DC REBIRTH Month 17, Part 2

HARLEY QUINN #29 by Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Mirka Andolfo, Michael Kaluta and Tom Derenick. As Harley continues her campaign for Mayor, the current Mayor enlists the help of Scarecrow to take her out of the game. During a three-way televised debate, Harley gets hit with Fear Gas and begins to hallucinate. As a call for an ambulance is made, Ivy steps up and kisses Harley with her special lipstick, bringing the candidate back to normal.

HARLEY QUINN #30 by Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner and John Timms. Harley has Ivy use her powers to expand Central Park by a few blocks, looking to gain sound ground in the election. The Scarecrow uses his fear gas on the Mayor in an effort to get paid, resulting in a nightmare where he is humiliated by Harley Quinn. Harley meets with Mason and they renew their love interest but, in the end, she is forced to drop out of the race because Mason has been kidnapped.

THE HELLBLAZER #15 by Tim Seeley and Jesús Merino. John dives into a dead body to confront the Nordic dwarf brothers, where he convinces them to let him drink a bottle of mead that lets him remake the world in his image. He finds himself a successful rock star before Superman and the League show up to talk with him. He beats up Superman and finds that, in this reality, Margaret is a drunk. He convinces her to drink the mead, which restores everything to where it was and saves her life in the process. In the end, the two end up together, but he leaves her because it’s the right thing to do.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #30 Written by: Bryan Hitch and Fernando Pasarin. Simon and Diana have been possessed by The Darkness. Meanwhile, Sovereign has arrived and has Aquaman tell Mera how he used parts of Cyborg’s body to recreate himself. Then he takes Sovereign to see not until Sovereign reveals herself as Hippolyta. In the end, she tries to convince Diana to let the Darkness envelop the world and that may just happen.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #31 by Bryan Hitch and Fernando Pasari. As the team and their kids battle the Darkness, the Darkness tries to convince the League why they should kill their kids. Batman arrives just as Mera runs a trident through Future Aquaman and resurrects Simon. Hunter is ready to kill Wonder Woman until he learns that Diana had sacrificed herself in the future to save him. They all figure out that it takes love to defeat the Darkness and channel that feeling to do so. The twins, along with Future Aquaman take the Darkness away by Boom Tube and everyone else go back to their own timeline.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #16 by Steve Orlando and Felipe Wantanabe. Dr. Aut, through his journal, reveals how he got Ray to come to the Microverse and how they made their way to the Ignition point. Once there, he reveals how he knows nothing can save the Multiverse and he plans on letting it die, with or without Ray’s help. He puts Ray in prison and reveals his new persona of The Null. Ray manages to get a message out to Ryan, gets free and uses his Bios Belt to transport Aut away. In the end, and back in the present, Aut reveals himself as The Null and proclaims the end of the world is coming.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #17 by Steve Orlando and Ivan Reis. Aut shrinks the League to smaller than microscopic size while Ray and Ryan fight Aut to save them. Ray manages to restore the League and then shrinks himself and Aut in size, where he tries to shows him that the damage to the Microverse isn’t as bad as Aut believes. That doesn’t work and Ryan leaves Aut shrunk, while enlarging and destroying the machine, thus saving the Microverse. Ray reunites with Preon, but stays behind while telling Ryan that he is truly the Atom now. In the end, we visit the Ghost Zone where Afterthought and an old villain from MIDNIGHTER plot.

NEW SUPER-MAN #16 by Gene Luen Yang and Brent Peeples. Kenan finds himself in Chinatown in 1937 where Slam Bradley shows up to battles “the yellow peril”. His Fu Manchu looking guide explains that really they are just Chinese citizens and their evil look is just an illusion. Kenan takes down Bradley and his guide reveals himself to I-Ching, who turns into All-Yang. Later, they visit a German gentleman and he is incinerated by All-Yang, who explains he was an officer who stole the image of the Red Jade Dragon from the Chinese back in 1900. He sends Kenan back to the real world with instructions to retrieve the Red Dragon and then not only free Master I-Ching but unleash his final super power. He wakes to find himself in a fluid tube where his mom has been letting him heal for the past two weeks. He enlists the rest of the Justice League of China to help him, but they run into the REAL Justice League on the way.

NIGHTWING #30 by Tim Seeley and Miguel Mendonca. Nightwing saves a local Senator from the Kobra cult when Raptor arrives and tries to take the Senator out. Nightwing to the rescue, but Raptor escapes after causes some havoc. The Senators response after it is all settled is to announce he is going to be harder on crime by shutting down the city’s Rec. Centers and shelters. Nightwing means with Detective Svoboda, who tells him she can’t help him anymore because it could cost her her job. In the end, Nightwing meets the Run-Offs, who refuse to help him, so he sells his soul to Blockbuster by promising to leave Bludhaven forever in return for tracking down Raptor.

NIGHTWING #31 by Tim Seeley and Miguel Mendonca. Raptor attacks Desmond, leading to the latter changing to Blockbuster in front of a huge crowd. Meanwhile, Nightwing and Huntress go after the Whale Enders Gang, who are looking to steal horseshoe crabs from a medical supply company. The leader injects herself with the serum from the crabs, turning into a monster and then passing out. Elsewhere, Defacer finds out that Pigeon is working with Raptor. In the end, Dick is back at the casino when an out of costume Raptor steps up to the table.

RAGMAN #1 by Ray Fawkes and Inaki Miranda.  Rory “Twig” Regan and a small group of soldiers enter a tomb in the Israeli Desert looking for treasures and find a mysterious stone container. They get attacked by strange red eye soldiers and killed, except Rory who gets enveloped by rags which have come from the container. Switching to the present day, Rory, who works at a junk shop with his dad, is undergoing PTSD therapy in Gothsam. Back at the store, Rory finds some of the rags he brought back from Israel and he consumed by them. Amidst flashbacks of the slaughter in the desert, Rory finds himself battling another raglike creature. Later, he returns to the shop, to find it in flames.

RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #15 by Scott Lobdell and Dexter Soy. Batman’s team is concerned there has been no crime in Gotham and learn that the Outlaws have handled that. Later, Bizarro, who may be losing his intelligence, allows himself to be captured by Batman’s team. The Outlaws come to his rescue, but still get taken out by Batman’s group. In the end, Batwoman says it is time to call HER.

SUICIDE SQUAD #27 by Rob Williams and Barnaby Bagenda. A killer spider robot shows up at Belle Reve and is taken out by Deadshot. Upon examination, the word ARGENT is found on the robot. After finding out where it came from, the team is launched into space to dock at an old space station. Once there, they face a monster and a robot, under orders by President Truman to protect the craft. The monster is part of the security in place by those living here: Captain Rick Flag and Doctor Karin Grace-the ORIGINAL Suicide Squad. Later, they find a photograph book with a picture of the original leader of Task Force X, King Faraday.

SUICIDE SQUAD #28 by Rob Williams and Elonora Carlini. While part of the team finds themselves being attacked by killer robots, Harley Quinn, Katana, Croc and Boomerang find out the Red Wave monster, a threat faced by the original Suicide Squad in their first adventure, infected them Flag and Karin, but they took the creature’s heart and they ended up being immortal. Flag explodes the brain bombs at 50%, knocking them out and taking them on a flight to the moon to take on the Red Wave. In the backup, set in post war days, Faraday meets the original Suicide Squad and sees a captured Starro the Conqueror.

SUPERGIRL #14 by Steve Orlando and Jose Luis. In events that occur after NEW SUPER-MAN #11, Supergirl meets with Kenan Kong and I-Ching in an effort to get control of her powers. Rocket Red #77 gets shot down over Mongolia, leading to him looking to defend himself. Supergirl and Kenan arrive to calm things down and that leads to a battle. She eventually uses freeze powers to destroy his armor and convince him that he should be helpful. In the end, they all help to fix the damages that were caused. Back in National City, Cat informs Ben and Linda Danvers that it is time for a counterstrike against Supergirl.

SUPERMAN #32 by James Bonny and Tyler Kirkham. With Lois saved, Deathstroke beats a hasty retreat, leading Superman to stay with Lois. She goes to cover a fire at a propane factory and that’s just designed by Deathstroke to bring her and Superman out. Slade is ready to kill Lois when the factory explodes, leaving Superman to save Lois and Slade to get away. He leaves a note saying "Game Over Boyscout", as we learn all of this was set up by Amanda Waller.

SUPERMAN #33 by Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason and Doug Mahnke. While the people of Apokolips are in disarray with no Darkseid to lead them, Superman and Lex take out some crooks together. Later, some denizens of Apokolips try to take Lex back to their planet and he sends out a distress call to Superman just before it happens. But Superman ignores them, as Lex is known for sending out distress calls on the Apokolips frequency before. Lex Bots finally track down Superman and he and Jon make a Mother Box which transports the whole family to different places on Apokolips.

SUPER SONS #9 by Peter J. Tomasi and Jorge Jimenez. Damian and Jon find themselves fighting Ygarddis' army, who plans on defeating them, following them back to Earth and taking over our planet. Kraklow arrives and reveals that Hard Line and Big Shot aren't even real-just clay memories that think they are real. Krakalow. He turns out to be good after all, and defeats Ygarddis, sending the boys back home. In the end, the girls use the clay to create their own mini version of a superhero team to continue the fight against Ygarddis.

SUPERWOMAN #15 by K. Perkins and Sam Basri. As Lana struggles woith her identity, she gets a visit from Lois. Later, Maxima reveals all sorts of Black Holes appearing throughout Metropolis, which seems to be the result of a villain know as Midnight, who absorbs energy and powers from people she consumes. Lois visits Steel and they are attacked by Midnight, leading to Jon being absorbed by Midnight. In the end, Lois arrives back with her friends to inform them that Steel was taken.

TEEN TITANS #13 by Benjamin Percy and Khoi Pham. Kid Flash returns to the team and that leads Damian to declare Starfire the new team leader. But he will only rejoin them if Damian apologizes to him. Meanwhile, Damian tries to get Emiko to join the team and, after she turns him down, they end up trying to stop a huge tidal wave she may have unknowingly caused

TITANS #16 by Dan Abnett and Brett Booth. While most of the team fights Psimon, Mister Twister, The Key and the possessed Gnarrk and Herald, Kid Flash feels th loss of the other Wally West. The teams battle when the mysterious person behind all of this arrives-the Donna Troy known as Troia.

TRINITY #14 by Rob Williams and V Ken Marion. Batman and Wonder Woman are battling against the possessed Superman and Bizarro. Batman leaves with the possessed Jason Todd in tow, so he can perform some tests on him. Meanwhile, Constantine is bleeding out, but Zatanna comes out of her trance to save his life. Circe sends Zatanna into the Pandora Pit, which results in a Demon Zatanna. She arrives at the Wonder Woman battle and drags Wonder Woman, Superman and Deadman back into the Pandora Pits. As Batman fights Bizarro at the Batcave, Circe pushes R’as in to Pits, claiming she can now be whole again.

WONDER WOMAN #32 by James Robinson and Sergio Davila. Wonder Woman, Steve and company have gone to Paria to track down some Parademons. They find them because they give off the same Apokolips energy signatures that was found on Hercules everyone else that Grail has killed. Later, she meets with Hercules' lawyer, who shows her his house and gives him a letter Hercules wrote. It seems she has a twin brother and that leads to her and Blake heading to Greece to find Jason.

WONDER WOMAN #33 by James Robinson and Emanuela Lupacchino. We follow Grail as she moves about the world, killing off the old gods so Darkseid can continue to grow up.

She even destroys the Atomic Knights that A.R.G.U.S. sent to stop her. In the end, she and Darkseid wait to make a move on Jason.

DC REBIRTH Month 17, Part 1

ACTION COMICS #989 by Dan Jurgens and Viktor Bogdanovic, Jor-El shows his son all the ills in the world, including a country about to fire chemical weapons on the rebels, which causes the Man of Steel to head there and stop them. Meanwhile, an agent of Oz has started shooting up the Daily Planet to convince them to stop printing what he calls "fake news". Lois convinces him that she will write an article that he is dictating to tell “the truth”. When she finishes, he attempts to blow up the building and Superman shows up to stop him by tossing him out the window. The terrorist blows up, but Lis and the Planet is safe. In the end, Jor-El tries to convince Jon to come with him to a new planet where everyone has super powers.

ACTION COMICS #990 by Dan Jurgens and Viktor Bogdanovic. Superman continues his battle to try and settle the war in Logamba, which he does by gathering up all their weapons and destroying them. Back at the Fortress of Solitude, Jor-El continues to try and convince Jon that he and the family need to leave Earth for his vision of a new Krypton. Superman arrives in Metropolis where Agents of Oz are trying to kill everyone in the city with a deadly gas. After taking them down, Jor-El arrives with Jon, who tries to convince his dad that leaving Earth IS the right thing to do.

ALL STAR BATMAN #14 by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque, Rafael Scavone and Sebastion Fiumara. Batman is carted off by Briar and the Knight, but apparently Alfred shoots the plane down. He lands on an island, finds a banged-up Bruce but then has to fight the Knight, who is Briar’s son. Bruce helps distract the Knight and we learn is he has been created from Alfred’s leftover cells. In the end, the Knight slays his father and goes off as the new First Ally. In the backup, Batman faces off with Lady Vik, who ultimately kills her father. For killing her mother. She meets with Penguin and delivers the coordinates for the Genesis Engine.

AQUAMAN #29 by Dan Abnett and Stjepan Sejic. While Aquaman and Dolphin bond, Vulko and Ondine finally make their way forward with the help of one of the Shade, who leads them to the Treasury and they find the weapon they need. Meanwhile, Mera and Garth continue to fight with Loke and his followers. Garth gives Mera an amulet that allows her to pass through the Crown of Thorns. In the end, Krush arrives to tell Corum Rath that Aquaman is still alive and Commander Murk stabs him through the head.

BANE CONQUEST #6 by Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan. After getting introduced to the Naja-Naja of Kobra, we see Bane and company taking one of the surviving members of the Triad hostage, looking for information. Since Bane and Kobra are in competition with each other, Dionysus devises a plan to kidnap Naja-Naja. They do, but that doesn’t mean Kobra knew this would happen and show up n the end to take their leader back.

BATGIRL #16 by Hope Larson and Chris Wildgoose. Back many years ago, Batgirl and Robin have a lengthy chat with the guys trying to allegedly kill her friend Ainsley. It turns out that Ainsley got addicted to the nanobots she had designed and ended up dying from it. Back in the present, Dick and Barbara tussle with the folks at the half-way house Ainsley was at and find they are all under the control of the Red Queen. After getting the situation under control, they discover the Ainsley’s sister Edith is the Red Queen, trying to avenge her sister’s death.

BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY #15 by Julie Benson, Shawna Benson and Roge Antonio. A “super-flu” has hit Gotham, leaving the Comissioner in the hospital. But it has also hit Alfred, Batman and almost every man in Gotham, including villains. The team, with the addition of Harley Quinn, Catwoman.  Batwoman, Orphan, Spoiler and Gotham Girl, prepare to investigate. That’s when Wonder Woman shows up and joins in too.

BATMAN #32 by Tom King and Mikel Janin. Joker, Riddler and Batman all fight each other until Batman pulls out a knife and threatens to stab Riddler. Joker stops the blow with his hand, explaining “that’s funny”. The war ends and, back in the present, Bruce again proposes to Selina and she says yes.

BATMAN #33 by Tom King and Joelle Jones. Batman and Catwoman head through the desert to meet with King Tiger, who leads them into Khadym: a place that is off limits to the outside world. It is also where Talia Al Ghul is. Meanwhile, Alfred informs Dick, Jason, Damian and Duke about their “father’s” intentions with Selina to mixed reactions.

BATMAN THE DAWNBREAKER #1 by Sam Humphries and Ethan Van Sciver. In this DARK NIGHTS METAL tie-in, we see the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne as it happened on Earth-32.  Bruce is given e Green Lantern ring, transforms into a Green Lantern and kills Joe Chill. He then proceeds to go about being a vengeful vigilante, killing The Penguin, Scarecrow, Bullock and even Jim Gordon. The Guardians catch wind of it, and Bruce kills all of them, along with all the Corps. Becoming Batman The Dawnbreaker, he destroys the world and then is brought into the Dark Multiverse fold by the Batman Who Laughs. He travels to Coast City and attacks Hal Jordan, who is transported to safety by Dr. Fate, leaving Batman The Dawnbreaker to rule Coast City.

BATMAN THE DROWNED #1 by Dan Abnett and Phillip Tan. In this DARK NIGHTS METAL tie-in, we meet Bryce Wayne of Earth-11. As a defender, Bryce put on a costume when Aquawoman arrived to conquer the surface world. Bryce killed her leading to Atlantis submerging Gotham. Bryce performed surgery on herself and took some pills which allowed her to breathe underwater and also gave her super powers, allowing her to create a Dead Water army. She defeats Atlantis, but drowns her world in the process. She creates her own special Bat Signal to let the universe know she is in charge of Earth-11. The Dark Multiverse Batman Who Laughs arrives and sends her to drown Amnesty Bay. Aquaman and Mera fight her, resulting in Aquaman being wounded and Mera turned into a Dark Multiverse creature. Dr. Fate arrives and takes Aquaman away while Bryce lights her light to say she controls Amnesty Bay now.

BATMAN THE MERCILESS #1 by Peter J. Tomasi and Francis Manapul. A DARK NIGHTS METAL tie-in. Welcome to Earth-12, where Batman is seen holding the dead body of Wonder Woman. In return, he puts on an ancient helmet which totally corrupts him and he kills Ares along with anyone else who stands in his way. The Batman Who Laughs tells him about the Dark Multiverse and he heads to Langley where A.R.G.U.S., the D.E.O., Task Force X, Cadmus and the government have come together to seek a solution. General Lane drops a Valhalla bomb on Langley to try and stop the Merciless, who absorbs the bomb. In the end, we learn that Wonder Woman survived the battle with Ares and tried to remove the helmet. This only made the corrupt Batman mad and he killed her.

BATMAN BEYOND #13 by Bernard Chang. Batman has to shut off some switches in Gotham and tangles with Hacker and then Freon, who is convinced Batman killed her fiancé. Hacker and Shriek team up with Terry to stop Freon, just in time for Terry to go to the end of Matt's Tri-Ball game.

BATWOMAN #8 by Marguerite Bennett and Fernando Blanco. Kate has been captured and drugged by The Scarecrow and spends the issue having bad hallucinations. She eventually comes out of it and she and Colony Prime break free. The Scarecrow hits them with another toxin bomb and they hallucinate some more.

BLUE BEETLE #14 by Christopher Sebela and Scott Kolins. After watching a bad movie about an alien invasion, Jaime and his friends go on a cross-country road trip, to celebrate the fact he will soon graduate and get to work for Ted Kord. In the end, they four encounter real aliens and it’s up to Blue Beetle to stop them.

CYBORG #17 by John Semper Jr. and Will Conrad. Cyborg convinces his other world counterpart to give him the OTAC virus antidote, which they try on Exxy with positive results. The two head off to fight the two Anomalys, with Cyborg manipulating code to wipe this world’s Anomalys out. The Digiverse god, disguised as Blue, teleports our world’s Anomaly away. Back in our world, Anomaly's cybernetic followers arrive and threaten to kill all of humanity if they don’t produce their leader.

DARK NIGHTS METAL #3 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. In Smallville, the Trinity, along with Lois, are watching Damian and Jon play guitars. But, with a cry of "Carpe Diem", Barbatos bursts forth from batman’s chest and battles all. In actuality, Superman and Wonder Woman are in Metropolis where it’s been turned to Hell on Earth by Barbatos.  Superman flies off to battles Barbatos in Gotham with little success and Flash arrives to take him to the Oblivion Bar. There we meet the Shadowpact, including Deective Chimp, as Kendra and Nightwing explain what has been happening in the spin-off titles. Green Arrow shows off the arrow he found that is made of Nth Metal. Superman deduces that Bruce’s Carpe Diem was a secret signal telling him he was in trouble, so, as the Dark Multiverse Batman and his Robins show up at the bar, where they kill Nightmaster, the heroes go to the points where the Nth Metal can be found. With the help of Cyborg, Superman crosses over to the Dark Multiverse, only to find out that he read Bruce’s warning wrong and this is really a trap.

DEATHSTROKE #24 by Written by: Christopher Priest and Diogenes Neves. Willow continues to look for Claire, but it looks like she may be falling into some kind of trap. Meanwhile, Wally is spending way too much time spying on Team Defiance. Kid Flash takes some fatherly advice from Deathstroke, even as he tries and often fails to be a kid hero. In the end, Deathstroke is kidnapped by the team that’s out to finish him off.

DETECTIVE COMICS #966 by James Tynion IV, Eddy Barrows and Eber Ferreira. After an intro in the Gotham City of the future, where Batman is an armed vigilante, we go back to Oz's Prison, where both Tims find themselves fighting Doomsday. Later, Future Tim explains how he became Batman, even going so far as to kill Damian when he was too out of control. He also explains that all that happens in the future is Batwoman’s fault. They escape Doomsday and head back to Gotham, where Future Tim tells our Tim to patch things up with Conner Kent, who doesn’t exist in this timeline anymore. Then he takes down our Tim and heads off to kill Batwoman.

DETECTIVE COMICS #967 by James Tynion IV and Alvaro Martinez. As Bruce continues to mourn Tim, Alfred receives Tim's distress signal and Bruce races to the hospital. Tim is revived, explains what has happened and tells him that Kate is going to be killed by Future Tim. Kate is meeting with Belle when she gets called to the Belfry and finds Tim alive. Meanwhile, as the team heads off to find Future Tim, we see that he is spying on Spoiler,  before he heads to Wayne Manor to see Alfred. The team arrives, just in time for Future Tim to activate Brother Eye.

THE FLASH #32 by Joshua Williamson and Christian Duce. We begin with Barry and Wally working together to take down Black Spider and his gang. Later, Barry and Kristen go to Iron Heights, where we see that the warden has no respect for them and even less for the prisoners. He especially hates The Flash. Meanwhile, Copperhead deals with failure by killing one of her men. In the end, Barry gets a surprise visit from Meena.

THE FLASH #33 by Joshua Williamson and Howard Porter. A DARK NIGHTS METAL tie-in. Following events in DARK NIGHTS METAL #3, the Justice League, with the exception of Flash and Steel, get sucked away by a Boom Tube and the Murder Machine and the Devastator arrive. After a bit of a fight, Barry runs to Central City, but ends up falling into the Darkness. All of the League end up in a Batcave battle against their respective Dark Knights.

GREEN ARROW #32 by Ben Percy, Joshua Williamson and Juan Ferreyra. A DARK NIGHTS METAL tie-in. Mr. Terrific teams up with the Gotham Resistance to take on the villains of the Dark Multiverse, even as Croc has been captured and begs to be killed. The team gets to Bane’s Sixth Ring and face off against the Dark Multiverse version of Damian, leading to our Damian accidentally getting shot by Green Arrow. But Damian uses that arrow to slay the Dark Multiverse Damian, revealing how the Nth Metal can kill these creatures. Dr. Fate shows up and spirits them all away to safety, even as Ollie proclaims that they now know the secret of how to kill the bad guys.

GREEN ARROW #33 by Ben Percy and Jamal Campbell. Now that he has been cleared of Wendy Poole’s murder, even though she doesn’t appear to be much help due to her current mental condition, Green Arrow and Emi are back to crime-fighting. He meets with Dinah and they rekindle their romance. Meanwhile, the Ninth Circle gives a vote of no confidence for Moria Queen and Broderick. In Japan, Shado battles some ninjas and we learn that Dante is still alive.  In the end, Ollie is at his own graveside when he gets a visit from his mother.

GREEN LANTERNS #32 by Sam Humphries and Scott Godlewski. Our heroes are trying to enjoy a nice pancake meal, when they receive a distress call that takes them away from their meal. Soon after, Simon takes them to a party where he feuds with Nazir. In the end, the two friends make up and Sion and Jessica try the pancake thing again. But, once again, they get called away…

GREEN LANTERNS #33 by Tim Seeley and Eduardo Pansica. Simon and Jessica ae sent to evacuate the planet Mol which is about to go Super Nova. The Ungaran Regent and his daughter watch from their warship. As Jessica tries to create a construct to keep the Mols safe, the warship gets damaged by a blast from the Super Nova and it appears that the Regent’s daughter may be dying from her injuries.

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #30 by Robert Vendetti and Patrick Zircher. Guy and Kyle resume their normal patrols while John sends Hal to Earth to talk wih Superman about his recent dealings with Sinestro and Parallax. Superman turns into Parallax and they fight, until it’s revealed that this was all in Hal’s mind. Speaking of minds, it seems that Hector Hammond is partly responsible for these weird messages that Hal has been receiving.

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #31 by Robert Vendetti and Patrick Zircher. Hector Hammond is being controlled by aliens from the planet Kroloter and is telepathically begging for help. Hal and Superman show up, but the aliens activate the “God Brain” and that results in Hal finding himself in Coast City with his family and Carol Ferris. Both eh and Superman figure out it’s a dream and snap out of it, leaving the aliens to surrender. However, Hammond kills the aliens before being forcing Superman to shoot him with his laser eyes. In the end, Hammond gets taken to S.T.A.R. Labs and Hal goes to visit Carol, but gets called away before he can see her face to face.

DC REBIRTH Month 16, Part 2

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #14 by Steve Orlando and Ivan Reis. While the rest of the team gets attacked by the Null Army on the surface, Ryan heads off to talk to Moz-Ga.He pleads with Moz-Ga, who says he can’t wish that the Microverse would be okay, but he can lead Ryan to Ray Palmer. Ryan makes his way back to the surface in a Bio-Ship, just as Batman calls for Action Code: Blackout, which takes down the Null Army. The ship takes the team to Ray, who is shocked to see Aut with them, claiming he has doomed them all.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #15 by Steve Orlando and Felipe Wantanabe. Ray Palmer is upset that the League brought Aut to the Ignition Point.  In a flashback, we see how Palmer discovered the Microverse, making contact with Aut in the process. The duo meets up with Preon and they all head to the Ignition Point, but they get caught in a Quantum Storm. Preon uses the Bio Belt that Ray made for her to escape the storm. Ray and Aut make it to the Ignition Point and discover that someone was responsible for all of this and it wasn’t a natural disaster.

NEW SUPER-MAN #15 by Gene Luen Yang and Brent Peeples. Deadshot has used Katana’s Soul Taker to apparently kill Emperor Superman sword and then stabs Kenan with it too. I-Ching battles his evil self while the China White Triad shows up with orders to kill everyone. The Justice League of China along with Dr. Omen, arrive to join the battle and also get Kenan out of the fray. The Evil I-Ching arrives and turns Emperor Superman into Emperor Doomsday. After being patched up by his parents, Kenan heads back into battle, only to fall to Emperor Doomsday. He awakes in 1937 in American Chinatown.

NIGHTWING #28 by Tim Seeley, Javier Fernandez and Miguel Mendonca. Mr. Minos, who we believed was dead, has been masquerading as Tiger and selling weapons to the Second Hand. It turns out that Minos is merely a hologram created by Cadmus. The Skull Girls find the real Lotti and also find a way to hack into the device that is strapped to the captive Nightwing’s head. They have also found a way to get into Minos’ system and upload a virus, which distracts him long enough for the real King Tiger to show up and kills the hologram. In the end, Shawn keeps Mouse from killing Blockbuster while  Huntress and Nightwing end up making love. Unfortunately Shawn sees it.

NIGHTWING #29 by Tim Seeley and Paul Pelletier. In Part 2 of this DARK NIGHTS METAL tie-in, Nightwing joins up with the Gotham Resistance to battle Mr. Freeze. We also see that the cut he received on his forehead from Doctor Hurt has opened up again and was providing him with trippy visions of the Dark Multiverse. The team ends up at the Riddler’s Labyrinth where they are attacked by Dark Multiverse Robins. They find a secret Court of Owls made of the Metals of the Mantling and that leads them back into battle with Mr. Freeze again. In the end, it seems the Dark Multiverse Batman has managed to possess members of the Suicide Squad and the Teen Titans.

RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #14 by Scott Lobdell and Joe Bennett. Red Hood and Artemis stop Professor Pyg and his dollotrons from ripping off an armored truck and cure the dollotrons with a cure created by the now brilliant Bizzaro. Red Hood and Artemis head back to their headquarters when they are picked up by a tractor beam which takes them to their NEW HEADQUARTERS, thanks to Bizzaro. They discover that Zsasz has escaped Arkham and he is stopped quickly thanks to Bizarro's quick response program.  Later, Bizzaro checks in with the computer, where he is told that his brilliance won’t last forever.

SUICIDE SQUAD #25 by Rob Williams, Giuseppe Cafaro and Agustin Padilla. Waller has been possessed by Gulag and that leads Harley to unleash weapons to stop her. As Waller is about to press the button that will initiate the Squad’s brain bombs, Captain Boomerang arrives to save the day. Katana uses her sword to exorcise Gulag from within and Waller, pretty pissed off, rallies the team to head out and kill the People. Boomerang takes out Tunguska, then find that Direktor Karla has committed suicide. Harley hacks into the computer system and explodes the brain bombs on the Suicide Squads that were created across the world by Karla. In the epilogue, Batman and Frost meet with Waller and send her packing. And Rick Flag makes a reappearance with original Squad member Karin Grace, who insists they need Waller’s help.

SUICIDE SQUAD #26 by Rob Williams and Stjepan Sejic. In Part 3 of this DARK NIGHTS METAL tie-in, Amanda sends the team to Gotham, where the Dark Multiverse has invaded. Damian Wayne, Nightwing, Green Arrow, Harley Quinn and Croc team up to penetrate the mysterious mountain in Gotham, only to find a possessed Poison Ivy awaiting them, along with an equally evil Starfire. They also end up fighting the transformed Teen Titans and the Suicide Squad, where Croc sacrifices himself to save the rest of the Gotham Resistance team. The other get free and encounter the Mad Hatter before Nightwing tells Robin that he believes Batman is dead. In the end, Mister Terrific arrives with a plan to help save the day.

SUPERGIRL #13 by Steve Orlando and Robson Rocha. Supergirl fights the Emerald Empress but, when the frozen Cyborg Superman appears, the crowd turns ugly against our hero. When Indigo arrives to join the fight, Supergirl discovers that the Eye of Ekron is controlling the Emerald Empress. Meanwhile, Selina and Magog battle Lar-On, while Ben Rubble shuts down the Catco app. Supergirl destroys the Eye which causes the Emerald Empress to disappear. Indigo fights with Supergirl and has the upper hand, until Kara’s father destroys the automaton. In the end, Cameron Chase, Eliza and Jeremiah all resign from the DEO. Chase heads off with Kar-On while Kara’s “parents” start a new life. Indigo and It seems that the New Director, Mr. Bones, has taken control of Indigo and Magog and is working with Mokkari. It is revealed that Zor-El appears to kill him in the end.

SUPERMAN #30 by Keith Champagne, Ed Benes, Tyler Kirkham and Philip Tan. The Parallax controlled Superman battles with Sinestro and luckily the Weaponers of Qward arrive to help. They transport Sinestro and Superman to the Anti-Matter Universe, where Sinestro tries to extract Parallax from Superman by showing us all of Clark’s deepest fears. Parallax leaves Clark’s body and moves about through a group of the Weaponers. A restored Superman breaks free from Sinestro’s construct, steals his ring and uses it to contain Parallax, giving the creature a promise that he won’t let Sinestro abuse him again. Sinestro and Lyssa Drak transport out of the Anti-Matter Universe and Superman is sent back home by the Weaponers.

SUPERMAN #31 by James Bonny and Tyler Kirkham. Superman is at S.T.A.R. Labs where a researcher is threatening to blow up the place because he didn’t get the promotion he feels he deserved. Meanwhile, Lois and Jimmy are in Bolivia, where she has a meeting with a drug lord. Unfortunately, we discover that Deathstroke murdered them, which leads to her wanting to interview him. That leads to her heading off to Prague where, after he saves her from The Throng, he takes her to an observation tower and rants her the interview. Later, back in Metropolis, Deathstroke meets Lois and reveals that she is next on his contract hit list.

SUPER SONS #8 by Peter J. Tomasi and Jorge Jimenez. Our heroes get saved from a creature named Ygarddis by two girls named Big Shot and Hard Line. It seems Ygarddis is a living planet that destroyed their planet known as Eoroe, which was filled with heroes. He ate the planet and everyone on it except for the girls and a hero named Kraklow, who worked with some kind of magic clay. They can sure use Kaklow now as the book ends with Ygarddis arriving with all of the heroes he ingested as his army.

SUPERWOMAN #14 by K. Perkins and Stephen Segovia. Supergirl and Lana battle the transformed Amos, who they defeat and bring to him to the Scabbard, where they try to reverse the Red Sun poisoning. That is when Maxima shows up and they all fight. We discover there are two Maxima’s and the good Maxima arrives to send the evil one back to their planet. The trio go back to check on Amos and we see that someone is watching Lana.

TEEN TITANS #12 by Benjamin Percy and Mirka Andolfo. . In Part 1 of this DARK NIGHTS METAL tie-in, the Teen Titans go to Gotham City where a giant mountain has appeared. Damian enters the Riddler’s Labyrinth, where he gets saved by Green Arrow. They get joined by Harley Quinn and Killer Croc where they face a possessed Riddler in a killer robot. Now sooner do they defeat the Riddler, then they run into Mr. Freeze.

TITANS #15 by Dan Abnett and Brett Booth. Nightwing has been caught by Roy and reveals he has been a spy for the H.I.V.E. When he and Wally were captured by the Fearsome Five, Gizmo put nanite spyware in him. He just discovered that and now has figured out where Bumblebee's memories are being held.  After Tempest reveals he is in love with Lilith, they head off to gather the memories, they get a distress call from H.I.V.E. and they head there. They arrive to discover that Herald, Gnarrk and Psimon, who recently got teleported out of Riker’s Island, are all being mind-controlled. Herald stabs Nightwing, leading Waly to race them backwards in time. Unfortunately, this is too much for Wally’s heart and he dies in Dick’s arms.

TRINITY #13 by Rob Williams and V. Ken Marion. While the Trinity battles the possessed Outlaws, Constantine is transported to Northern Victoria Land where he confronts a demon before seeing what Circe and Ra’s al Ghul are up to. They now have Zatanna and Deadman in their possession and Ras stabs John in the chest, which allows them to take control of him too. He reveals that Deadman will be able to take possession of Superman and they send Boston Brand away. He arrives at the battle and takes possession of Superman

WONDER WOMAN #30 by Shea Fontana and David Messina. Sasha arrives to tell Steve and Etta that General Thomas is keeping them there, but she has picked her side and releases them to help Diana. Meanwhile, Hamilton Revere reveals that he has tried to synthetically create Wonder Woman's DNA, but has failed because he doesn’t have the god powers in the mix. Either way, he has created soldiers with enough powers to challenge her. Etta and Steve arrive and Diana is able to use the Perfect to return the soldiers to normal. Revere gets taken away by the people who used to work for him while Etta blows up the compound, keeping Diana’s secret safe.

WONDER WOMAN #31 by James Robinson and Carlo Pagulayan. We are introduced to Paul Jackson, who lives up in the woods by himself. Soon Grail shows up and he is revealed to be Hercules. She drains him of his life force, so she can give it to baby Darkseid, who is now becoming a teenager. Meanwhile, after defeating Giganta, a probate lawyer arrives to tell Diana that she's sole heir to Hercules' fortune.

DC REBIRTH Month 16, Part 1

ACTION COMICS #987 by Dan Jurgens and Viktor Bogdanovic.Metallo has been captured by ARGUS, but Mr. Oz shows up and tears put Metallo’s Kryptonite heart. Oz’ followers unleash all sorts of disasters throughout the world and Superman tries to save everyone, but, in the end, he can’t, as he ends up in Loganda. Oz arrives and teleports himself and Superman to the Fortress of Solitude, where himself to be Jor-El.

ACTION COMICS #988 by Dan Jurgens and Ryan Sook. Jor-El reveals that Lor-Van was in favor of Jor-El wanting to save Krypton but was against him using space arks, so he had Kelex delete Jor-El's research. Jor’El was now forced to make a single spacecraft to send Kal-El to Earth. Just as Krypton was exploding, a mysterious blue light took Jor-El away, just as he watched Lara die. The light brought him to Earth, badly disfigured, where he was cared for by an African family. Jor-El heals and tries to help the family by stealing food from the warlord there. But the family’s youngest son turns him in and the warlord forces the boy to kill his family. He was then forced to watch man’s inhumanity to man throughout history and that made Jor-El decide that he made a mistake sending his son here. In the end, he tells Superman that he is here to take him away forever.

AQUAMAN #28 by Dan Abnett and Stjepan Sejic. Kadaver battles Aquaman, who manages to defeat him and he and Dolphin escape. Krush learns of the defeat and makes it a point that he wants to tell Corum Rath. Rath has discovered that Mera and Garth are trying to gain access to the kingdom through the Crown of Thorns and he sends out troops to confront them and kill them both. Meanwhile, Vulko and Ondine make their way into the Catacombs where Vulko is using his knowledge of the elders of the past to get past the Specters of the Dead. Unfortunately, you can greet a Specter with no face and that causes them to flee for their lives.

BANE CONQUEST #5 by Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan. Catwoman tasers Bane and runs off, as the building is locked down and Trogg is trying to get a hold of Bird, Zombie and Bane. Bame busts loose and he and Catwoman team up. She puts her thumb drive in the mainframe and it locks Dionysus out of the system and erases the information on the Russians. In the end, Catwoman tasers Bane again and takes back her information. This leads to Trogg, Zombie and Bane back to Dionysus, who needs to explain what he was doing.

BATGIRL #15 by Hope Larson and Chris Wildgoose. While Mad Hatter flips out and has a heart attack in his hospital bed, Batgirl and Nightwing discover Doctor Philbert, who is possessed and has become the Red Knight. Dick puts her into a MRI machine and, for whatever reason, it turns her into ash. Devastated by accidentally killing her, Dick and Barbara kiss. In a flashback, we learn that Ainsley was developing hallucinogenic nanobots and had some sort of relationship with the now late Dr. Philbert. Ainsley was also being followed by some characters that seemed to want to have her dead.

BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY #14 by Julie Benson, Shawna Benson and Marcio Takara. Black Canary and Huntress are chaperoning a school trip to the old Colonial Gotham Village while Batgirl is helping Batman and his family escape from a death trap. With Canary and Huntress out of town, Batgirl must handle all the crime fighting in town, where she gets help from Catwoman and Poison Ivy again, where our main character figures out how much she really misses working with her regular team since she has to keep reiterating that they're not to kill anyone. Back at the village, a Native American Shaman named Blackfire tells a tale about Deacon Blackfire, which leads to the kids examining a cave where they find that Deacon Blackfire is still alive. Canary and Huntress fight Blackfire, stealing his magic staff that provides him with his power and his immortality, an then trap him in the cave again. In the end, they explain to the kids that this was all a part of the tour, and not real. Barbara arrives and the trio share S'mores by the fire.

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BATMAN #30 by Tom King and Clay Mann. Kite-Man has made the mistake of ending up on the wrong side of the war.  In the end, Batman and Riddler have teamed up and we discover that Riddler knew that Kite-Man was a joke and they knew he would talk even after Riddler killed his son.

BATMAN #31 by Tom King and Mikel Janin. Read this AFTER DARK DAYS METAL #2. While Joker kills one of his henchmen, Catwoman spies on him, breaking a window and giving Batman, Riddler and the team of villains to gain access to him. Kite-Man uses a parachute to get rid of the villains loyal to Joker. Kite-Man tells Riddler that he took his victory because Riddler took his son and Riddler knocks him out. That leaves Batman alone with Joker and Riddler.

BATMAN THE RED DEATH #1 by Joshua Williamson and Carmine Di Giandomenico. As the Dark Multiverse begins to take hold, Batman shows up, but not to assist The Flash. He wants the Speed Force and is willing to kill The Flash to get it. Taking out Barry, he straps him to the Batmobile and drives head on into the Speed Force. When he emerges, he is Batman The Red Death: a combination of Bruce with Barry’s powers. The Dark Multiverse Batman offers Bruce a chance at saving the world. Red Death confronts Wally and Iris, both of whom have rapidly aged because Bruce tampered with the Speed Force. Barry arrives and they race, with Barry being saved by Doctor Fate, who pulls him out of the battle. Red Death promises to kill him at a later time while we are told Batman The Murder Machine is coming.

BATMAN THE MURDER MACHINE #1 by Frank Tieri, James Tynion IV and Riccardo Federici. Cyborg is on the Justice League Watchtower, telling his father that Gotham and Central City have fallen to the invaders from the Dark Multiverse. Batman transports to the Watchtower, but it’s not OUR Batman. This Batman is from Earth-44 and became the revenge seeking person he is because Alfred was murdered by some of Batman’s Rogue’s Gallery but not before he created hard light constructs of himself that went on and eliminates all of his emotions to make him most efficient. After downloading all of S.T.A.R. Labs information, this Batman and the other Batmen of the Dark Multiverse rip Earth-44’s Cyborg to pieces, including tearing his head and spine out of his body. On our Earth, we see Cyborg defeated and Detroit being the newest target of the Dark Multiverse. They have also taken over the Justice League Watchtower and converted it to their own evil design.

BATWOMAN #7 by Marguerite Bennett and Fernando Blanco. Batwoman is injured in the Sahara desert and cries out for Safiyah. She gets attacked by member of the Colony who have been transformed into monsters. Flashing back, we see that several hours ago she was tracking down the Many Arms of Death and was shot down while going after The Needle. After taking a hit during a sandstorm, we flashback to 6 months ago kin Switzerland where Kate met with Beth, who suddenly fades away with a bullet hole in her head. Back in the present, she heads to an oasis and begins to drink. She begins to hallucinate and it reveals that The Scarecrow is the person she fears the most.

BATMAN BEYOND #12 by Vita Ayala, Steve Orlando and Siya Oum. Commissioner Gordon is investigating a drug ring when she gets knocked out. Over in the Batcave, Max and Matt get a distress call from Barbara and Max heads out to help. That’s when Batgirl arrives on the scene and reluctantly teams up with Max. They take out the bad guys and free Barbara, with Max telling Batgirl they should work together again in the future.

BLUE BEETLE #13 by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Scott Kolins. With the energy from the Scarab, Teri and Jaime to travel to the 31st Century. Apparnetly, Teri has only been gone for a few seconds from when she disappeared in the Justice League battle against Lady Styx and the Legion of Superheroes and Teri's brother, who has become Eclipso.  Wonder Woman immediately assumes that Blue Beetle is a part of Styx’ army and attacks him, while the League sends the Legion across the galaxy through a portal. Teri and Jaime transport to the planet Naltor to confront Styx, who reveals that she is Brenda's Aunt La Dama. She sends them back to the 21st Century, just in time for Jaime to head off on his date with Naomi.

CYBORG #16 by John Semper Jr., Allan Jefferson and Will Conrad. The S.T.A.R. mobile lab is taken over by Anomaly's forces, causing it to crash and their Anomaly gets free. The Anomaly of two worlds now meet and join forces, revealing that they have Variant in their clutches. Meanwhile Cyborg and Beast Boy go to the White House to face off with this world’s Cyborg, so they can get the cure and save Exxy. It turns out that this Cyborg is the “red” Cyborg and the red robot we have seen previously, meaning that this happened and was not imagined by Cyborg in the Boom Tube. Blue shows up and tells Cyborg how to use his skills to save the digiverse.

DARK DAYS METAL #2 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. We begin with the revelation that the Metals are forming Bat signals all over the world.  The Justice League is in the Amazon Rainforest where they run into Swamp Thing and Batman tells Superman that he has been getting ready for the return of Barbatos and has been exposed to four of the five metals. It's all about five metals, four of which Batman has already been exposed to.  Meanwhile, Kendra heads to the "Ends of the Earth" where she meets with the Immortals inside of the “Legion of Doom” headquarters and they decide to use the Ultimate Option to save the world. Ra’s reveals that Batman is taking on Barbatos alone and she realizes he is walking into a trap. Batman reveals to Superman and Wonder Woman that he plans to use baby Darkseid to initiate the Omega Sanction. It is a trap and the Owls are responsible, covering our hero with Batmanium. The doorway is opened and the characters of the Dark Multiverse arrive on our world.

DEATHSTROKE #23 by Christopher Priest and Diogenes Neves. After beginning with a flashback to a year ago where Deathstroke went under contract to protect a group of East Africans from Ja Zaki, we move to the present where Deathstroke is training his Defiance team. That leads to him battling with Rose and he gets stabbed by her sword, which is surprise as his suit is supposed to be impenetrable.  You know, the one we all thought Slade set up in the Minneapolis pawn shop. We see Adeline talking with Tara, who fumbles with a business card from the Willow Armed Professional Escort service. Then there is Willow, who has been taken in for her safety and is aptly named because of the same Willow business card. Back at Defiance, Deathstroke finds out that Rose and Hogun have gotten married. The team goes off and stops some African Pirates, who we saw at the beginning of the issue. In the end, someone is REALY interested in Willow.

DETECTIVE COMICS #964 by James Tynion IV, Chris Sebela and Carmen Carnero. Clayface visits visits Mudface in Arkham and he tells her that he might have a cure. But she reminds him that he was and always will be a monster to her. He goes back to Victoria and that leads to him flipping out and almost kiloing her, until Cassandra calms him down and convinces him they are both alike. Over in Monster Town, Spoiler gets the tour of Utopia with Anarky and we find that Leslie and Harper are here too. Lonnie and Stephanie kiss and that gets broken up by Batman who tells Stephanie that this whole thing is just a big lie, as Lonnie has ties to the members of the Victim Syndicate. This leads to Steph fighting Anarky and Batman making the save. He arrests Lonnie and Steph leaves, before Batman can tell her that Tim is still alive.

DETECTIVE COMICS #965 by James Tynion  IV and Eddy Barrows. After a flashback which retcons Tim Drake’s origin, telling us he was at the circus the night the Graysons were killed, we see Tim being interrogated by Mr. Oz. After revealing himself as Jor-El, he compares himself to Tim and tries to convince him NOT to go back to his superhero days. He leaves, allowing Tim to send out a distress call to Batman, who is being held captive. He orders Tim to open a corridor full of containment cells, but Tim opens all the cells, causing his reunion with Batman to be a little tenuous, especially after Batman pulls out a gun to shoot some of the escapees. Batman reveals himself as the Tim Drake of Tomorrow before Doomsday comes bursting in.

THE FLASH #30 by Joshua Williamson and Neil Googe. Barry makes it out of the fire, but gets into a fight with Singh and dares him to fire him. Kristen explains how she is worried about Barry because of how her sister was self-destructive and killed herself. She convinces him to stay on the case and he deduces that Ramsey destroyed the samples. Apparently, he suffers from hemophilia and used his position to begin experimenting with blood to cure himself. Now he is indestructible and he battles The Flash under the villain name of Bloodwork.

THE FLASH #31 by Joshua Williamson, Neil Googe and Gus Vasquez. Flash is battling Bloodwork, who continues to grow and mutate. Barry, who promises to help Ramsey, uses his Negative Speed Force powers to take away the villain’s powers. Ramsey is arrested but claims there is no evidence because the evidence got burned up. But Kristen reveals that Ramsey left digital fingerprints on the records. In the end, Singh transfers Barry and Kristen to Iron Heights. He meets with Kid Flash and offers up his ring, claiming he can’t be Flash anymore because his powers are out of control. Kid Flash insists he take the ring back and he will train Barry on how to be The Flash again.

GREEN ARROW #30 by Ben Percy and Otto Schmidt. Oliver is heading to Area 51 and battling the Burned along the way. Hal Jordan shows up and they head off into space together in a construct spaceship/car where they find the Ninth Circle satellite. They face the Mecha-Burned, Hal loses his construct and now Ollie is out in space with no life support. Meanwhile, Black Canary and Emiko find The Auctioneer, who has Wendy.

GREEN ARROW #31 by Ben Percy and Otto Schmidt. With Ollie stuck in space, he fights to make his way inside the satellite and gets into it with the Mecha-Burned. He manages to get his hands on the Broadhead he found awhile back and jams it into the power unit on the Burned’s back, causing the whole satellite to explode. Hal sends the Justice League to protect the cities of the Earth from the falling debris and they save Ollie in the process. In the end, the League decides to make Ollie a member and he pleads his case to become a Rogue Operative instead of a regular member. Batman sends him off to work with Robin before the whole Dark Multiverse thing happens. Meanwhile, Dinah and Emiko take on the Auctioneer and rescue Wendy.

GREEN LANTERNS #30 by Sam Humphries and Carlo Barberi. Volthoom is unable to break the shields of the Science Citadel and he takes it out on the Guardians. The Lanterns arrive to fight him and that leads to all of the original Lanterns getting killed. Volthom faces off against Simon and the rings from the dead Lanterns come to him, powering him up for a final face-off.

GREEN LANTERNS #31 by Sam Humphries and Ronan Cliquet. In present day, Rami is healing Tyran'r, while, in the distant past Simon and the surviving original Lanterns battle Volthoom, with Z’Kran dying in the process. He convinces Jessica that Volthoom has great emotional issues and suggests they should help him and not kill him. Simon traps Volthoom in a construct, Jessica calms him down and tells him about the Emerald Sun. With him calmed down and it seems like this moment will change the future but the Guardians show up, take his ring and are responsible for betraying him once again. Rami decides that Green Lantern rings are too powerful and Volthoom, now sane, tells Rami he will do everything to find a way to kill Rami. Volthoom makes Jessica’s ring go to his Travel Lantern and they get to go home. Simon gets his ring back from Tyran'r, who has been restored to his youth, so he can go on a quest for Rami..

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #28 by Robert Vendetti and Rafa Sandoval. The Omega Beams are trying to catch Highfather and Lightray while Hal is doing his best to catch them. When he thinks he has failed, that is when Hal’s dad pops in to the construct jet and encourages his son to push harder Hal eventually catches up with them and puts them into the construct, thus outrunning the Omega Beams.

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS CORPS #29 by Robert Vendetti and Rafa Sandoval. While Hal takes Highfather away, Two-Lobe probes Orion’s mind to find that the golems are now heading to Yuga Khan, who is currently housed in the Source Wall. As the Lanterns race to the Source Wall, Hal heads there too, allowing the Omega Beams to spot in the center of a golem’s chest, exploding the creature. The Lanterns arrive and take out almost all of the golems, except for the last one which deflects their attempts. John Stewart makes a construct sniper rifle and take the creature out with the shot. Back on Mogo, Orion’s heart gets put back into his chest while Kyle gets some much needed rest.

HARLEY QUINN #27 by Frank Tieri and Elonora Carlini. Penguin has decided to take over a bunch of properties to build his new Iceberg Casino in Coney Island. After all of the supporting cast show up and continually try to get Cobblepot to stop his plans with no success, Harley shows up with The Joker, who convinces him to change his plans. It turns out that Mr. J. is just a hologram projected by Sy Borgman. In the end, she calls Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner to complain about the story. But they’re on vacation and could care less.

HARLEY QUINN #28  by Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, John Timms and Tom Derenick. Chief Spoonsdale has Harley, Poison Ivy, and Harlem Quinn hide in the truck of a car being sold to a chop shop by Big Tony. That plan goes bad fast and that means the trio, with help from Red Tool, needs to kill off the crooks, making sure to do it in front of news camera That leads the current mayor to flip out and beat up Madison Berkowitz, who arranges to get him some assistance in the form of The Scarecrow.

HARLEY QUINN 25TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL #1 by Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Paul Dini, Daniel Kibblesmith, Chip Zdarsky, Paul Mounts, Chad Hardin, David Lafuente and Joe Quinones. In the first story, Harley tells Red Tool about the two days they spent in Las Vegas, where Harley, Ivy and Selena save Sam Gladstone who gave them cart blanche at one of his hotels, leading to all sorts of destruction when they hosted a party there. In the next tale, after thinking that Mr. J. has forgotten her special date, it turns out there is a surprise party for her, thanks to Ivy’s pressure upon The Joker. In the third story, Harley and Ivy team up with Swamp Thing to save the world. In the last tale, Joker and Harley are pulling off a caper which could result in a lot of deaths, leading Robin to convince her to disrupt the plot and save the day.

THE HELLBLAZER #14 by Tim Seeley and Jesús Merino. Constantine uses some magic to take him back to his youth at the same bar where he ingested the demon potion in the present. That’s when we see how he met policewoman Margaret Ames. In the recent past, he sees how he was fooled by two dwarves who got him to drink from the Mead of Poetry. Ames is investigating the murder of the bum from last issue and the dwarves cause the doctor to slit his own throat and, it appears, kills Ames. After that, John gets drunk, smashes his empty bottle and mutters a curse while walking away.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #28 by Bryan Hitch and Fernando Pasarin. Hunter is enjoying a meal on the Kent farm, where Clark later tells Lois he believes that the reason the future is in jeopardy is because of the Justice League. Later, Hunter reveals how everyone died, including Jon and Lois. After seeing the other kids reconnecting with their parents, we go to Midway City where Green Lantern Simon and Steve Trevor trying to figure out what is going on there. At the Watchtower, Diana is watching footage of the Kindred attack and comes to the conclusion that the war that happened in the future was with her. IN the end, Cube and Hunter come to the decision that Diana must die to save their future.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #29 by Bryan Hitch and Fernando Pasarin. Aquaman from the future bursts into the Kent kitchen and uses some tech he stole from Batman to beat down Superman and take him away. He then heads to Barry’s apartment, where he takes out Barry and Jessica, before taking Barry away. As he heads off to take down Cyborg, Batman arrives at the apartment and learns that there are children form the future involved too. and finds out that Wonder Woman has gone to Nova Scotia and gets attacked by the children of the future. After a time, Cube uses a Boom Tube to send them all to Midway City, which was not her plan. Simon is blasts the dome and it bursts open and the darkness within covers Wonder Woman. In the end, Arthur shows up to meet with Dory and Mera and he explains that Sovereign has come here to reclaim what she lost.

Even more first issues reviewed!

ASTONISHING X-MEN #1 by Charles Soule and Jim Cheung. Another X book from good old Marvel. This team features Angel, Bishop, Fantomex, Rogue, Mystique, Gambit, Psylocke and Old Man Logan. Looks great and the fact that we get The Shadow King’s realm and…is that Professor X? It’s a fun story and I think I’m in for a bit…right now it’s my second favorite X-book behind X-MEN BLUE.

BETTIE PAGE # 1 by David Avallone and Colton Worley. I’m sorry: I’m a sucker for anything with Bettie’s name on it, as I was there when the public interest began in the 1980s thanks to the late Dave Stevens. It’s Bettie as model turned detective and it’s a ton of fun. Worley’s art is nice and you need to dive into the 20 different covers from folks as diverse as Joseph Michael Linsner, Terry Didson, Jim Balent and Greg Hilderbrandt. I don’t expect it to change the world, but it is a bunch of guilty fun!

BLACK RACER AND SHILO NORMAN OVERSIZE SPECIAL #1 by Reginald Hudlin, Denys Cowan and Ryan Benjamin. As art of their continuing celebration of Jack Kirby’s 100^th birthday, comes this one shot special. Shilo is all grown up and he’s Mister Miracle and he’s in a contest with the Black Racer. Tons of cameos including the world of Kamandi, OMAC and even the Source Wall. This is an amazing, loving tribute to the King and is well worth the five-dollar price tag. Plus you get a handful of short back-up stories reprinted from NEW GODS.

BOMBSHELLS UNITED #1 by Marguerite Bennett and Marguerite Sauvage. Spinning out of the DC BOMBSHELLS series, this 1940’s book features our femme fatales battling the war at home. Wonder Woman, Diana Troy, Cassie Sandmark are back in the States where they are fighting against the internment of Japanese Americans. And we even get a surprise villain by book’s end. If you remember that this is not part of DC Universe continuity, it’s a fun ride!

CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST #1 by S.A. Check, Bill Galvan, Warren Kremer, Mike Wolfer and Diego Jourdan. Yeah…I actually bought a Casper comic book because I have been a longtime fan of Mike Wolfer. To see him move from FANGS OF THE WIDOW to this is a little surprising but I honestly picked it up for his cover with Casper and Hot Stuff together. It’s an all ages book that won’t offend and even features three reprints from the Nineties.

DARKSEID OVERSIZE SPECIAL #1 by Mark Evanier, Scott Kolins, Paul Levitz and Phil Hester. Here’s another Kirby Anniversary Special. It’s Darkseid and his band of followers causing hate and discontent on Apokolips. There is also a back-up featuring the classic OMAC. In addition, a reprint of a back-up story from FOREVER PEOPLE #6 and a short story from TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED #12. Long live the King!

DASTARDLY & MUTTLEY #1 by Garth Ennis and Mauricet. DC continues to dig into the Hanna Barbera world with Garth Ennis at the controls. You know what that means: absolute insanity. It starts with a nuclear explosion and tat brings in our heroes in the form of USAF pilots investigating the explosion. That’s when things go really crazy and we have a killer cliffhanger for next issue. It’s typical Ennis insanity!

ELSEWHERE #1 by Jay Faerber and Sumeyye Kesgin. So, here’s a concept: in a strange land, Cort and Korvath find a woman hanging from a tree by a parachute. The woman is Amia Earhart and they go off in search of Fred Noonan. And DB Cooper shows up too! This is a killer concept to explain where all those missing people have gone. I love the story-of course I loved what Jay did on NOBLE CAUSES. And, by book’s end, I was getting use to Kesgin’s art style. I think this will end up in my pull list, just because it’s too much fun NOT TO.

FAITH AND THE FUTURE FORCE #1  by Jody Houser, Stephen Segovia and Barry Kitson. I swore, after the last BIG EVENT with the BOOK OF DEATH, that I would be cutting out almost all of the Valiant titles with the exception of BLOODSHOT. But they slowly pull me back in! Neela the Timewalker comes back in time to recruit ex-Harbinger Faith, currently wanted for murder, into putting a team together to help protect the Timestream. This four issue mini-series looks like a lot of fun and, even without knowing a ton of the back story on these character, it flows nicely.

FUTURE QUEST #1 by Jeff Parker and Ariel Olivetti. Well, we had a Hanna Barbera 12 issue series that brought classic characters together and it ended. So, in it’s place, we have this. It’s Space Ghost and his crew teaming up with the Herculoids. Parker has such love for these characters and Olivetti’s painted art is amazing. Highly recommended for longtime fans of these characters!

GENERATIONS: WOLVERINE & ALL NEW WOLVERINE #1 by Tom Taylor and Ramon Rosanas. At the end of SECRET EMPIRE, there is a moment when a whole batch of heroes get transported to a moment in time. This series of one-shots is all about that. The current Wolverine goes back in time and teams up with the classic yellow-suited Wolverine against Sabretooth. It’s not going to set the world on fire and basically just fills a place on the Marvel schedule leading into LEGACY.

GENERATIONS: BANNER HULK & TOTALLY AWESOME HULK #1 by Greg Pak and Matteo Buffagni. Another GENERATIONS titles has Amadeus Cho going back in time and meeting up with Banner Hulk. It’s plenty dumb and they team up against a giant monster that good old General Ross and company wake up.  I want by five bucks back, guys!

GENERATIONS: HAWKEYE & HAWKEYE #1 by Kelly Thompson and Stefano Raffaele. Kate Bishop ends up on an island where the greatest marksmen, mostly villains, are engaged he meets up with mentor Clint Barton and the two work together to dispatch the bad guys. in a battle to see who is the best. She meets up with mentor Clint Barton and they work together to defeat everyone, including Bullseye, who makes his first appearance to Clint. Of all the GENERATIONS titles thus far, this is the one that seemed to have the most heart.

GENERATIONS: IRON MAN & IRONHEART #1 by Brian Michael Bendis, Marco Rudy, Szymon Kudranski and Nico Leon. Here’s what you need to know: Ironheart ends up in the future, Tony Stark is alive and now he’s the Sorcerer Supreme. The dialogue is dumb and fun and we have three pencillers and no less than four inkers.

GENERATIONS: PHEONIX & JEAN GREY #1 by Cullen Bunn and R. B. Silva. Jean Grey of the past travels back in time to meet herself. They team up to battle Galactus, back when he was still bad and had Terrax as his herald.  This does nothing to promote the fact that Jean can’t reveal the future to Jean and the Watcher, NOT Nick Fury, does nothing to help.

GENERATIONS: THE UNWORTHY THOR & THE MIGHTY THOR #1 by Jason Aaron and Mahmud Ashar. Odinson is having issues picking up the hammer and he goes off, against Odin’s wishes, to help the Vikings in a battles against Apocalypse. Jane Foster Thor shows up and lends a hand. How the heck did the Vikings end up in Egypt anyway. In the end, we find out that Odin was making woo at one point with the Pheonix. Answers to be revealed in LEGACY.

GO GO POWER RANGERS #1 by Ryan Parrot and Dan Mora. Boasting no less than 13 variant and exclusive covers, to go with the regular covers, this series is set at the beginning of the Power Rangers career. In fact, they get to meet Rita or the first time at the book’s end. It’s drawn in a cartoony style and is the perfect fit for fans of this classic series.

MAGE THE HERO DENIED #0 by Matt Wagner. Kevin Matchstick is back in the concluding part of this legendary trilogy. He’s older and bald, but he is still kicking demon butts! I have waited a real long time for this epic to come to its’ end. I can’t wait to see where Wagner takes it. If you’re unfamiliar with it, go find the trade paperbacks and read up.

MANHUNTER OVERSIZE SPECIAL #1 by Keith Giffen, Dan Didio, Mark Buckingham, Sam Humphries and Steve Rude. Manhunter, from the old FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL, meets up with Sandman and Sandy, who have issues with the way Manhunter does his job. They spend the entire book fighting. Really!? In the first back-up, a short tale of The Demon by Humphries and Rude that is worth it just to see Rude’s work again. Coupled with some reprints from TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED and REAL FACTS COMICS, this is the weakest of all the Kirby tribute specials, just because it represents one long fight sequence.

MISTER MIRACLE #1 by Tim King and Mitch Gerads. Welcome to the mega-hit of the Summer as this first issue is selling now at $15-$40 levels! Oberon is dead..maybe. Highfather is dead…maybe. And Miracle seems to be having a nervous breakdown. This is typical killer work from King who takes he legend and turns him upside down and inside out. Find your second prints or pay top dollar for the first, but you need this book in your collection.

NEW GODS SPECIAL #1 by Shane Davis and Walter Simonson. Orion, Lightray, and Forager team up to battle Kalibak. In the back-up, Seagrin and a young Orion team-up to battle a sea monster. Throw in a couple of back-up tales reprinted from FOREVER PEOPLE. It’s not the best of the Specials, but is nice to have just for the Simonson work.

THE NEWSBOY LEGION AND THE BOY COMMANDOS SPECIAL #1 by Howard Chaykin. The Legion team up with the Boy Commandos to take on the Krauts. It’s all done in typical Chaykin style and retains just enough wit of the classic characters. You also get a classic Newsboy Legion back-up from an issue of STAR SPANGLED COMICS. It’s a great book to have, especially if you’re not a fan of BIG BLACK KISS and just want something a little lighter in tone from Chaykin.

NINKAK #0 by Matt Kindt and Francis Portella. Welcome to what feels like the umpteenth million relaunch of NINJAK. We get Colin King on a mission, plenty of blood and guts and a nice parallel story that runs along with it. And, in the end, we find out that King is really Ninja-K, meaning there was A-J before him. This is an interesting premise and promises to lead into the introduction of a whole bunch of former Ninja’s in the coming months. Valiant: you may have just hooked me on this concept!

THE REALM #1 by Jeremy Haun and Seth M. Peck. What happens when you do a Post-Apocalyptic comic is that it always gets compared to THE WALKING DEAD. Yeah…it’s kind of like that. It’s the end of the world, there is a crazy guy who kills you for your life energy and there are mad marauders. So…it’s THE WALKING DEAD meets MAD MAX. It’s not bad, but sort of formulaic.

THE ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE SHOW #1 by Todd Liningston, Bill Gavin and Al Kilgore. Leave it to American Mythology, who is responsible for UNDERDOG, CASPER, ROCKY & BULLWINKLE, PINK PANTHER and THE THREE STOOGES to kick through another book based on stuff from of childhood. The book has a two-part story, a Fractured Fairy Tale and two reprints featuring Dudley Do-Right and Boris and Natasha. The book so feels like the cartoon that I was literally doing the voices in my head. DON’T JUDGE ME!! A complete guilty pleasure book that hits all the right buttons.

RUNAWAYS #1 by Rainbow Rowell and ris Anka. Well, they’re back: the Runaways No, not the band…the comic team whose parents were killer super villains. I loved those team and was so bummed when the book got cancelled and then they tried to put part of the team into this all-female Avengers wanna-be team. I am so glad to see this book back, with a good number of the team back together and back to life. Even Old Lace makes an appearance. The writing is not too heady and the art fits the book perfectly. I can’t wait for issue #2.

THE SANDMAN OVERSIZE SPECIAL #1 by Dan Jurgens, Jon Bogdanove, Steve Orlando and Rick Leonardi. This is a true pair of living tributes to the King. In the first story, Sandman fights in the dream world with a creation of a young Jack Kurtzberg. In the second tale, Sandman fights to keep Jed Walker’s dreams from killing him. Another beautiful book to celebrate the King.

SECRET EMPIRE OMEGA by Nick Spencer, Andrea Sorrentino, and Joe Bennett. SECRET EMPIRE is over, the good guys won, even though there were some major casualties (hint-the red-haired assassin in black leather and Bruce Banner’s original buddy), Cap is back and the world is rebuilding. So, we have Steve Rogers confronting the evil Steve Rogers in his prison cell. while heroes try to cope with loss and make things right (really? Frank Castle, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.). In the end, it looks like not everyone has given up on Hydra, leaving tings open for future stories.

THE SHADOW #1 by Si Spurrier, Dan Watters and Daniel Hdr. The legend lives on in the present day. But is he truly alive and is he really that mysterious person in the burn ward? This is such a crazy take on the classic hero that I’m not sure how to react. Of note is the variants covers by luminaries such as Neal Adams and Mike Kaulta.

SHEENA QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE #0 by Marguerite Bennett, Christina Trujillo and Moritat. Here at Dynamite Comics, everything old is new again. They publish THE SHADOW, TUROK, MAGNUS and a bunch ore. Now it’s time to bring Sheena into the present and give us just enough to work with to tease us. Why is Sheena in the jungle but someone is watching her with their drone? It’s a short story, leading into the #1 issue, which I hope will answer some questions. It looks nice, as I love Moritat’s work anyway, and the story, as short as it is, has the feel it needs. And, oh yeah, buy it for any of the FOUR covers by Emanuela Lupacchino, J. Scott Campbell, Moritat and Ryan Sook.

TUROK #1 by Chuck Wendig, Alvaro Sarraseca, Aubrey Sitterson and Dylan Burnett. As you may have noticed with the other Dynamite character reboots in the form of Magnus, Doctor Spektor, and Solar, THIS IS NOT your daddy’s Turok. In a story that continues from some of the other Dynamite titles, this Turok is making his way through the Lost Jungle to battle the Varanid Empire of lizards. If you are expecting Gold Key or Valiant/Acclaim Turok, you will be totally disappointed by this and the Doctor Spektor back-up story. But if you are all about a fresh take on a 50+ year old character, this is recommended. The combination of Wendig and Sarraseca works well together while Sitterson and Burnett’s back-up is a little less delineated. Overall, it is worth the read. And…if you want to know how we ended up with these altered versions…read SOVEREIGNS #5 for the explanation.

WAR MOTHER #1 by Fred Van Lente and Stephen Segovia. She is the protector of the Grove and she is doing their best to protect them from the Sylvan. But now she needs to hit the road and try to find a new land for her people in The Montana. While the book looks beautiful, I’m a little unclear on the story and what it all means in the Valiant Universe, especially because it is set in 4001 A.D. and I didn’t bother with that mini-series event.

YOUR PAL ARCHIE #1 by ty Templeton and Dan Parent. The first time I saw Ty Templeton’s work was back in the day on STIG’S INFERNO and I was an immediate fan. I’ve watched him work on BATMAN ADVENTURES, THE SIMPSONS and BATMAN ’66. So, with that said, he seems right at home writing a CLASSIC Archie series, which has none of the drama of the new generation of books OR the RIVERDALE television show. And Dan Parent has long been associated with the Archie line, so his art it a totally perfect fit. If you have never read an “old school” Archie comic, here’s the place to start. A little bit of plot, a whole lot of fun and a loving touch that will bring you back to a simpler time. Don’t get me totally wrong: it is a MODERN DAY ARCHIE set in today’s world. As a bonus, hunt down the variant connecting covers or the first five issues which forms Pop’s Chock’Lit Shoppe when it is assembled. Do yourself a favor: find $4 in your monthly budget for this slice of Americana.