DC UNIVERSE Month 4, Part 2

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #26 by Steve Orlando and Miguel Mendonca. With Angor a total mess, and the Adjudicator watching it unfold, Dreamslayer attacks Havok. Batman offers himself up as a sacrifice to the Adjudicator and it seems like he will be the person to save the world. Havok decides to make the sacrifice and Dreamslayer joins him, restoring the planet but sacrificing themselves in the process. In the end, the team finds that Happy Harbor is being rebuilt and Lobo decides he is done and leaves the team. In the epilogue, set 20 years from now, Micron is being beaten badly by Chronos, who has a plan to change the past.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #27 by Steve Orlando and Hugo Petrus. Beginning with Ray Palmer confronting Chronos in the Microverse, we shift gears and see the League continuing to rebuild Happy Harbor. Workers find some fossilized 4-D energy under Sanctuary, which leads to everyone trying to figure out what and why. Chronos arrives and battles the heroes, using his time powers to stop them. Ryan is the only one unaffected and Chronos reveals he needs to get the Imprint so he can keep Ahl from starting hat became a world full of superheroes. Chronos escapes and the team follows him to the Time Promordial, where it appears they have arrived too late.

MERA QUEEN OF ATLANTIS #2 by Dan Abnett and Lan Medina. Orm has left his family to deal with personal matters, which means he has gone off to Amnesty Bay to see Mera. After a long conversation, he attacks her and discovers that she is powerless and can’t breathe water anymore. Just when he is ready to kill her, his family shows up.

MOTHER PANIC GOTHAM A.D. #1 by Jody Houser and Ibrahim Moustafa. We begin ten years after the ending of the last story. As a result of the MILK WARS, Violet is in the future, along with Fennec Fox, looking for her mother and trying to adjust to the new normal. Batman is gone, and a group known as The Collective has taken over Gotham, which is run by Gala. with The Collective making their own superheroes, Violet seeks out The Joker, who tells her where to find her. Meanwhile, it seems Martin Paige is connected to The Collective, who resides in Arkham Institute. And it also seems they have Violet’s mother too. In the back-up, we get a glimpse of how The Collective wants to create a television commercial that will bring Gotham to their way of thinking.

NEW SUPER-MAN AND THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF CHINA #21  by Gene Luen Yang and Brent Peeples. The Justice League of China takes on the giant crab. In the process, Deilan talks to the giant crustacean and Ahn Kwang-Jo gets freed. Injured in the process, something that bothers Avery, he ends up in the hospital. Later, Deilan takes him out to the streets, where he sees that conditions in China are far better than they are in North Korea, which allows him to realize that the crustaceans to get him out of his country was justified. That night, a bunch of sea creatures create his true father: a water dragon named King Munmu. He announces himself as Dragonson-the new champion of North Korea.

NIGHTWING #40 by Sam Humphries and  Bernard Chang. Dick is still moments away from drowning when he head-butts a giant squid to anger the creature enough to free himself. He heads over to visit Baby Ruthless, where he finds out she set him up because of the Judge’ poker chip. With the Judge ready to make his deal to get the Casino from Holderman, Nightwing arrives, taking out the bad guys but letting the Judge get away. Unfortunately, Holderman is holding a teddy bear with a bomb in it and, of course, the bomb explodes.

NIGHTWING #41 by Sam Humphries and Bernard Chang. Guppy is in prison for killing his dad and he talks with Nightwing. We then flashback to see that Nightwing and the casino owner escaped the explosion at the last possible second. Dick goes after the Judge and manages to stop him, with the Judge begging to be let back in the sea.  The detective shows up and takes a shot at him, leading to Dick fishing him out of the sea and locking him up. In the end, Dick reopens his training center and looks forward to reliving his dream life.

RAGMAN #6 by Ray Fawkes and Inaki Miranda. Rory might be dead, which explains why he is talking with his dead fellow soldiers. While Sir Justin and Etrigan battle the demon, Rory’s Marines convince him to fight back, which he does. In the process, Rory comes back to life and defeats the bad guys, at the cost of his fellow Marines. In the end, Rory vows to watch Frank’s son and keep up the good fight.

RAVEN DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS #3 by Marv Wolfman and Pop Mhan. Raven is battling Ash, who has the power to use tentacles to kill. Raven drains the energy from the dead soldiers to keep Ash at bay, then transports way and ends up in Baron Winters’ house.  He is surprised to see her here and she is then transported to Sn Francisco on the day of the Great San Francisco earthquake. She is helpless to assist and can only give comfort to the injured.  She returns again to Winters’ house, before going back to her own home. Later, we learn that Ash is connected to Raven’s father, Trigon the Terrible. In the end, she goes to Teri’s grandmother’s funeral and Raven’s mom shows up!

RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #20 by Scott Lobdell and Dexter Soy. While Jason threatens a criminal who has tis to the Penguin, Artemis and Bizarro hve a chat about his motives. Jason arrives and Bizarro leaves, going off to try and kill a gang of henchmen and reduce the criinal element.  Red Hood observes and comments that he is glad Bizarro didn’t kill them. Later, Artemis goes down into Bizarro’s lab and sees how he has been making synthetic Kryptonite. That’s when Bizarro shows up ad menaces her with her axe.

SIDEWAYS #2 by Kenneth Rocafort, Dan DiDio, and Justin Jordan. Derek frees himself from the clutches of Tempus Fuginaut, arriving at Ernie’s house after a rather nasty fall from the heavens. She takes him to a hospital where he finally gets reunited with is mom, who is pretty stressed out about him being missing. Just when it looks like his secret is going to get revealed, Killspeed shows up and that means Sideways is back in action again.

THE SILENCER #3 by John Romita Jr and Dan Abnett. Remedy and his robot assassins are prepared to kill Honor, but she uses her silencing power to defeat them. All the while, Remedy’s boss, Quiteus, is egging him on to finish her and ultimately a bomb is set off killing everyone but Honor. In the end, Deathstroke gets involved and wants to know what the deal is with The Silencer.

SUICIDE SQUAD #37 by Rob Williams and José Luis. Waller has blown up her data computer and the Squad is now in the digital world with a vengeful Hack. She goes through the process of finding out who killed her, with Captain Boomerang finally confessing that he did this at Harcourt’s bidding. Before her power fades and everyone is eliminated, Hack sends most of the team back into the real world. Just then, The Wall shows up and takes down Hack and the Squad.

SUICIDE SQUAD #38 by Rob Williams and Tom Derenick. With Belle Reve destroyed, the operation gets shut down and the team are sent to other prisons, much to the dismay of The Enchantress who ants to be with Croc. Meanwhile, The Wall goes rogue and begins taking out Rick Flag and his team of soldiers, eventually ending up in Washington, where he uses his powers to control all electronic devices and taking over the minds of everyone in the city. That leads to the Squad being called in to one last mission and take down everyone in Washington.

SUPERGIRL #19 by Steve Orlando, Vita Ayala and Jamal Campbell. After seeing Chase have a verbal confrontation with Director Bones, who she informs that he is being played by Mokkari, we see Ben interviews someone who actually likes Supergirl. Lee is a non-binary, who was saved and befriended by Supergirl. Lee, who is bullied at school, eventually comes out to Lee's Parents, but things are still bad at school until Supergirl shows up, giving Lee the strength to stand up to the bullies. Ben posts his article on Catco, which may be able to change National City’s view of Supergirl. In the end, Supergirl shows up to speak with Ben.

SUPERMAN #42 by Patrick Gleason and Peter J. Tomasi. Welcome to Bizarro World, where we see their version of Superman, Lois and Superboy. After a fight, Superboy leaves in a huff. Meanwhile, Jon and Kathy have used a device of Kathy’s creation to pierce the Multiverse and land here, where they encounter the Bizarro version of Superboy. They come back home and Jon races to Metropolis, here his parents hassle him about having been to Hamilton County and neglecting his chores. That night, while lying in bed, Bizarro Superboy arrives!

SUPERMAN #43 by Patrick Gleason and Peter J. Tomasi. While Nobody talks with Kathy, as she has been assigned by Superman to watch Jon, Boyzarro is here and refuses to go back to his world, as his father mistreats him. Superman discovers the boy and that leads to he and Jon taking Boyzarro home, where Superman battles Bizarro while Bizarro Lois Lane swoons over him. In the end, we see the Legion of Fun plotting to finish off Bizarro and his family.

SUPER SONS #14 by Peter J. Tomasi and Carlo Barberi. Lois is on assignment in Gotham, which is where Superboy is, hoping to protect his mom from Talia. Dmian joins the fray and fights with his mom while Jon has a run in with his own mother. In the end, Talia, who feels Batman has ruined her son, understands why Damian wants to be good, although she doesn’t agree with his decision. She abandons her mission and the two Super Sons walk away, renewing their friendship.

TEEN TITANS #18 by Benjamin Percy and Scot Eaton. Gar is still under the effects of Pixie and enjoying hanging with Joran, ho is going to use Pixie on an entire theater filled ith kids . The Titans figure out that Pixie is actually being used on these kids to control them and decide to bust into the big Nevrlander launch. They get surprised to see Gar there and try to take him away, but he changes into a monster, against his will. Unfortunately, they can’t defeat everyone as the entire audience is now under control of Pixie and poised to attack them.

THE TERRIFICS #2 by Ivan Reis, Jeff Lemire and José Luís. The team is facing the image of Tom Strong and, when they try to remove the antenna from the distress beacon, they wake the giant monster Unicron that they are standing on. They quickly flee the Dark Multiverse, coming back to Stagg’s lab.  As Mr. terrific leaves to figure out the deal with Tom Strong, Linnya reveals how she was sent by her parents away from their destroying world but they ended up safe and she grew up in the Dark Multiverse. Then the team is transported away and end up with Mr. Terrific. It seems what happened in the Dark Multiverse has affected them so they can never be far apart from each other.

TITANS #21 by Dan Abnett and Paul Pelletier. Donna is still locked up on the Watchtower and that means Roy gets to apologize by phone. Meanwhile, The Brain and Mallah keep working on their master plot. It seems that every person who uses the drug allows Brain to get smarter and get him closer to world domination. But he has also created a damper that allows him to mask his plan from the world, so the Justice League think Roy is crazy. This leads to him having a knockdown, drag out fight with Nightwing and Wally. In the end, Roy tangles with Cheshire.

TRINITY #19 by James Robinson and Jack Herbert. The interrogation continues, and it’s revealed that Steve Trevor is asking the questions. This takes us back to Skartaris, where Diana gets her sight back and Superman gets some of his powers back.  They head off into battle against Deimos’ army and Warlord, still alive, arrives with his army. Defeating the bad guys, our heroes are sent home, here it is revealed that Trevor is really Deimos, who disappears. That means the heroes need to find Steve.

TRINITY #20 by James Robinson and Jack Herbert. Steve has been captured by Deimos and is being transformed. The trinity goes off to find him, facing a bunch of creations sent out by Blue Strike Security. In the end, they find Steve, but he is now a rampaging monster set to attack them.

WONDER WOMAN #42 by James Robinson and Jesus Merino. Jason is back and is in the dark about what happened to him and how he got his armor. Grail has been spotted in Germany and that means Jason and Diana fly off to engage her. In the process, Jason explains how he met Grail and she had saved him during a battle with the Deep Six. Arriving in Germany, Jason goes off to fight Parademons while Diana fights Grail. Diana defeats her and gets her in the lasso, where she reveals how Darkseid wants to build an army to open a doorway to Themyscira. This gives her time to recover and head back to Darkseid, who is ready to put his plan into motion.

WONDER WOMAN #43 by James Robinson and Marco Santucci. Jason is now at ARGUS and Steve is testing out his skills. Steve admits that he will work with Jason, although he doesn’t trust him. Meanwhile, Diana is interrogating and fighting with the captured Furies to find out Darkseid’s plan. Darkseid creates a Boom Tube that sucks ARGUS to him in he Amazon Jungle, leading to a final face-off between Wonder Woman and Darkseid.

DC UNIVERSE Month 4, Part 1

ACTION COMICS #999 by Dan Jurgens and Will Conrad. General Lane pays a visit to Lois and Jon, but that starts out badly as he immediately begins an argument about whether Superman should be trusted. Meanwhile, Superman saves the Earth by destroying an asteroid threatening the planet and finds a rare crystal in the process. Upon returning to Earth, he decides that the Phantom Zone is a cruel place to keep the Cyborg Superman. So he creates a cell to house him in out of the crystal. Releasing Henshaw, he convinces him to go into the cell, so he can live with the memories of his family and friends. Superman heads home and, as Clark Kent, gets General Lane and Lois to bury the hatchet.

AQUAMAN #34  by Dan Abnett and Kelley Jones. Corum Rath is bummed out because Aquaman has joined up with the Ninth Tride to take down the Silent School. He joins up with his longtime friend Kadaver and they go to the source of Atlantean magic where they confront the Old Gods. The Gods give Rath the opportunity to use the power ti defeat Aquaman, but they touch Kadaver, who is transformed by it.

BANE CONQUEST #10 by Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan. Bane has made his team and now they are off to get Kobra. But first, they trick a Korean General into giving up the codes that will allow them into the country to kill the Naja-Naja.  

BATGIRL #21 by Hope Larson and Scott Godlewski. Batgirl gets involved on a case involved several women who have been put into comas after using a face cream called Bio Glass. The results in Batgirl and Jim Gordan teaming up to get to the solution. It seems that Bio Glass is made from an alien organism that is trying to put itself back together by following the tubes of cream and sucking its’ arts from the victims. They confront the creature and manages to destroy it by hardening it with bleach.

BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY #20 by Julie Benson, Shawna Benson and Roge Antonio. It seems like the Birds are falling apart, as Gus is dead, Batgirl has been playing Oracle again and Huntress has been visiting her mom in prison. Fenice is up for release from prison, but the judge has been payed off and that sends her off to Arkham. Huntress scopes out the judge’s house, learning that Calculator is responsible for the payoff. She also runs into Burnrate in the process. They tangle and Huntress gets away. Later, Claculator and Burnrate break Blackbird and Fenice out of Arkham. Next stop: the Birds.

BATMAN #42 by Tom King and Mikel Janin. Ivy has taken over most the entire word, except for Batman, Catwoman and a boy who is allergic to vegetables. She is so upset by this, she has Superman beat Batman to death. But she brings him back from the dead. Bruce finds himself in a hospital where is nurse is Harley Quinn.

BATMAN #43 by Tom King, Mikel Janin and Hugo Petris. Batman talks to Ivy through Harley while Catwoman talks to Ivy directly. Ivy’s biggest problem is that she has been scarred by killing mobsters during The War of Jokes and Riddles. Bruce has Selena distract Ivy and knock her out, giving him time to free her from controlling Harley. Reunited with Harley, Ivy releases control on the world and agrees to seek treatment. Also, Bruce explains that Ivy DIDN’T kill the mobsters; that was really The Riddler’s doing.

BATMAN BEYOND #18 by Dan Jurgens and Phil Hester. Ten is battling Payback while 

Terry is saving his own life and that of Stalker. Stalker actually saves Terry, calling it payback for Batman saving him from Payback. Payback teleports Batman to him, where he is tortured. Bruce figures out that Payback is actually NOT Kenny, but Kenny’s father seeking revenge for his son’s death. Since Bruce can’t do it, Matt is off to save the day…as Robin.

BATWOMAN #13 by Marguerite Bennett and Fernando Blanco. Kate goes to visit Beth in the Sanatorium, only to find that she has gone out on a camping trip. Julia is on her way to meet with Kate in Brussels, where Kate is going after Safiyah. This leads her to her family home, which she hasn’t been to in 15 years. Safiyah is there and the pair begins to fight, with Safiyah insisting she had nothing to do with the attack on Coryana. She reveals that she is being set up  Knife is with the twins who run the Kali Corporation.  Just as she is about to slit the throat of the male twin, a mysterious voice convinces her not to. When she goes to the front of the plane they are in, we see Beth is now Alice.

BLACK LIGHTNING: COLD DEAD HANDS #5 by Tony Isabella and Clayton Henry. Cleveland is a war zone, cops are dead, Lightning is on the run and the police are interrogating the alien known as Sssears, who was responsible for the gunfight that left Cleveland a mess. Meanwhile, Black Lightning gets a tip and goes after Tobias Whale . He finds him in a warehouse, along with Miss Pequod. Using special gloves that shuts down Lightning’s electrical powers, Whale beats up our hero. Usagi shows up and turns off the juice, but he gets killed by Whale, meaning the gloves are off and Whale can kill Lightning.

DAMAGE #3 by Tony S. Daniel and Robert Venditti. After a flashback from Damage’s first mission, we go back to Damage battling Wonder Woman confronts Damage. The pair beat on each other before Damage runs out of time. Diana gets the lasso around him and they both see what he has had to deal with. Damage takes her out in his last few seconds and gets away. In the end, Wonder Woman meets with Batman while Colonel Jonas gets another team together to take out Damage.

DARK NIGHTS METAL #6 by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Greg Capullo and Mikel Janin. With the Earth fallen to the Dark, Wonder Woman and Kendra continue to fight their way towards Batman and Superman. As Wonder Woman tries to free the rest of the trinity, the heroes of Earth 53 arrive to continue the fight with the other heroes. The Trinity roars back into action, wearing armor made of the 10^th Metal, which they use to create armor for Aquaman and Green Lantern. Carter Hall remembers that he is NOT the Dragon, which leads him into battle against his former captor. The Batman Who Laughs has the Over Monitor captive and that leads to a battle between The Batman Who Laughs and Batman, with an assist from The Joker. Kendra defeats Barbatos and the heroes join together to use the power of Element X to restore the world. In the end, Bruce hosts a dinner party, where he explains that the Source Wall has been broken open, which means it is time for a new age of heroes to join the future fight. Batman has a pan and that includes a Hall of Justice for the heroes, which will lead directly into JUSTICE LEAGUE: NO JUSTICE.

DEATHSTROKE #29 by Christopher Priest and Diogenes Neves. Deathstroke kills Claire, but not really, as it’s a fake bullet with a red gel capsule. Tara attacks him for what he had done to her in the past and that’s when New Super-man arrives to engage in combat, as does his son, who just discovered that Willow killed Etienne, and his super powered ex-lover Isherwood. Together, they take down Slade, who has discovered that “Billy” is not an implant, but just his imagination. Slade is taken into custody and finds himself in Arkham Asylum. Meanwhile, Rose and Kiâu Jiao-Long settle their differences and Hosun finds out where he stands.

THE DEMON HELL IS EARTH #5 by Andrew Constant and Brad Walker. The gang continues to fight lesser demons while Belial continues his plan for world domination. In the end, even though Merlin has a way to defeat Belial, they are too late, and Belial is the ruler of the world.

DETECTIVE COMICS #976 by James Tynion IV and Javier Fernandez. After a flashback where Cass gets saved from the Yakuza by Clayface, we shift to a therapy session between Cass and Leslie Tompkins. Leslie tells Bruce that Cass needs some help. Meanwhile, the Talons are in the process of robbing a barge when Batwoman, Luke, Azrael, and the Colony show up to stop them. Later, they reconvene, and it looks like Batwoman is ready to take the lead position in the Colony. Tim meets with Bruce, who has figured out that Tim is looking to resurrect the Gotham Knights program. That leads to Tim storming out, but he comes face to face with Ulysses, ho has a jump drive with everything off of Future Tim’s computer.

DETECTIVE COMICS #977 by James Tynion IV, Javier Fernandez, Eddy Barrows, and Eber Ferreira. Future Tim Drake is in college and finds out that the Colony has gotten the President to declare Gotham as a No Man’s Land and Batman is now hunted. Batman initiates his Brother Eye protocol and finds himself staring down the barrel of Batwoman’s gun, ending the standoff with her shooting him. Tim, dressed as Robin arrives. This leads us back to the present, where all of this has been shown to present day Tim by Ulysses, who ants Tim to initiate Brother Eye now. After Luke Fox tells his sister that he is leaving Foxtech to join the Colony, Tim meets with Batman, where they team up to take out some bad guys with guns.

DOOMSDAY CLOCK #4 by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. The new Rorschach is revealed to be the son of Dr. Malcolm Long, who once spent time trying to work the case of the original Rorschach. Reggie Long’s parents died after the alien invasion and that leads to him ending up in an asylum, where he became friends with an institutionalized Mothman. After a time, Reggie decides to break out of the asylum with Mothman, who eventually changes his mind and goes back. Wearing a Rorschach mask that Mothman had made for him, he goes to Karnak to kill Ozymandias, who reveals he is dying from a brain tumor. Back on our world, we see that all of this was revealed because Saturn Girl was looking inside of his mind. We also see that the hospital psychiatrist who is treating him is really Batman in disguise and that he and Alfred believe he knows too much and they don’t know enough.

THE FLASH #42 by Joshua Williamson and Dan Panosian. While it looks like Grodd is no long for this world, Wally defeats Raijin, but still doesn’t know where Iris has been taken to. Barry is with Godspeed and the hero turned villain turned hero wants to make Barry proud, even if Barry is setting August up for a fall if it all goes bad. Wally and Avery take on Meena and Godspeed saves the day. Barry gets his powers back, but the results are disastrous as all of his friends are now under Grodd’s spell.

THE FLASH #43 by Joshua Williamson and Carmine Di Giandomenico. Grodd has tapped into the Speed Force but Barry, in an attempt to take it back, has allowed Grodd to take control of the “Flash Family”. S Barry is chased by Wally, he mentions Iris, which temporarily break’s Grodd’s control. This doesn’t last long before Wally is beating up his long-time mentor again. Barry ends up at Grodd’s feet, where he reveals he had gathered all of the pieces of the wand and proceeds to tough Grodd with it, curing him of the disease that was killing him. When Grodd tries to turn off the wand, it creates a Negative Speed force that appears to destroy Central City.

GREEN ARROW #38 by Ben Percy and Juan Ferreyra. Oliver Queen is finally on trial and things look grim. He makes his own opening statement, explaining that he has tried his best but is probably not the best person in the world. But he is no murderer. Things look bad until the murdered Wendy Poole arrives in court, allowing Oliver to go free and the Ninth Circle to finally be defeated. In the end, Star City is once again Seattle and Oliver is ready to make some great changes there.

GREEN LANTERNS #42 by Tim Seeley and V. Ken Marion. John Stewart is giving

Simon and Jessica the story of the Order of the Steed. Because the group is protected by their religion, the pair must convert and go under cover and find the kidnapped heroes. Once there, they hear from the High Rider, who has been arranging the kidnapping, so they can convert the heroes into avatars of the religion. In the end, Scrapps heads off on her own to take out the Night Rider, but Night Pilot has been turned and now stands in her way.

GREEN LANTERNS #43 by Tim Seeley and V. Ken Marion. Jessica uses her powers to try to free the captured heroes from control of The Steed, while Simon goes after the Durlan priest and Scrapps takes on the High Rider. In the end, all is restored, everyone is defeated and Simon reveals, after being reunited with Night Pilot, that he was a match for Jessica, who may have issues with her ring falling in love with her.

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #40 by Robert Vendetti and Rafa Sandoval. Hal is still imprisoned on Jekku by General Zod, which means, despite the Guardians angry about it, the Green Lantern Corps is invading the planet, led by Kyle, who is boosted from his injuries by Hal’s ring The Corps fights it out with Zod’s family and takes a bit of a beating. That’s when Hal uses his will power to get free and is ready to bring the fight to Zod.

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #41 by Robert Vendetti and Brandon Peterson. Hal Jordan is here to beat on Zod, who has gotten the residents on Jekku to worship him like a god. But the Guardians show up and make him back off, taking back Kyle’s ring in the exchange. In the end, Zod has a master plan, which includes having gained knowledge from the ring. That leaves an unaware Corps at odds with each other as what to do next.

HARLEY QUINN #39 by Frank Tieri and Inaki Miranda. The Penguin continues his crusade against Harley, who is continuing her war against the criminals in town. This leads her into a battle against Victor Zsasz, who duels with her in the middle of Yankee Stadium, who she defeats with some help from Red Tool. Meanwhile, Penguin has Signalman captive and his continuing army arrives, including The Ventriloquist. In the end, Coach figures out that the Harley doll ties into all of this. But she can’t reveal this as the doll dealer turns out to be False Face and he is working with Hugo Strange.

HARLEY QUINN #40 by Frank Tieri, John Timms and Moritat. Coach is held captive along with the real Frank, because False Face was the Fake Frank. Harley is in an ambulance and Hugo Strange is there to torment her. Bad idea, as Harley takes him down. Meanwhile, Croc and Mr. Freeze tangle until Harley shows up to take Freeze down. It seems Croc has some feelings resulting from the ay he was treated in the Freak Show back in the day. In the end, Coney Island is in flame and Harley asks Croc to help her put it back together.

THE HELLBLAZER #20 by Tim Seeley and Davide Fabbri. We find Constantine performing a dark ritual to conjure up his ex-girlfriend out of Hell, who will tell him what is going on with his other ex-girlfriend Margaret Ames.  She explains that the Day brothers have escaped from Hell and are possessing Margaret, which a bounty hunter being hired to find her and bring the Days back to Hell. Meanwhile the Days come across a gang of teens and, just about when a fight is looking to start, The Huntress arrives. As she prepares to shoot Ames, Constantine arrives and takes the arrow for his ex. The Days leave, and now John must face the gang alone.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #40 by Christopher Priest and Pete Woods. While part of the

Justice League and the JLA are trying to figure out how they're going to keep the Watchtower from crashing to Earth, the rest of the two teams are still dealing with the repercussions from the chemical spill in Estes Park. After a lot of arguing on the Watchtower, the team pulls together, and Frost uses her ice power to create a heat shield around it. That’s the good news. The bad news: it’s still crashing towards Earth.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #41 by Christopher Priest and Philippe Briones. As Simon and Jessica returns for space, we see that the Watchtower has crashed in Africa and the heroes are trying to stop two warring factions that are trying to salvage the ship. Red Lion shows up with the military to take control of Watchtower, leading to a battle where it looks like he has defeated Cyborg, but not before Wonder Woman is injured from a bullet ricochet. Meanwhile, Batman and Aquaman take down the Fan and try to figure out exactly ho he is.

Another fresh batch of first issues

ARMSTRONG AND THE VAULT OF SPIRITS by Fred Van Lente, Cafu and Darrick Robertson.  Part of Valiant’s classic duo returns with a special wine tasting, featuring Faith, Punk Mambo, Quantum and Woody and Archer. They crack the vault, only to have to run into one of the last sons of Canaan,w ho blame Armstrong for their ills over the centuries.  It’s a wild team-up with a surprise visit from Ivar the Timewalker. It looks great and I always liked this character as the big oaf he has always been. A cute little one-shot that brings some of Valiant’s most popular heroes together.

ASSASSINISTAS #1 by Tini Howard and Gilbert Hernandez. First off: if you’re going to et Gilbert Hernandez illustrate it, you’ve already won me over! Hat having been said, this is a wildly entertaining tale of a group of lady guns for hire: their past, their present, their families and their lovers. The dialogue is fun and the script is rife with great lines while Hernandez does what he does best: draw quicky characters. This is not a book for everyone, as I know many who don’t care for Hernandez’ art srtyle. Me-I LOVE IT!

30 DAYS OF NIGHT #1 by Steve Niles and Piotr Kowalski. 30 DAYS is a classic tale which was made into several movies. Niles has rebooted the story for a new generation and it’s great! The story holds up really well and Kowlaski’s art is traditional comic style art, not the wonderful abstract work of Ben Templesmith. Will Niles change it up from the original? I’m curious to find out. If you have never read the original, score this! And if you have, score this anyway!

DARKHAWK #51 by Chad Bowers, Chris Sims and Kev Walker. Possibly the last Marvel character we needed to see again. But, lo and behold, here he is. Chris Powell has found a secret amulet that gives him the powers of Darkhawk. Now he’s all grown up and is a cop, but still has his connection to the amulet. It’s 20 pages of…nothing. This was, by far, the weakest of the LEGACY themed one-shots that brought back “classic” characters. Nothing to see here…move along.

DAYS OF HATE #1 by Ales Kot and Danijel Zezelj. When you start a comic with a quote from Steve Bannon, you know it’s going to be off the rails. And it is! Set in the not so distant future, the world is devastated and. While it is not a wasteland, the country is pretty messed up. With political prisoners, undercover operations, bad bikers and all, this book is so intriguing on where it will go over the course of the next year. It’s a wild ride that will keep you guessing page after page. The art is dark and has a noir feel while Kot’s writing is right where it needs to be. Revealing any more could give it all away.

DEJAH THORIS #0 by Amy Chu and Pasquale Qualano. Dynamtie launches this new series with a 16-page story that introduces the Princess of Mars to us. There is an additional 8 pages of sketches, inked art and other extras.  The story is okay, and the art is reminiscent of Terry Dodson. The highlight, besides the 25-cent cover price, is the amazing Jay Anacleto cover, which truly makes this book worth the 25 cents! Also, be on the lookout for the extremely limited Elias Chatzoudis variant!

DOCTOR STRANGE DAMNATION #1 by Nick Spencer, Donny Cates and Rod Reis. Doctor Strange uses his magic to rebuild Las Vegas, but all magic has a price and this time, it means playing Poker with Mephisto for Doc’s soul. Doc cheats and gets caught, causing Mephisto to claim many Marvel heroes as his pawns. This leads to Wong getting involved and putting together a new team made up of Moon Knight, Brother Voodoo, Iron Fist, Blade, Man Thing, Ghost Rider, and Bloodstone. Fun beginning. The art is fine and the story is cool. Donny Cates has been on fire lately and you can feel his influence at parts of the tale.

FAITH’S WINTER WONDERLAND SPECIAL #1 by Marguerite Sauvage and Francis Portella.  Faith ends up in Wonderland and it’s not quite what Lewis Carroll imagined. This is a pretty harmless piece by Sauvage with killer art from Portella. In fact, it’s pretty much an all-ages story, except for a couple of scary monsters, so feel free to read it to the kids.

FRANKENSTEIN ALIVE, ALIVE! TRIO by Steve Niles and Bernie Wrightson. IDW collects the three issue series in one book. If you never bought these when they came out, it is a beautifully loving tale about the monster from the creature’s perspective. Lavishly illustrated by by the late great Berni Wrightson, Niles’ story is a touching one. Issue #4 is on the way, with bonus material by Kelley Jones. It’s eight bucks, but well worth it!

ICE CREAM MAN #1 by W. Maxwell Prince and Martin Morazzo. What has dead people, a killer spider, a werewolf and an ice cream man? This book! Equal parts mystery story, science fiction adventure and EC horror tale, this is a fun romp with great art by Morazzo. Two scoops please!!!

  

INFINITY COUNTDOWN: ADAM WARLOCK #1 by Gerry Duggan and Mike Allred. Adam Warlock is back from the dead and ready to rock! But he awakens in the clutches of Kang the Conqueror, who reveals that the universe is in great danger. In an effort to save it, Warlock accepts a mission which will result in Kang getting the time gem. He travels back to Ancent Egypt and encounter Rama Tut, who is the original version of Kang. This lead-in to the forthcoming INFINITY COUNTDOWN is a nice introduction to the character. The story is okay, the dialogue is a bit heavy-handed, but Allred’s quirky art is amazing, as always.

INFINITY COUNTDOWN PRIME by Gerry Duggan and Mike Deodato Jr. The search for the Infinity Stones continues, this time mostly focusing on the reborn Wolverine. But the Super Skrull appears, and Magus is killed. Oh yeah: Ultron/Hank Pym is back and an elderly Gamora makes an appearance. This is a great lead-in to the upcoming mini-series that leaves more questions than it gives answers. Deodato’s art is amazing, as always and Duggan hits on all cylinders with this outing.

MARVEL 2 IN ONE #1 by Chip Zdarsky and Jim Cheung. MARVEL 2 IN ONE was always one of my favorite titles because there were some classic storylines, like the Pegasus Project, that got dropped here. No-it wasn’t just a Thing team-up book, although many of the stories were one-offs. This title comes roaring back with Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm teaming up again to search for the rest of the Fantastic Four, missing since the end of SECRET WARS. The story is full of heart and the art is spectacular! Will this lead to the rebirth of the FF? I sure hope so. But, for now, this is a great way to start to bring back the characters I love so much.

THE MIGHTY CRUSADERS #1 by Ian Flynn and Kelsey Shannon. Back in the 1960’s, Archie Comics had this fun attempt at a superhero title. Then they rebooted the characters, some of which got their own series and some of which became second bananas. This book puts the team back together and it’s a mess. There is a bunch of unexplained back story that just leaves you confused and wanting the good old days. Don’t get this, but pick-up the reboot of THE SHIELD, which actually told a great story with a nob to the classic character.

NINJAK VS. THE VALIANT UNIVERSE #1 by Eliot Rahal and Joe Bennett. This book acts as a bridge between the live-action story, featuring Michael Rowe, John Hennigan, Jason David Frank and others with the comic book universe. Ninjak is given an assignment which sets the rest of the heroes after him. The artwork is decent while the story is a little contrived. But I can’t wait for issue #2 to see where it comes. Seek out the variant, which features pictures of the live action stars on the cover

OLD MAN HAWKEYE #1 by Eric Sacks and Marco Checchetto. In the tradition, and timeline, of the original OLD MAN LOGAN, we get this spin-off. Superheroes have been all but wiped out and the few that survive live in the wastelands. One of them is Hawkeye, who is slowly going blind but still has one last mission to fulfill, even if he does it alone. The story feels like it will be fun, although I don’t know if 12 issues isn’t too long, and the art by Checchetto looks great. Definitely worth a taste, but I have doubts on it being able to hold interest for a year.

PHEONIX RESURRECTION #1 by Matthew Rosenberg and Leinil Francis Yu. Spoiler: JEAN GREY IS DEAD. Well…one of them is. Yeah, the past Jean Grey DIED in JEAN GREY #10(sort of) and now the Pheonix has returned in the form of OUR Jean Grey. Yeah… totally confusing. But there’s an anomaly that is causing the dead to come back, even Wolverine, and Jean is one of them. When this series is done, we will have a new team led by the recently deceased Jean Grey called X-Men Red.  The story is a bit filled with holes, but the art is nice. Hopefully, it all makes sense before this mini-series ends.

PUNK’S NOT DEAD #1 by David Barnett and Martin Simmonds. Feargal Ferguson is trying to deal with life and being the kid who gets tormented. Luckily, he has a new, mostly unseen protector is his life. He’s a dead rocker named Sid. And the Department for Extra-Unusual Affairs is also looking into it. This is one wild, crazy book which has some wonderful nods to the British Punk era, while rooting itself firmly in present day. This may be the best book yet from Black Crown/IDW.

QUANTUM AND WOODY  #1 by Daniel Kibblesmith and Kano. Valiant resurrects this oddest duo in superhero comics and it’s a gem! Here’s two “brothers” who don’t get along but they’re gonna try and make it as a team. Filled with great dialogue and killer art, this has always been a favorite of mine. My only question is: when do we get the goat back!?

SECRET WEAPONS #0 by Eric Heisserer and Adam Pollina. Valiant unleashes the first in a series of prequels to their 2017 mini-series.  Story telling on this is awesome, with the art of Pollina and the layout of the book, which tells the tale of one character over the course of a year. Masterful story telling that ties in beautifully to the mythos of the series. I can’t wait to see the next installment!

THE SNAGGLEPUSS CHRONICLES #1 by Mark Russell and Mike Feehan. So, it’s the 1950’s, McCarthyism is in full swing and you’re a pink lion playwright who is also a closeted homosexual. That’s the basis of this story which takes our beloved Hanna Barbera character and turns his word upside down. Guest appearances by Huckleberry Hound, Dorothy Parker and Lillian Hellman.

STRANGER IN PARADISE XXV by Terry Moore. AT LAST!!! I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to see these characters I know and love so well, back! I have always been a huge fan of Moore’s work like ECHO, RACHEL RISING and MOTOR GIRL. But this is the book that first hooked me. The line work is clean, the story is not to overly wordy and Katchoo, Francine and Tambi are back. Rumor has it this will tie his other series together and I can’t wait to see how! Bravo, Terry! Spopiler:" they all come together in this series...just saying!

TALES OF SUSPENSE #100 by Matthew Rosenberg and Travel Foreman. Black Widow is dead. But is she REALLY? Clues seem to point otherwise and it’s the unlikely alliance of Hawleye and Bucky to try and figure it out. Part James Bond action flick and art mystery novel, this was entertaining, even if there seem to be a whole lot of red herrings floating about. Definitely worth getting the next issue to see where it goes.

VENOM INC. ALPHA by Dan Slott, Mike Costa and Ryan Stegman. In an effort to pump some life into the sagging sales of VENOM, we have the first of several months of cross-overs between popular titles. In this one, Eddie Brock is back in his Venom guise, but Flash Thompson is floating around to get the symbiote back for himself, so he can continue his space-based, crime fighting ways. But someone else is in the game too, and they want to create their own army of Venoms. The art is great, but this just gets silly and, if you want the full story, you have to read this, two issues of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, two issues of VENOM and then the OMEGA book. But wait: next up-a crossover with the X-MEN BLUE.

X-MEN RED #1 by Tom Taylor and Mahmud Asrar. Jran Grey is back from the dead and she has found the world she knew completely changed. So she puts a new team together consisting of herself, Wolverine, Honey Badger, Nightcrawler and Namor. After things go bad, they find themselves at odds with the humans and it looks like Cassandra Nova might be pulling their strings. Taylor writes a good story and Asrar’s art is okay. How many X-books do we need? Apparently Marvel thinks we need one more.

DC UNIVERSE Month 3, Part 2

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #24 by Steve Orlando and Neil Edwards. Vixen is in the Red and states how she is prepared to save the world for all the "Wishers" trapped here. While Promethea battles the Queen, Vixen arrives with her army of Wishers and they take down the Queen’s tower. Frost gets her curse back and uses her powers to kill Tsaritsa. Promethea eaves, promising she can come back if needed. Ray returns to the team and so does Batman, who is ready to take them to the next hot spot in the world.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #25 by Steve Orlando, Miguel Mendonca and Mikyu Jung. Batman has arrived and, while criticizing the team for the damage that occurred, The Ray introduces Aztek to the team.  While Batman continues to complain and explain the reasons why he started the team in the first place, he decides the team needs one last mission-to Angor. As it turns out, the mission is just Batman, Black Canary and Dreamslayer. Arriving to see the homeworld devastated, Dreamslayer says that someone or something is keeping him from rebuilding his world. The Adjudicator arrives, claiming responsibility. In the end, Havok arrives to hopefully help rebuild.

MERA QUEEN OF ATLANTIS #1 by Dan Abnett and Lan Medina. Orm, the former Ocean Master, is living a happy life with his wife and son, when he hears on television about everything going on with his brother and wife and the recent events in Atlantis. Meanwhile, Mera finds herself battling a villain known as The Eel. After defeating him, she contacts the Justice League, to inform them that she is currently a Queen in exile. She also discovers that Rath paid the Eel to attack Mera. She later meets with the State Department regarding her status and Orm may be getting ready to resort to his old life.

MOTHER PANIC/BATMAN SPECIAL #1 by Jody Houser and Ty Templeton. MILK WARS Part 2. Gather House has returned and now it is being run by someone named Father Bruce, who happens to dress as a bat. She heads off to Gather House and discovers that milk is the reason for the return. She encounters his children sidekicks who call themselves the Holy Sidekick Choir of Merciful Justice. Father Bruce reveals how, after his parent’s death, Alfred came through his window with milk and his life was changed. Mother Panic battles Father Bruce and his sidekicks and eventually frees him by destroying the source of the milk. He follows Mother Panic back to her mother’s house and learns a bit about her powers. Joined by Fennec Fox, the trio heads off to meet Cave Carson. In the back-up, we get another “vintage” tale about Formless Girl.

NEW SUPER-MAN AND THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF CHINA #20 by Gene Luen Yang and Brent Peeples. While Keenan and Avery share some quiet conversation, the rest of the League battles an energy drining beast clled The Sleez. Keenan and Avery arrive to help, but so does the Green Lantern Corps of China, who are looking to sprehend our heroes. The team manages to get aay and Keenan and Avery share a kiss. Meanwhile, in North Korea, Ahn Kwang is questioned by the state police, because he has been watching THE SIMPSONS on television. The police beat him up, but they get theirs when two giant spider crabs crawl out of his sweat and proceed to move him across the border into China.

NIGHTWING #38 by Sam Humphries and Bernard Chang. We find that Svaboda shot Nightwing because of the influence of The Judge’s golden poker chip. Nightwing goes to visit Guppy who has killed his father because of The Judge’s influence. He heads to the Justice Tree to discover it has ben poisoned and he heads off to the casino to have a confrontation with The Judge. In the end, Nightwing gets beaten down and The Judge reveals that he is blind.

NIGHTWING #39 by Sam Humphries, Phil Jimenez, and Jamal Campbell. Dick is held captive by The Judge who reminds him of the second time they met, when Dick was in college. The Judge then goes on to explain that he was the First Judge of Bludhaven. After letting a guilty man go free, he was thrown in the ocean, but survived and was changed. Over time, he ended up at St. Jude's Monastery, where he sewed his eyes shut. With the water rising, he leaves Nightwing tied to a chair where it appears he will drown.

RAGMAN #5 by Ray Fawkes and Inaki Miranda.  Ragman fights to save Frank’s possessed son, while battling demons in the process. But he stops when he realizes that these demons are actualy possessed townspeople. The Shining Knight arrives and tells Rory that Etrigan is actually using him. To save everyone, Rory agrees to give the cloak he wears to Z’Dargall: give up the magic hell cloak, despite it resulting in the loss of his own life. With that, the demon kills Rory.

RAVEN DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS #2 by Marv Wolfman and Pop Mhan. Raven is facing off against Azure, who soon departs and Raven heads home, troubled by images of

Trigon the Terrible.  Soon, she heads off to the hospital, as her friend Teri’s Grandmother is dying and there is nothing Raven can do. Later, she helps decorate the family Christmas tree, although she doesn’t understand why. Azure observes this and then leaves in a van, while Raven follows. Attack helicopters arrive, destroying the van and killing Azure in the process. Baron Winters observes this and Raven observes him, leading to her transporting to a place where she gets attacked by a tentacled monster.

RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #19 by Scott Lobdell and Marcio Takara. Jason and Artemis go out on a date and end up in the Batcave, where they can have a conversation without Bizarro being able to listen in. Meanwhile, Bizarro meets with Solitary, who may be the person responsible for the Outlaws coming together in the first place. With Bizarro becoming more and more dependent on Kryptonite to keep him super smart, he ends up being found by Jason and Artemis passed out in a Gotham bar. With that, they bring him back home, aware that they realy need to keep an eye on him.

SIDEWAYS #1 by Kenneth Rocafort, Dan DiDio and Justin Jordan. Derek was a regular high school kid until Challengers Mountain dropped into Gotham City and this teenager ended up with powers which allow him to open a doorway in space and transport a ywhere in the world. While trying to navigate high school life and be an Internet sensation as a hero, he hears a strange voice in his head. He creates a rift and transports right into the face of the voice: a massive creature who has judge our hero to be a problem for the space-time continuum and is sentenced to death.

SHADE THE CHANGING GIRL/WONDER WOMAN SPECIAL #1 by Cecil Castellucci and Mirka Andolfo. MILK WARS Part 3. Shade is trapped in a world where Wonder Woman has come to believe that she is a 1950’s mom named Wonder Wife. With the help of Cave Carson’s Cybernetic Eye, Shade and Loma are able to finally crack open the walls of sanity and convince Diana that she is really Wonder Woman. Using the eye, they travel off to their next stop in order to stop Retconn. In the back-up by Magadalene Visaggio and Sonny Liew, ALHPA 13 is rebooted as CHRYSALIS THE ETERNITY GIRL.

THE SILENCER #2 by John Romita Jr and Dan Abnett. Honor Guest continues to fight Underlife assassins Breacher and Bloodvessel, eventually taking them down. This leads to her calling The Switchboard, who sends out a cleanup crew to dispose of the bodies and make everything right again. She goes home, after cutting what’s left of her disheveled hair, which leads to her and her husband having some “quality time”. The next day, she contacts Remedy and arranges a meeting, where he wants her to do some house cleaning for him. When she refuses, he brings out the heavy artillery, which she says she can take down in a matter of seconds.

SUICIDE SQUAD #35 by Rob Williams and Eduardo Pansica. The government has their own new Black-Ops Super Soldier in the form a The Wall. While Killer Croc is trying to regain his humanity and King Faraday is profiling the team for Waller, who leaves to witness the birth of her grandchild, the team is off fighting, and losing to, Damage. In the end, all of Belle Reve’s system are comprised by someone looking for revenge: Hack.

SUICIDE SQUAD #36 by Rob Williams and Eduardo Pansica. The team arrives back in Belle Reve to find that everyone has been released and Hack is in control of everything, demanding to know who her killer was. Hack has her hands-on Waller’s secret documents and wile Killer Croc eats most of the other prisoners, Waller decides to do what she must to save her secrets. That means blowing up Belle Reve!

SUPERGIRL #18 by Steve Orlando, Jody Houser and Carmen Carnero. What to do? If Kara changes into Supergirl, she saves all of her friends, but will reveal her secret identity. Agent Ocampo shows up, allowing Kara to head into the photo booth and change into Supergirl. She Mr. Bones are up to when Mokkari arrives, intent on shutting her down permanently.

SUPERMAN #40 by James Robinson and Doug Mahnke. Superman and son plan on celebrating the anniversary of the destruction of Krypton by watching it via a holographic projection.  They witness a planet which is about to suffer the same fate and the two head off to save it. Only, the people don’t want to be saved, as they believe their destruction is God’s will. Not wanting his interference, they use the magic of prayer to null his powers. Luckily they are saved by a scientist, who while believes that their religion is a joke and he convinces them that they must find a way to save the people.

SUPERMAN #41 by James Robinson and Ed Benes. Superman and son, alon with rogue scientist Klain, are trying to get off of Galymane before it explodes. In tow, is an egg containing Klain’s children. Despite Superman wanting to save the citizens of the planet, the populace arrives, killing Klain in the process. While Superman doesn’t agree with their decision, he respects it. Superboy heads off to find a new world for the children as Superman stays with the citizens until the planet explodes. Eventually he reunites with his son and they head back to Earth for apple pie and ice cream.

SUPER SONS #13 by Peter J. Tomasi and Carlo Barberi. Damian is still trying to fit in at his new school, but is aggravating more classmates than he is making friends with. Things get worse when Talia shows up, trying to convince her son that he has a higher calling and delivers his League of Assassins outfit to him. This leads the boys to take down Ezar, an assassin that Damian trained, who reveals that Talia is in town because of the whole thing going on in SILENCER. Not only that, she has someone on her hit list…and her name is Lois Lane.

SWAMP THING WINTER SPECIAL #1 by Tom King, Jason Fabok, Kelley Jones and Len Wein. Swamp Thing finds himself stuck in an endless loop of never-ending Winter , trying to protect a young boy. After what seems like years, he realizes that, to save the Green, he must kill the boy, which he does. The second story has no words, because Len Wein died before the lettering could be finished. It features Jones’ artwork and features Batman, Solomon Grundy and Matthew Cable.

TEEN TITANS #17 by Benjamin Percy and Scot Eaton. Because Titans Tower-West is still a mess following the Super Sons of Tomorrow story, the team is forced to move out. Beast Boy goes to a baseball game and is mistakenly called Yeast Boy, which just shows how far his stock has dropped. He gets met by a fan who take him to her clubhouse for “lost boys” called Nevrland. They introduce him to a VR implant that allows the user to live in many worlds at once. Gar gets injected with it and he feels a change. Meanwhile, the rest of the team saves a school bus filled with kids that are in peril because one of the kids freaked out. Of course, that kid appears to have been under the same influence of the VR tech.

THE TERRIFICS #1 by Jeff Lemire and Ivan Reis. Simon Stagg is trying to access the Dark Multiverse by tapping into Metamorpho’s Nth Metal, which is not a good thing.  Mr. Terrific shows up with Plastic Man and they all get transported into the Dark Multiverse, where they find themselves standing on a giant corpse. They also run into

Linnya, who most of us know as Phantom Girl. The signal that brought them there. That signal was sent by… Tom Strong!

TITANS #20 by Dan Abnett and Paul Pelletier. Roy is beating up Intergang bad guys when Cheshire arrives and helps him. The two go off together and try to patch up things in their lives. Meanwhile, Donna Troy is dealing with the loneliness of being held on the Watchtower until the Justice League can figure out if she is a danger to the world. Back on earth, Arsenal and Chershire find the pure sample of Bliss, which leads them back to his apartment to celebrate. When he wakes in the morning, she is gone and so is the sample. It turns out she is really working for The Brain and Monsieur Mallah.

TRINITY #18 by James Robinson and Patch Zircher. The Trinity continues to tell their tale from being on Skartaris. They learn that The Warlord is really just an apparition, because he is battling Deimos. They go off to find his daughter Jennifer and make their perilous journey on unicorns. After defeating several of Deimos’ horde, they get to Shamballah where they meet Jennifer and find that Travis Morgan is dead. They also discover that they are all aging rapidly, just like the corpses of the pilots they found along the way.

WONDER WOMAN #40 by James Robinson and Emanuela Lupacchino. Jason and Diana have survived their perilous fall, and both are healing rapidly. They go to Garrett Memorial Hospital, where they find that Silver Swan has killed everyone and destroyed all her research. Jason heads home and Silver Swan goes to attack him, but Diana arrives and defeats her. She is taken into custody and, maybe someday, there will be a cure for her. Jason decides he is hampering his sister and decides to leave. But a mysterious energy field takes him away before Diana can say goodbye to him. Meanwhile, Steve and company continue to fight the Furies.

WONDER WOMAN #41 by James Robinson and Stephen Segovia. Darkseid is pissed off that Steve Trevor and his team defeated them, meaning he can’t get the relic he wanted. He’s also upset because Earth means nothing to him now that Themyscira is out of his reach. Diana informs Steve that she has had to battle a number of individuals with power and that she thinks Veronica Cale may be responsible. In the end, Jason comes back, now wearing armor.

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.