets some help from Artiemis and Bizarro, even if they are above the whole incident. Bizarro is losing his intelligence and needs more Kryptonite to maintain it, something he is being told by his imaginary Superman creature named Pup-Pup. Jason goes to visit Ma Gunn, who is mysteriously off on family business. It appears that she has been shrunk down by Bizarro and he is now keeping her in a house inside a bottle. In the end, The Creeper shows up and he is looking to settle a score with Artemis.

THE SILENCER #1 by Dan Abnett and John Romita Jr. Honor Guest is a retired assassin trying to live her normal life as a wife and mother. But she gets attacked by someone and that leads to her forming a bubble that silences everyting happening in it, allowing her to dispatch the killer in silence. She goes home and gets a visit from Talia Al Ghul, who tells her that there are peple coming to kill them. Before they get a chance to figure things out, the killers ambush Honor and Talia. This leads to Talis giving Honor a device to allow her to suit up in her old gear and fight back.

SUICIDE SQUAD #33 by Si Spurrier and Fernando Pasarin. New recruits, including Juan Soria, head off on a mission to an amusement park called Dozey Land. During the mission, the new recruits are all slaughtered by alien monsters, except for Jose, who loses a hand during the battle and may next lose his life.

SUICIDE SQUAD #34 by Si Spurrier and Fernando Pasarin. Most of the new recruits on this mission have been killed. Juan is about to be killed by an alien, but Croc saves him, basically because he wants to eat him later. After a time, he volunteers to go meet with the queen alien and is prepared to sacrifice himself, but manages to kill the creature because of his negative attitude. In the end, it is revealed that Waller set them all up to be able to use him to defeat this creature. He gets a reduced sentence, new cybernetic hands to replace the ones Katana cut off, and a new cell mate-Killer Croc.

SUPERGIRL #17 by Steve Orlando, Jody Houser, Robson Rocha, and Julio Ferreira. Deceilia Starshame was banished from her planet as a young child and has a bone to pick with Supergirl and the whole human race. While they decide if the people of Earth are worth the fight, Starshame slices the cruise ship they are fighting on in half, leading Supergirl to give up the fight to save the passengers. Kara breaks Starshame out of her mind-controlled state just as the DEO arrive, meaning Supergirl must melt their weapons to save herself. Elsewhere, Veritas is talking to Cameron Chase, who promises that Bones’ days are numbered. That night, there is a school dance and a big, bad villain arrives, threatening to kill everyone is Supergirl does not reveal herself.

SUPERMAN #38 by Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason and Sergio Davila. Part Four of Super Sons of Tomorrow. Aqualad, Starfire and Kid Flash go to Robin and Superboy’s Fortress and that leads to a battle between the five of them. Once they settle down, Jon convinces them all to go to the Fortress of Solitude, where he frees his father from the Red K. With the help of Future Tim’s severed hand, the Titans of Tomorrow exit Hypertime and arrive at the Fortress. They all can’t control Future Tim, but he absorbs Superboy’s out of control powers to save them all, sending himself back into Hypertime.

SUPERMAN #39 by Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason and Barry Kitson. After defeating the Demolition Team, Superman takes a group of kids with cancer into space, so they can meet the Justice League and visit the Watchtower. Eventually, they all end up on the moon, where they write their names on rocks and leave them there as a lasting memory that they were there.

SUPER SONS #12 by Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason and Tyler Kirkham. Finale of Super Sons of Tomorrow. With Future Tim racing through Hypertime, and the crisis averted, the Titans of Tomorrow head back to their future. Superman has a chat with Damian and Jon about the future of the Super Sons and they convince him to let them continue. At a Teen Titans meeting, Damian suggests they vote in Jon as a member, and that gets turned down, because of his erratic powers. In the end, Jon thanks Damian for being his friend.

SUPERWOMAN #18 by K. Perkins and Max Raynor. Lana saves Metropolis by allowing Midnight to occupy her brain and feel the emotions Lana feels. After several moments with her friends, Midnight decides that she needs to be free and Lana allows that, even though it costs her the role and powers of Superwoman.

TEEN TITANS #16 by Marv Wolfman and Tom Derenick. After the team defeats Mammoth, Kori takes offense to being left out of a conversation because she is old and storms off. She ends up in a battle with the Psions who have mentally corrupted many people including Raven and Gar. She uses her powers to defeat the Psions and free everyone. In the end, she learns that all Gar was doing earlier was asking Raven for advice regarding his dating profile.

TITANS #19 by Dan Abnett and Paul Pelletier. Roy is off in New York searching for the manufacturers of the drug Bliss, which leads him to involvement by Intergang. The Justice League shows up at Titans Tower and criticizes the Titans for the way they handled the Troia incident, which leads to major infighting between the two teams. In the end, Dick decides to shut down the Titans until the Justice League can figure out  a solution to their ills.

TRINITY #17 by James Robinson and Patrick Zircher. Batman and Superman agree to help Diana find Themyscira. In the process, they come across a ship being sucked into a whirlpool and that sucks them in too. When they wake, they are in a land filled with lizard men and the remnants of an old SR-71 fighter. Because of the magic present, Superman loses his powers and Wonder Woman goes blind. They defeat the lizard men nd Diana declares that they are lost in the land known as Skartoris. At this point they are greeted by Travis Morgan, former U.S. Air Force pilot who now goes by the name of… The Warlord.

WONDER WOMAN #38 by James Robinson and Emanuela Lupacchino. Sometime in the past, Wonder Woman saves young Vanessa Kapatelis during a fight with Major Disaster. She suffers injuries that may keep her from ever walking again, but she saw Diana as a role model and even drew illustrations with her as a flying character known as the Silver Swan. She undergoes a procedure using nanites which allow her to walk again.  But she is also upset that Diana no longer spends a lot of time with her and didn’t visit when Vanessa’s mother died. This angers her and she plots to become a villain instead. In the present, while visiting with Jason, Diana goes off to check in on a family she recently saved. When she arrives, she finds the family dead and Silver Swan standing over them.

WONDER WOMAN #39 by James Robinson, Emanuela Lupacchino, and Carmen Carnero. Wonder Woman battles Silver Swan, who wants to kill her for abandoning her.  Jason sees the battle on the news and comes to his sister’s aid, which only results in his throat being slashed by Swan’s wings.  A huge explosion follows and Diana and Jason seemingly fall to their deaths.  Meanwhile, Darkseid is with Grail in the Amazon Jungle, where he dispatches a team made up of the Female Furies and Deep Six, to retrieve the missing artifacts he needs to fully become Darkseid the ruler of Apokolips again.

DC UNIVERSE Month 2, Part 1

ACTION COMICS #995 by Dan Jurgens and Brett Booth. Booster is arrested, and Skeets gives Superman Booster’s origin. It seems his father was an abuser and Booster did what he did to pay off his father’s gambling debts and save his life.  As fate turns out, Booster gets incarcerated in the same jail cell as his father. Superman arrives and busts Booster out, leading them to the Time Sphere to make their escape back to the past. The Eradicator shows up and breaks the controls, resulting in our heroes ending up on a planet controlled by Zod.

ACTION COMICS #996 by Dan Jurgens and Will Conrad. Lois heads to Logamba to try and save her father, which Jon tagging along, unbeknownst to her. Meanwhile, Superman and Booster are stuck on Jekuul, where it seems that Zod is in charge. After allowing themselves to be captured, they are taken to the planet’s ruler, where they discover it is a grown-up Lor-Zod who is going to be there chief adversary.

AQUAMAN #32 by Dan Abnett, Rick Leonardi, and Riccardo Federici. Aquaman frees Mera from King Shark’s prison and, finding out she can’t breathe underwater, takes her to the Widowhood to be healed. The Widowhood reveals how they want Mera to be the Queen of Atlantis, so she can rule and bring about peace. In the end, Aquaman and the Drift attack Corum Rath’s throne room.

BATGIRL #19 by Hope Larson and Chris Wildgoose. After stopping some would be donut shop robbers, who are actually hired actors meant to threaten but not harm the shop owners, Burnside gets hit with a freak snow storm. Even the Penguin enlists his crew to help with the clean-up. What she discovers is that a group from S.P.U.R. may have been messing with the weather forecasting satellites. Then she realizes it is all a diversion so the real bad guys can rob a secret government lab.

BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY #18 by Julie Benson, Shawna Benson and Marcio Takara. Spyral has recruited Huntress to find a black-market tech dealer and that means Barbara and Dinah are going to get involved at a Tech Expo. They manage to get a tracker on the guy before he can steal Hap-E: a power source that is impervious to EMPs and the like. Still, he steals the device and hooks it up to stolen Weather Wizard tech, causing havoc before they can finally capture him and shut the device down.

BATMAN #38 by Tom King and Travis Moore. Following the murders of a man who worked for Wayne Enterprises and his wife, Bruce Wayne takes their young son under his wing.  Batman investigates Victor Zsasz, as the M.O. is his. After some more murders, it appears it might be Two-Face’s doing. Eventually, the boy’s butler confesses to the murders. In the end, Batman discovers the boy is responsible because he wants to be just like Bruce Wayne, complete with carving Thomas and Martha’s names into his own face.

BATMAN #39 by Tom King and Joelle Jones. Wonder Woman meets with Batman, telling him they have an obligation to someone called the Gentle Man. The heroes swap dimensions with him, so they can fight his fight for him. Selina spends time with the Gentle Man while Batman and Wonder Woman fight monsters. In the end, it seems that there is a time difference between dimensions and Wonder Woman and Batman have been in the other dimension for ten years, while only being gone from ours for hours. At the same time, the heroes have formed a bond that may end up in a kiss.

BATMAN AND THE SIGNAL #1 by Scott Snyder, Tony Patrick and Cully Hamner. Gotham has a new place for developing metas and it’s called the Arkham Juvenile Center. Duke, now known as The Signal, battle with a character named Null and realizes he needs to find out more about these new metas. That leads to Detective Alex Aisi making her way into the Juvenile Center to find out the connection between the metas and a mysterious sun dial that seems to be creating these metas.  Duke makes his way in and realizes it’s a trap and he’s now stuck with a bunch of metas who want to kill him.

BATMAN BEYOND #16 by Dan Jurgens and Phil Hester. As it looks like Terry and Dana will fall to their death fighting Stalker, Batman’s wings get fixed and they are safe. The pair fight throughout the issue and, in the end, it looks like Stalker may kill Terry yet.

BATWOMAN #11 by K. Perkins and Scott Godlewski. Julia Pennyworth has been abducted  and Kate is on the hunt to find her. This leads her to Egypt where she discovers that Professor Pyg and his dolls are to blame, as Pyg is using his kidnaped victims to make new dolls. She finds and frees Julia, but Pyg escapes and all of his other victims are dead. Feeling as though she has let everyone down, she decides to meet Julia in Brussels, where everything began with Kate and Safiyah.

BLACK LIGHTNING: COLD DEAD HANDS #3 by Tony Isabella and Clayton Henry. There’s a villain named White Thunder loose, but that takes a backseat to a black man in custody who, along with his wife, gets shot dead by the police. In the panic that ensues, his two kids take off with one of Tobias Whale’s alien space guns. White Thunder has been tasked by Whale to get the gun back, the cops go after the kids, intent on doing to them what they did to their parents. Black Lightning gets to the kids before tragedy can happen, but now he has to face White Thunder.

BLUE BEETLE #17 by Christopher Sebela and Scott Kolins. Jaime is free and going after Stopwatch, while Paco, Brenda and Naomi are being crushed by falling debris. But Jaime stops Stopwatch by pulling out the pieces that make up his time travel device out of the villain’s body. This also allows time to reverse and saves his friends. In the end, Naomi has figured out Jaime is Blue Beetle and apparently will never speak to him again for not revealing his secret to her. And Stopwatch’ followers run into Stopwatch, who is now an alien creature, and still offer to help him.

CYBORG #20 by Kevin Grevioux and Cliff Richards. With all these children dead as a result of the minefield massacre last issue, Vic and Sarah flee into the jungle, where Sarah sprains her ankle. Vic saves her from a zombie attack and uses the horn to make one more wish: that everything was back as it was. The General uses the horn to become a rock monster, but gets turned back and shot by one of the kids. Not dead yet, he grabs a gun and shoots Nailah, killing her. The shaman shows up and says they did good and alls well that ends well.

DAMAGE #1 by Tony S. Daniel and Robert Venditti. Ethan is a military man who turns into, against his will, a creature of mass destruction. This apparently happens for an hour every 24 hours. In the process of his transforming and busting out of the plane he is in, he actually causes the plane to crash, while he begins a rampage in the city. Major Liggett dons special armor and begins his pursuit. Everyone dies in the crash except for Liggert, who got out prior to the crash. After getting his armor shut down, Damage goes in for the kill until Ethan’s voice in his head convinces him otherwise. The next day, Col. Jonas surveys the scene and Amanda Waller and Task Force XI show up.

DARK NIGHTS METAL #5 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. While Batman and Superman have managed to free themselves, the Forge of Worlds is going dark and that means that the Dark Multiverse is going to permanently become part of our Earth. Green Lantern and Mister Terrific are in prison and Terrific reveals that Plastic Man has become a super conductor for the cosmic energies, which is why he is being sought after by the bad guys. That’s when Martian Manhunter shows up, freeing them so they can get Plastic Man back. Wonder Woman finds the Nth Metal mace and battles and defeats Black Adam, which leads to her battling Hawkgirl, finally getting her back to her old self by punching her with the lasso. Aquaman and Deathstroke have  run in with Black Manta, which leads to them meeting up with half of Barbatos’ Dark Multiverse fractured heroes. Lantern, Manhunter and Terrific secure the Plastic Man egg, but it seems the rest of the bad guys have plans for them before they can load the egg into the Phoenix Cannon. In the end, Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl face an army of twisted heroes and villains, vowing to fight to the end.

DEATHSTROKE #27 by Christopher Priest and Diogenes Nieves. We see how Terra’s mom died in Markovia, sending her on a permanent path of self-destruction, especially after she ends up in bed with Slade. While Slade talks with the imagined Wintergreen, Willow seeks out the Forgotten and Adeline deals with the Superman of China. Jericho visits his father in prison and helps to free him, but not before Slade controls the device controlling the Ikon suit. Terra tracks down and takes out most of the Forgotten until Willow shows up, leading to her getting tossed out the window and being saved by Jericho’s ex-boyfriend.

DEATHSTORKE ANNUAL #1 by Christopher Priest, Larry Hama and Dennis Cowan. Power Girl is trapped in another dimension, but her presence causes Tanya to question her ability to be on Defiance, especially when she discovers that the death which made her part of the team was set up by Deathstroke. She also reveals that she has problems with Jericho’s lifestyle choices and reveals that she is in love with Kid Flash, actually offering herself to him. Jericho is offended and decides to move out, while Slade continues to try and do his job without killing. Terra and Jericho eventually team up to help Slade finish his mission, but then the team discovers that Tanya has committed suicide. In the end, it is revealed that she is not really dead and has used the machine that everyone thought she used to kill herself to join Power Girl in another dimension. Only problem: Kid Flash has moved her away from her transponder and now she is stuck with Karen.

THE DEMON HELL IS EARTH #3 by Andrew Constant  and Brad Walker . As the demons begin to rise up from Death Valley, we find that Merlin is really inhabiting the corpse of the dead girl. That means that Jason, Merlin, Madame Xanadu, and Etrigan are the front line to try and stop Belial and his demon army, who is trying to usurp Hell from Lucifer.

DETECTIVE COMICS #972 by James Tynion IV and Miguel Mendonca. Clayface confronts Batman, telling him he really is just a villain after all. Batman freezes him, only to discover that he has used his training well and this frozen figure is just a husk, meaning he has escaped and is probably heading for the Belfry. While Batwoman gets a powerful weapon from her father to use, Dr. October reveals she has a cure, but it’s only a temporary fix. Clayface arrives and battles Tim, Kate, and Batman, until Cassandra intervenes long enough for Basil to get back in control. That doesn’t last long and he turns into a giant monster, destroying the Belfry in the process. Meanwhile, it seems the First Victim is only about destroying Batman, something that is seemingly bothering Anarky.

DETECTIVE COMICS #973 by James Tynion IV and Jesus Merino. After a flashback showing how Tim created the mudroom using parts of Clayface’s clay, we jump back into the action. The Belfry is destroyed, Tim has a concussion, and the people of Gotham are becoming more convinced that Batman is truly evil. Anarky revolts, eventually taking down the First Victim. He gives Stephanie a jump drive which may have data on who the First Victim really is. Meanwhile, the battle with Clayface continues until Cassandra delivers the cure, which transforms him back to Basil. That is also the moment when Batwoman uses the gun she got from her father and puts a bullet through his head.

DETECTIVE COMICS ANNUAL #1 by James Tynon IV and Eddy Barrows. Back when he was young, Basil Karlos talks to his father about his movie make-up techniques, where he discovers a secret chemical that allows him to alter his ability for great makeup. Twenty years later, Basil gets the role of a lifetime, but gets a call saying his father has died and that leads to a car crash which scars Basil for life. Convinced he needs to restore his face, he begins using his father’s Renu chemical to make himself look as he used to. But the chemical has a horrible effect and scars him worse. Desperate, he tries to steal more of the banned chemical and that leads to the police shooting at him during a break-in and he is covered in the chemical, which radically alters his DNA. During one of his early battles with Batman, he ends up covering Glory in his mud, transforming her into the person we currently know as Mudface.

DOOMSDAY CLOCK #3 by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. Although he was thrown through a window in WATCHMEN, the Comedian was transported away to the DC Universe before dying by Dr. Manhattan. Now he returns the favor by throwing Ozymandias out of Luthor's office window. While an aged Johnny Thunder watches an old Nathaniel Dusk movie and waits for his great-grandson to visit, Mime and Marionette begin a wrathful search for The Joker. Rorschach gives Batman Walter Kovac's journal before he cleans himself up to reveal he is a young black man. Batman reads the journal and takes Rorschach to Arkham to meet with Dr. Manhattan. In actuality, this is just an excuse for the Dark Knight to lock him away.

THE FLASH #38 by Joshua Williamson and Scott Kolins. Flash is stuck in Iron heights, where he is getting beat up by Captain Cold.  August turns from heel to face and shuts off the absolute zero device that was being used, allowing Flash to finish off the Rogues and head off to save Kid Flash and Copperhead.  Copperhead pleads innocence regarding the hijacked cold guns, but she seems to be in league with someone else. Yea, the bad gal was setup by the Rogues and it's up to Barry to save the day. There is turmoil at Iron Heights about the Rogues running the prison, but Kristen vouches for Wolfe and saves his job, which is really just her gaining his confidence. In the end, Cold gets transferred to Belle Reve and Barry visits his mother’s rave and seeks forgiveness from Iris.

THE FLASH #39 by Joshua Williamson and Carmine De Giandomenico. While Barry tries to patch things up with Iris, including a tour of the Watchtower, Wally gets to meet up with Avery, who has been hanging with the Justice League of China as of late. They investigate a jailbreak that results in Karver's death while time slows and stops for Barry up in space. This leads to him running into Multiplex, Meena, Raijin and the real villain of the piece: Grodd.

THE FLASH ANNUAL #1 by Joshua Williamson and Howard Porter. Set before issue # 39, we begin in the 25^th Century, we see that history has been changed because of events which are happening in the 21^st Century. In the resent day, our Wally West Flash, Wally West Kid Flash and the Barry Allen Flash battle The Top. After they defeat him, Barry insists that our Wally talk to Iris and accidentally it comes out that Iris killed Thawne. This causes Wally to leave and head back to Titans Tower, where he recalls growing up wioth a girl named Frankie. He seeks her out and that eventually leads to her memories coming back, including how she was once a hero named Magenta but then became a villain with the same name. They battle until he finally gets her to recall that she was once good and she now hopes to be good again. Back in the future, a masked Time Judge sends his team of Renegades, fture versions of the Rogues, to retrieve Iris from the 21^st Century. In the end, the Judge reveals that he is Hunter Zoloman-Zoom. This will lead into the Flash War storyline, which will begin in THE FLASH #47.

GREEN ARROW #36 by Ben Percy and Juan Ferreyra. Henery and Dinah save Oliver from his undersea fate even as Shado eliminates Briderick with an arrow through the head. Ollie and Dinah meet up with Red Arrow and they head over to the Ninth Circle to confront Mom and Merlyn. The end result: Merlyn gets killed and Mom shoots an arrow through Emi.

GREEN LANTERNS #38 by Tim Seeley and German Peralta. While Jessica and Regent Anthene interrogate a Red Tide prisoner in their search Kesh Cur, Simon frees Podfather. With Liseth Vok in tow, they find Cur and realize that the Red Tide has been using aliens to create their Surge Engine and make themselves genetically better. In fact, this is just a response to the Regent who previously experimented on Kesh Cur and transformed him into the person he is. As it turns out, Liseth Vok has also been transformed and she plans to use her powers to unite Ungara and kill Lanterns.

GREEN LANTERNS #39 by Tim Seeley and Ronan Cliquet. Liseth Vok tells the people that she is going to help the Ungaran people with her powers and that all the others in the universe are weak. This leads to Simon, Jessica and the Regent into a battle with the transformed girl. Pod father almost sacrifices himself to save the injured Molites, but he gets a save and help from the Ungarans who band together. Simon uses his special light to cause Liseth to transform back to her old self. In the end, the Ungarans and the Molites are joined as one and Liseth has a long recovery ahead. And Night Pilot is forced into slavery in an asteroid belt.

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #36 by Robert Vendetti , Jack Herbert and Jose Luis. Kyle, Guy, Hal and John take on the Controllers. Kellic plans on harvesting all of the captured Guardians, but John destroys their machine. The Controllers flee to fight another day and the Guardians, after a quick change into their classic garb, prepare to be a governing council yet again. In the end, Kellic reveals his legion of Darkstars at the ready to continue his fight.

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #37 by Robert Vendetti and Rafa Sandoval. With the Guradians back in some sort of control, John Stewart threatens to quit the Corps. Meanwhile, Hal and Kyle travel to Sector 2811, where they find General Zod, his family and the Eradicator. The Lanterns get beat up badly, as Zod declares this word to be his. Hal threatens that the rest of the Corps will arrive and Zod stands ready.

HARLEY QUINN #34 by Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, John Timms and Chad Hardin. Harley and friends head to Florida, where she gets to reunite with her family and her two beloved hyenas. In the end, she meets with Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner, before ending up on a yacht with Ivy.

HARLEY QUINN #35 by Frank Tieri and Inaki Miranda. Harley and company are back home, and she is bumming about Mason’s death. While the rest of the Harleys try to cheer her up, they fail. Meanwhile, Tony gets kidnapped and that leads Harley into combat with Man Bat. It turns out this Man Bat is really a transformed Tony. Thinking that Kirk Langstrom is responsible, the gang investigates but they discover what Harley quickly finds out-it’s really Francine who is doing the attacks and Harley becomes her next victim.

HARLEY QUINN #36 by Frank Tieri and Inaki Miranda.  Harley has been turned into a Man-Bat and she and Francine Langstrom are terrorizing the folks at Coney Island. As the Gang of Harleys try to help her, Francine attacks them, which turns Harley from bad to good and she attacks Francine. Meanwhile,  the rest of the Harley crew find Tony and, with Kirk Langstrom’s help, find the antidote to change him back. Langstrom transforms himself and flees, but the crew go to the pier and administer the antidote to Harley. In the end, she convinces herself that she needs to be left alone and packs her bags, leaving them confused and disappointed. Coach thinks that someone is behind all of this and that person turns out to be The Penguin, who has more villains lined up to make their lives miserable.

HARLEY QUINN BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR SPECIAL EDITION #1 by Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Chad Hardin, Otto Schmidt, and Ben Caldwell. Reprinted from a Loot Crate release from last year, Harley finds a genie’s bottle and a genie named Jimm Salabim to go with it. She spends the entire issue wishing for things, mostly with bad results. She asks for a bigger chest, which causes her to fall down. She asks for her beaver to come to life, but he dies. She asks the Joker to be nice, but he is TOO NICE! She joins the Justice League and kills Luthor in the process. She even gets to meet Kamandi. In the end, she wishes the genie wasn’t a genie any more, which ends her wishes and leaves them both figuring what to do now besides be a part of her gang of Harleys.

THE HELLBLAZER #18 by Richard Kadrey and Davide Fabbri. John may or may not be dead, but he gets to meet Bardo, who he insults and ultimately sends Constantine back to life. That leads to him meeting back with the coven and panning to stop Ray’s killers. With their gold gun ready, the bad guys head to the hospital, intent on killing Jackie. But John turns the tables on them and Jackie unleashes a spell that eliminates them. With that, John leaves San Francisco and promises never to come back.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #36  by Christopher Priest and Pete Woods. After the incident that resulted in the death of a nun, the League is taking some serious heat. Things will certainly get worse when someone dressed as Batman, kills the Chairwoman of the special committee investigating them. Despite Batman ordering the team to not help a spy sub stranded in Chinese waters, team members do go, only to be chastised by the crew they save. In the end, Simon goes undercover to find the copycat and gets taken down by him in the process.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #37 by Christopher Priest and Philippe Briones. The fake Batman was injured as a child during a superhero battle before eventually becoming a war hero. But now, he has Simon locked up and dresses himself as a Green Lantern. Cyborg figures out their system has been compromised and it turns out this imposter was actually someone who worked on the Watchtower. Simon gets free and the imposter walks into a trap set by the League.  But the joke is on them, as he uses their own technology to transport them away.

DC UNIVERSE Month 1, Part 2

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #20 by Steve Orlando and Hugo Petrus. While Vixen battles Prometheus, Ray saves Frost, Canary and himself by shrinking themselves inside Lobo when the bomb goes off. Upon exiting the slowly healing Main Man, the trio joins the fight, eventually defeating Prometheus and Afterthought, complete with Lobo breaking one of Prometheus’ hands. Later, Frost admits to being a killer and how she took it upon herself to feed during a recent mission. Ray heads back to Vanity and reunites with his boyfriend…while a mysterious, but familiar figure watches.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #21 by Steve Orlando and Steven Byrne. While ray wraps up with a villain, Xenos calls him and lets him know he’s leaving. No sooner does hat happen, when Ray is attacked by Aztek.  Aztek chides Ray for deserting Vanity and then tells him of the Sons of the Earth, which leads to them teaming up to defeat them. In the end, Ray tells Aztek that he’s going to stay and help Vanity while, back home, Frost wakes up to reveal to the rest of the team that she is now cured!

NEW SUPER-MAN #18 by Gene Luen Yang and Brent Peeples. While the two Justice Leagues team up to fight the ancient Chinese demons, Kenan visits with Master I-Ching, who tells him his origin. It seems that All-Yang and I-Ching were brothers and I-Ching was the more chaotic of the two, resulting in him eventually losing his sight but instilling the powers of both Yin and Yang upon him. He then transfers those powers to Kenan who faces off with All-Yang, absorbing him in the process. In the end, Zhongdan and Kenan leave Dr. Omen, who finds that the Ministry of Self-Reliance has created their own Corps, leaving Kenan to run with the, now independent, Justice League of China.

NIGHTWING #34 by Tim Seeley and Javier Fernandez. Nightwing teams up with Desmond to battle Raptor and Pigeon on the roof of the Marcus Casino.  Meanwhile, it seems that Orca has developed a permanent cure for the Blockbuster serum, which means the Run-Offs are going to try and save as many people as possible from Raptor’s planned attack. DeFacer heads to the roof and joins in the battle, spraying Desmond with the serum. Despite that, Desmond transforms into Blockbuster and kills Raptor. As he dies, he tells Nightwing that his real name is Richard and he wishes he could have been around for Dick as a young boy. In the end, DeFacer tells Dick that she can always count on him, but they afe through as a couple.

NIGHTWING #35 by Sam Humphries and Bernard Chang. Now that Dick has decided to make Bludhaven his new home, he opens up a cross-training studio. He also meets with Svoboda following a strange murder at the casino and that leads to him meeting with the strange man creature known as Guppy, who explains that a mysterious man who Dick knows as The Judge, is responsible for using some type of mind control. Dick meets with Svoboda and asks if the casino murderer had a gold casino chip on her, which she says she did. Then, without warning, Svoboda shoots Nightwing.

RAGMAN #3 by Ray Fawkes and Inaki Miranda. After defeating the latest demon, Rory meets with Batwoman who explains that she’ll be watching him. Later, he gets attacked by a fellow Marine named Jim Fanshawe who is now possessed by a demon. Etrigan shows up and helps to defeat the other demon, but not until after Rory loses his eyes, meaning now he has only supernatural sight to guide him. He then explains that he is going to need help to defeat the continuing army of demons.

RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #17 by Scott Lobdell and Dexter Soy. The team, along with the Suicide Squad, find themselves in the N.O.W.H.E.R.E. facility, where they separate so they can get their job done and get out of Dodge. Artemis and Harley find a bunch of dead test subjects while Red Hood and Killer Croc find a weapons cache. Bizarro tells Deadshot and Captain Boomerang is forced to leave them, because the power source is designed to hurt Kryptonian clones. In the end, they destroy the power source, Waller and her team, along ith the weapons, go back to Belle Reve and the Outlaws go back to Gotham to continue their plans to end crime their way.

SUICIDE SQUAD #31 by Rob Williams, Barnaby Bagenda and Wilfredo Torres. Rick Flag, now aged because the Red Wave has left him, ends up in the Phantom Zone, where he meets his grandson. On the old Task Force X satellite, Karin gets a phone call from a very much alive King Faraday, who tells her that she must resist the Red Wave monster. She decides to fly the ship she is on into the sun to kill them both. Flag Jr. exits the Phantom Zone and saves Harley, joining up with the rest of the team and head off to save Karin. In the back-up, Faraday, possessed by the creature, wipes out the original Task Force X and Argent and goes off to live his life.

SUICIDE SQUAD #32 by Rob Williams, Scot Eaton and Wilfredo Torres. As the team flies off to save Karin, Rick send them out to physically rescue her, despite the risk, with the threat of setting off their brain bombs.  Croc takes the worst of it, and Rick is prepared to let him die, until Katana thrusts her sword into the Red Wave monster, killing it. In the end, Karin and Faraday end up locked away at Belle Reve, because they still have a piece of the monster inside them. But Karin manages to escape in the back-up story.

SUPERGIRL #16 by Steve Orlando, Jody Houser and Robson Rocha. Strange Visitor is trashing National City and calls out Supergirl, who shows up to stop her. While Supergirl tries to convince Sharon that she died saving people, the DEO shows up and tries to capture her. But Insight helps her escape. Meanwhile, Mr. Bones unleashes Deceilia on a cruise ship, lading to Supergirl to show up and try to rescue the passengers.

SUPERMAN #36 by Patrick Gleason, Peter J. Tomasi and Doug Mahnke. The two armies on Apokolips fight each other while Ardora and the Prophet debate if Superman is their true savior. Lois takes out the Furies by herself while Kalibak almost kills Luthor, but falls into one of the fire pits instead. Superman promises to be their savior if they send him, Lois, Jon and Lex back home, which they do. In the end, an angry Lex rips the S off of his suit.

SUPERMAN #37 by Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason and Jorge Jimenez. Part one of SUPER SONS OF TOMORROW. The Batman of the Future, Tim Drake, breaks into Wayne Mansion and attacks Bruce Wayne. After beating up Bruce, and shooting him, he heads to the Fortress of Solitude, where he dukes it out with the Man of Steel before encasing him in a trap lined with Red Kryptonite. In the end, he tells Superman that his mission is to kill Superboy.

SUPER SONS #11 by Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason and Ryan Benjamin. Part two of SUPER SONS OF TOMORROW. Future Tim has headed to Metropolis to kill Superboy before Hypertime can take him back home. But we learn that Superboy has snuck out to help the Teen Titans fight The Hangmen. Future Tim shows up, convincing Beast Boy and Raven that he must complete his mission. He cover Jon in a back goo which activates his powers and causes him to explode. The blast knocks out his teammates and trashes a good proton of Titans Tower.  Ut that blast has alerted Conner Kent, Cassie Sandsmark and Bart Allen-the future Superman, Wonder Woman and Flash-to Future’s Tim’s presence.

SUPERWOMAN #17 by K. Perkins and Federico Dallocchio. Midnight, in an effort to save Metropolis, offers Lana a way to way-submit to Midnight’s disk drive. Lana refuses and gets saved by Maxima. Later, while she is recuperating at Steelworks, she dreams of a conversation with Superman, where she decides it is worth it to exchange one life for those of the many. She heads into the Void, where she uses her powers to overload Midnight and absorbs her in the process.

TEEN TITANS #15 by Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, Ed Benes and Jorge Jimenez. Part three of SUPER SONS OF TOMORROW. Damian rescues Jon and they escape while the rest of the team debates what to do. Future Tim tells them he must kill Superboy but, he doesn’t get the immediate chance, as Hypertime severs part of his arm…which ends up in the hand of the Titans of Tomorrow. In the end, Aqualad uses his powers to tell his teammates-Starfire and Kid Flash-that he knows where to finds Robin and Superboy.

TITANS #18 by Dan Abnett and Brett Booth. While Donna faces off against Troia, we see that Kid Flash has brought Wally West back to life, allowing him to join the fight too. Roy professes his love to Troia, in hopes it will get her to change her tone, but that only distracts her. Luckily, it distracts her long enough to allow Donna to give a knockout punch, sending Troia back through the Gate. Garth takes down Psimon, while the rest of the Titans handle Mister Twister and the Key.

TRINITY #16 by Rob Williams and V Ken Marion. Deadshot appeals to Batman’s gentler side by asking for help to get his kidnapped daughter back. Superman and Wonder Woman eventually join in after a snake creature arrives at a New Year’s Eve. Party. Deadshot kills the creature and Batman promises that they will find his daughter, although Floyd doesn’t quite have the confidence they will.

WONDER WOMAN #36 by James Robinson and Carlo Pagulayan. While it is revealed to Trevor and Waller that Giganta was collecting artifacts for some mysterious man, Diana is held captive by Jason and Grail. She manages to break free but gets struck down by a teenage version of Darkseid. They battle and then Diana’s lawyer shows up and reveals himself to really be…Zeus!

WONDER WOMAN #37 by James Robinson, Carlo Pagulayan, and Stephen Segovia. Zeus battles Darkseid and Jason, realizing he was wrong, helps Diana with her battle against Grail. A Boom Tube opens and Zeus and Darkseid take their battle to the Phillipines. Wonder Woman attempts to follow, as do Grail and Jason. Darkseid absorbs Zeus' power, which changes him to the classic Darkseid, but also kills Zeus in the process. He and Grail escape just as the Justice League arrives, leaving Diana and Jason to mourn their father.

DC UNIVERSE Month 1, Part 1

ACTION COMICS #993 by Dan Jurgens. As Booster Gold tries to decipher what coordinates Superman used to time travel, The Flash arrives and the pair duke it out. Skeets activates the Watchtower’s defensive program and knocks Flash out, allowing Booster to catch the Man of Steel. They get bounced out of the Tie Stream by a Chronal Storm and realize they have landed on Krypton, where Zod and Jor-El are working together, meaning they have messed up the timeline. Meanwhile, Jon discovers tat his grandfather has been captured in Logamba and is going to be executed.

ACTION COMICS #994 by Dan Jurgens. Booster Gold and Superman are stuck on an alternate timeline Krypton, where Jor-el and Zod have teamed up and send out an army of

Eradicators to take our heroes down. Despite Superman wanting to stay and find out what has gone on, Booster gets him back in the time ship and they leave, even as Superman gets to see the life that would have been. Unfortunately, they end up in the 25^th Century and an Eradicator has followed then there. Meanwhile, ois is gathering intel about her father in Logamba, which means she is going off on her own to try and rescue him.

AQUAMAN #31 by Dan Abnett and Riccardo Federici. Even though Corum Rath has sent death squads to the Atlantean Ghetto to take out the taint-bloods, Aquaman is there to stop them. While he and Vulko talk, we discover that Ondine is actually a double agent for the Widowhood. Arthur has a confrontation with King Shark, who allows Aquaman to pass but neglects to tell him he has captured Mera, who, for some reason, is dying because she can no longer breathe underwater.

BANE CONQUEST #8 by Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan. Despite his best efforts, Bane and company cannot get their hands on the Naja-Naja and Valentina gets away with the child. Meanwhile, Kobra is slowly taking down all of the criminal groups around the world that Bane controls. In an effort to fight back, Bane begins to build an army and goes in search of the assassin formerly known as the KGBeast. Meanwhile, Batman is getting ready to get involved.

BATGIRL #18 by Hope Larson and Sami Basri. Barbara and Frankie go to White Elephant party, which is sharing space with a party by anti-LGBTQ entrepaneur Bradley Burr. Harley Quinn shows up and drops a mystery and a killer virus on the guests, leading Batgirl, Frankie and Alysia to go on a hunt for clues to save everyone. They figure everything out and Harley gives up the antidote before fleeing. Burr’s employees all quit and it’s a Merry Christmas!

BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY #17 by Julie Benson, Shawna Benson and Roge Antonio. The 100-year-old Patient Zero has been watching men make a mess of the world since she was a young child and has decided to take her revenge by killing all the men in Gotham City. Ivy and Leslie Thompkins have come up with a cure. Canary and Huntress have infiltrated the Daughters of Gotham, but Patient Zero and Muir escape to enact Phase Two: killing off all the men they have at Seaside Coliseum, Gotham Girl, at the risk of her own life, flies the cure over the Coliseum, saving all the men there.

BATMAN #36 by Tom King and Clay Mann. It appears Batman and Superman aren’t really best fiends but, after taking out Doctor Double X, they agree to double date with Lois and Selina.

BATMAN #37 by Tom King and Clay Mann. Bruce, Selina, Clark and Lois go out on a double date to a traveling fair, where they have to put on costumes because it is "Superhero Night". Clark dresses as Batman, Bruce dresses as Superman and Lois dresses as Catwoman. Lois and Selina get drunk and Superman and Batman stop a mugger.

BATMAN BEYOND #15 by Dan Jurgens and Phil Hester. Having survived a potential back breaking, Batman battles the new Royal Flush Gang.  He defeats them rather easily, but can’t find out who hired them. It seems that Stalker has also been hired to capture him.  Stalker blows up Dana’s apartment and that means Batman has to save the day. Unfortunately, Stalker has torn his wings and Terry and Dana are left in a freefall. Meanwhile, someone breaks into Wayne Manor and steals a picture of Terry from out of Matt’s room.

BATWOMAN #10 by Marguerite Bennett and Fernando Blanco. Kate, fully transformed by Scarecrow’s drugs, takes on Scarecrow, defeating him easily. He flees which now leave Batwoman free to chase after Fatima. Suddenly, she sees a vision of Safiyah, who she kisses. But this is all part of her dream/nightmare and, when the toxin wears off, she finds that Fatima is also gone. The colony shows up and captures Scarecrow, while also rescuing Colony Prime. Jacob Kane arrives, and he and Kate get into an argument, leading to her telling Colony Prime that they need to destroy the facility. Eventually, she realizes that Safiyah was actually here and that she helped Fatima escape. She finds a fox, a rose, and a letter, which tells her that she must go home to find her former lover.

BLACK LIGHTNING: COLD DEAD HANDS #2 by Tony Isabella and Clayton Henry. Black Lightning finds himself on the run for some deaths which weren’t his responsibility. So, he spends the issue being his alter ego, teaching at school and meeting with his first trainer: Amerjack. In the end, someone with one of those killer guns blows a hole in the tenement he shares with his family and that means someone is dead in the streets below.

BLUE BEETLE #16 by Christopher Sebela and Scott Kolins. Three atomic bombs start this issue, but they are only time-echoes from the past. While Jaime and Naomi are thrilled that they aren’t dead, Jaime is pissed to find that Paco and Brenda are now a couple. He storms away and ends up battling Stopwatch, who reveals he keeps messing with time-travel to try and keep him from being disfigured in his original experiment. But every attempt has been a failure, so he figures that Jaime is the component that will make this time a success.

CYBORG #19 by Kevin Grevioux and Cliff Richards. Cyborg and Sarah are in the Sudan, investigating a series of meteor strikes. It seems the meteors are filed with gems, and that’s when the Guardians of the United Republic show up to claim them. Cyborg stops them and then a Djinn arrives to grant Cyborg three wishes. But each wish comes with a price. Cyborg wishes to be human and then gets shot in the head. While the bullet doesn’t kill him, the human Victor contracts Malaria. Vic goes after the leader of the Guardians, only to find that the leader has been using kids to make the wishes for him, so he doesn’t get hurt by the after effects. One of the children wishes to be free, and they run into a minefield, where a helpless Vic can only watch it happen.

DARK NIGHTS METAL #4 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. Batman is stuck in the Dark Multiverse, aged and having to battle versions of Superman. Dream arrives and takes him away. While the rest of the heroes struggle to find the other bits of Nth Metal, Dream explains that Batman and Superman need to get to the World Forge to keep Barbatos from winning. They get to the World Forge, only to find that Carter Hall has become a servant of Barbatos. That all makes sense, as Kendra reveals herself as Lady Blackhawk to Wonder Woman and Doctor Fate.

DEATHSTROKE #26 by Christopher Priest and Diogenes Neves. As the team tries to figure out what happened to Slade, he is being held captive by a converted Isherwood. Along the way, he reveals that he was having an affair with Jericho, which leads to a knock-down, drag out between the two. Isherwood leaves a defeated Slade, who is stuck there due to an incapacitating implant. At least he is not alone, as a young Wintergreen is there with him. Meanwhile, the team visits the Society's now destroyed meeting room and figure out Ikon is responsible. While an older Wintergreen and Adeline forbid the team to go search for Slade, Kenan Kong shows up with a summons for Deathstroke.

THE DEMON HELL IS EARTH #2 by Andrew Constant and Brad Walker. Etrigan and Jason Blood are now separated, but Jason is more like a ghost than alive. The entire area in Death Valley is now hope to unspeakable evil, except for the little girl who not only can see Jason but mentions that she is Madame Xanadu. But then she says her name is Nimue and she leads them to a mansion guarded by demon Minotaurs. Etrigan defeats all of the evils thrown at him while Xanadu and Jason have a reunion. Nimue explains that she has visions of hell-fire and demons, which causes Etrigan to burn her to a skeleton.

DETECTIVE COMICS #970 by James Tynion IV and Joe Bennett. Tim reunites with Steph, who sees that he has been doing all sorts of planning to make things better and not end up like the future version of himself. Meanwhile, Clayface and Dr. October continue working on the cure, which leads to him visiting Arkham and Glory, who betrays him to the Victim Syndicate. Kate meets with her father, who reveals that Tim has contacted him for hep. We also see that Steph has leaked information from her phone to Anarky, which will lead to problems for the whole team.

DETECTIVE COMICS #971 by James Tynion IV and Miguel Mendonca. A young reporter is allowed inside Arkham to interview the Victim Syndicate, which means she now becomes a hostage. At the Belfry, Batwoman reveals that she knows Tim contacted the Colony while Batman makes the decision to give the First Victim what she wants. Entering Arkham, Batman takes down the Syndicate, which was the First Victim’s plan all along, as she has managed to keep Basil from having the device that keeps him under control. So now, Clayface, the villainous Clayface, is loose.

DOOMSDAY CLOCK #2  by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. In the Watchman Universe, the nukes are falling and Marionette, Mime, Rorschach and Ozymandias make their escape in Archimedes, travelling to the DC Universe. Protests have broken out because of the idea that Metamorpho and Man Bat have been created  by the government. Ozymandias pays a visit to Lex Luthor and convinces him that they are the smartest man from each of their worlds. That is when a hidden assassin, in the form of The Comedian, shows up and tries to kill Ozymandias.  Meanwhile, Rorschach invades the Bat Cave and is confronted by Batman.

THE FLASH #36 by Joshua Williamson and Howard Porter. Barry and Kristen are investigating the death of former Rogue Turbine. Singh shows up and takes them off the case just as Trickster shows up and claims responsibility for the murder. Later, Barry talks to August/Godspeed, who has his own plans. He meets with the Rouges, now run by Snart, and tells them he has a plan to give him The Flash in exchange for making him part of their team.

THE FLASH #37 by Joshua Willaimson and Scott McDaniel. Despite being orderd off the case, Barry and Kristen meet with Trickster, who has been beaten up by the guards at Iron Heights. August manages to hide a clue where Barry can find it, which leads Flash and Kid Flash to stop a shipment of Cold guns being used by Copperhead’s gang. This leads him back to Iron Heights, where the Rogues have managed to team up and leave him virtually powerless in a fight with Captain Cold.

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GREEN ARROW #35 by Ben Percy and Juan Ferreyra. Ollie teams up with his mother Moira to dive down and dig through the wreckage of the Inferno, where they start collecting treasure. Meanwhile, Kate Spencer is still working on Ollie’s case and heads off to meet the “late” Wendy Poole. Unfortunately, there is a crooked cop who has followed her and now knows that Wendy is alive. We also see that Shado and Emiko were involved in faking that death, but also involved with setting Ollie up. This leads to an explosion that apparently kills Shuffleton. In the end, Henry and Black Canary head off to save Ollie, who has been left in the deep by his mom.

GREEN LANTERNS #36 by Tim Seeley and Ronan Cliquet. On Mogo, the Lanterns try to explain what happened when they tried to bring in Bolphunga and Boff, which resulted in Jessica battling Singularity Jain. She gets swallowed by Jain, which Simon gets Bolphunga and Boff to safety. Troubled by nightmares inside Jain, Simon manages to pull her free while Bolphunga kills his father, thus settling the debt with Jain, who escapes. Meanwhile, things look bad for the Molites on Ungara.

GREEN LANTERNS #37 by Tim Seeley and Carlo Barberi. Simon and Jessica get called to Ungara to deal with the unrest caused by the death of Commander Psyt. The Regent informs them that they need to sneak into the Mol-ite refugee camp to rescue some Ungarans who have become hostages. Once there, they discover that the Ungaran’s have been coming here and destroying Mol-ite eggs, which kills the next generation in the process. Podfather confesses to the murder of Commander Psyt, which he did not do. Simon goes to bed with Liseth Vok, who reveals she knows that Podfather is innocent and that Kesh Cur is the one responsible. After al, she reveals that she is the leader of Red Tide-the group responsible for the death.

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #34 by Robert Vendetti, Tom Derenick and Jack Herbert. Somar-Le reveals that the Controllers, Maltusians just like the Guardians, have captured Ganthet, Sayid, and all the remaining Guardians in the Universe. So, John sends Kyle, Guy and Hal to find them. The Controllers are repurposing the Guardians by draining their life energies to resurrect the Controllers.

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #35 by Robert Vendetti, Tom Derenick and Jack Herbert. The Controllers continue to turn Guardians into Controllers while Hal, Guy, Kyle and John band together to fight their way into the compound before they convert Sayid.

HARLEY QUINN #33 by Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Bret Blevins, Otto Schmidt,  and Moritat. After farewells at Mason’s funeral, Harley learns that Ms. Macabre is giving up her business. While a hurricane looms, Harley ends up jumping into a skating match, where she wins the purse and gives it to a homeless person to get new teeth. In the end, Tony and Queenie head to Florida to deliver Mason’s collectibles to some of his friends and Harley and the Beaver hitch a ride. Along the way, they pick up Ivy and it’s off to the South for fun and adventure.

HAWKMAN FOUND #1 by Jeff Lemire and Bryan Hitch. A DARK NIGHTS METAL tie-in. Carter Hall has a continuing dream about being a warrior and marks his days fighting giant hawk creatures. He learns to fly but, each time, his wings come apart and he crashes back to the ground below. One day, after fighting the creatures, he climbs to the top of a cliff and enters a huge spacecraft where he finds his former weapons and makes his way to the Forge of Worlds. He fights a hawk warrior much like himself and it appears he is actually caught in the dream, much like Batman and Superman are, in the Dark Multiverse.

THE HELLBLAZER #17 by Richard Kadrey and Davide Fabbri. John has been captured by the Bardo witches and he tries to explain that he didn’t kill Pirate Jenny. After a trial where they test if he is telling the truth, he takes one of them on a search to find the bad guys and the mysterious ray gun he saw. While they are trying to conduct a spell, the police arrive and Constantine’s companion gets shot. So does John, but he gets shot with the ray gun and ends up in the Bardo Realm.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #34 by Christopher Priest and Pete Woods. While Simon is dealing with a potential alien invasion in space, Superman and Jess are dealing with an earthquake in El Domingo and Batman. Aquaman and Wonder Woman are dealing with a terrorist situation. The invasion gets taken care of, many are saved during the earthquake and the terrorists are taken down, but not before it costs the live of one of the captives. This won’t b good for their public image.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #35 by Christopher Priest and Pete Woods. Wonder Woman is dealing with some of the public outcry from the terrorist incident while an intergalactic bounty hunter ends up teamed up with Cyborg our in space in search of a space cockroach. Apparently one of the creatures ends up on Earth and now the entire planet is in jeopardy, as it breeds and grows, consuming anyone and everyone it can. The team pulls together to stop the creature, but now the footage of the nun’s murder has gone viral and things look really bad for the public face of the League.