Broken Frontier

It’s a quieter week with just nine DCU books to consider this week so I’ll take the opportunity to remind you that Across the DC Universe started coming to you in a slightly different format from last week. On Fridays we’ll be giving you a speedy roundup of events and, if relevant, pointing out how they tie in to the bigger storylines. On the other side of the weekend you can exorcise those Monday morning blues at work with a healthy dollop of fanboy trivia in our more continuity-intensive ATDCU Part 2.

As I noted last week, what hasn’t changed is the need to take heed of our Spoiler Warning: Read no further if you’ve not had your DC fix this week and don’t want to read about key story elements.

Team Arrow

Green Arrow and Co. finally learn why Shado formed her own League of Assassins in Green Arrow and Black Canary #12. To save her, and Ollie’s, terminally-ill son Robert she had approached Captain Marvel villain, and professional mad scientist, Dr. Sivana. Sivana agreed to aid her if she, in turn, murdered Oliver Queen. Shado's shame at agreeing to this bargain led to her masquerading as Ra’s Al Ghul to deflect attention away from herself. Unfortunately, her assassin team shot the wrong man - resulting in Connor Hawke’s recent plight.

Incensed, Sivana had Shado kidnap Connor instead, to further mess with Green Arrow’s mind. At this issue’s end there are signs that the former Green Arrow Jr. may be on the road to recovery. Ollie’s other son Robert, aged the best part of a decade thanks to Sivana’s cure, could well be another addition to a title that, at this stage, should probably be renamed Green Arrow Family.

Batman Family

We have a week off from the sprawling intrigue of the Batman R.I.P. event but for Bat-fans there are still a couple of releases to look out for. In Batman Confidential #21 the flashback team-up between Barbara Gordon’s Batgirl and Catwoman comes to a conclusion with the Dominoed Daredoll trapped in Arkham Asylum. Longer-term readers should look out for a number of familiar faces haunting the corridors of Gotham’s infamous sanitorium.

Fans of the classic Batgirl also get a look at Barbara Gordon’s pre-Oracle days in Booster Gold #12. This is the second part of Chuck Dixon’s guest-writing stint that, in tone and atmosphere, has so seamlessly slotted itself into the book’s run. Don’t expect any advancement of the overarching Booster/"Crisis in Time" storylines but this is a fun romp in the timestream for BG and his newly-returned sister Michelle all the same. Setting time back on its right course and avoiding a future where Killer Moth runs the streets of Gotham proves to be more difficult than you might expect.

Finally there are big developments in DC’s most under-rated monthly. In Simon Dark #12 our eponymous hero’s place in the Batman mythos is firmly established with not a Bat-character in sight! Defeating the Geo Populus cult, who had sought to free their demonic master and bring a supernatural levelling to Batman’s home turf, Simon assumes the role of Gotham’s new "Mayor" – the honorary title bestowed upon the mystical gatekeeper whose role is to regulate the supernatural planes in the city.

Final Crisis

For many months I was at a loss to understand why the Crime Bible had figured so heavily in the DC Countdown in-house ads. Over the last few weeks, however, it’s become readily apparent just how important titles like 52 Aftermath: Crime Bible: Five Lessons in Blood actually were to that ever-important Bigger Picture. Final Crisis: Revelations #2 continues to pull all those plot threads together into a cohesive whole.

With Libra preaching the Religion of Crime, and the new Spectre determined to punish all those responsible for the murder of the Martian Manhunter, it was only a matter of time before Crispus Allen would confront Renee Montoya, who was so memorably manipulated into leadership of the Religion of Crime’s Order of the Stone in the aforementioned  Crime Bible book. The Spirit of Vengeance is stopped from killing his former friend and colleague by God’s Spirit of Mercy. We’ll cover just why that is affecting Crispus’s state of mind so gravely in our Continuity coverage on Monday…

And to conclude with FC: Revelations, the reason the followers of the Religion of Crime were so intent on securing the Spear of Destiny was because they needed it to bring back Cain, the first murderer they worship. The identity of Cain? None other than our very own Vandal Savage – although whether Savage is allowing himself to be possessed by the "Biblical" Cain in the same way the evil New Gods are possessing humans in Final Crisis or whether this is something more literal remains to be seen.

It’s been a slow build since 52 first introduced the Crime Bible but seeing the prophecies, hinted at as far back as that weekly title, finally coming to pass is a great payoff for the committed DC fans. Events here run concurrent to the Anti-Life Equation being unleashed in the parent Final Crisis book.

Mystics and Magic

Moving onto our roundup of the magical happenings in the DCU we arrive at the pages of Trinity #15. After their adventures in the Anti-matter universe our three DC mainstays finally track down the Troika at Castle Branek… with half the DC super-hero population apparently in tow. The "dark Trinity" further underline the importance of Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman as keystones to the universe and there’s a handy-dandy summary of all the clues and plot elements so far if you've lost track. This one has to take place well before the Rann-Thanagar Holy War as Hawkman appears unaware that his entire existence may be a fabrication.

Wonder Woman #24 has a charmingly-written sequence wherein Diana takes current beau Tom Tresser, aka Nemesis, home to meet Hippolyta, his potential mother-in-law. It also features the return of seldom-seen magical JLA villain the Queen of Fables who once again wants revenge on Diana, believing her to be Snow White.

Cosmic Heroes and Alternate Earths

Earth-II is represented on Trinity #15’s cover shot of Ultraman descending on Wonder Woman but is absent from the interiors. Meanwhile, back on Earth-50, it’s the turn of our favourite WildStorm teens to come to terms with what has happened to their world in Gen13 #22. The kids are threatened by an anti-superhuman cult that has, perhaps understandably in the circumstances, arisen since Earth was devastated at the end of Number of the Beast.

Out in the stellar reaches of the DCU, as depicted in Green Lantern Corps #28, the assembled GLs finally put paid to Quintet, the doppelganger member of the Sinestro Corps who has been spreading the message of fear by targeting the loved ones of Green Lanterns for death. Those enjoying the buildup to the "In Blackest Night…" story arc should definitely not be overlooking Peter Tomasi's essential GLC. This week sees Saarek, the Green Lantern who can speak to the dead, being sent on a secret mission to locate and commune with the corpse of the Anti-Monitor by the female Guardian who was scarred by the Anti-Monitor’s energy during the Sinestro Corps war.

That's it until Monday. Join us then for Across the DC Universe Part 2 when we'll look at the stories behind the stories in this week's DCU books. Thanks for reading!