Broken Frontier

Here we are again with the first part of this week’s round of DC speculation and summaries. To begin with we’re looking mainly at developments in the worlds of Superman, Batman and the JLA, tying story arcs together and trying to work out what it all means in terms of that elusive DCU "Bigger Picture". Before reading don’t forget (as always!) 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.

World of Krypton

After months of Multiversal team-ups last year (whatever happened to those Earth logos on DC covers alerting us to visits to parallel worlds in the 52?) the DC line seems, outside of the pages of Final Crisis, to be speedily backing away from the concept of the Multiverse at a terrifying rate of pace. Tangent: Superman’s Reign #11 is a rare exception and is the penultimate part of the maxiseries that portrays the attempts of Earth-9’s Superman to bring his "benevolent dictatorship" to New Earth. With the JLA and the Tangent heroes pitted against the super-villains of New Earth the alternate Superman displays the ace up his sleeve in his plans for planetary subjugation – the power of the Ultra-Humanite of Earth-9.

The fallout from Agent Liberty’s fate at Superwoman’s hands is felt in Supergirl #37 as yet another 90s DC hero is, sadly, confirmed as dead. There are also more insights into New Krypton’s political wrangling and Supergirl is charged by her mother Alura with bringing Reactron, Zor-El’s murderer, to justice. Here’s a thought about the Superwoman mystery... could we have a similar situation to Superman’s brief split-personality adoption of the Gangbuster identity some years back? Could Superwoman actually be Supergirl? It may seem unlikely, given the pains gone to in recently retconning out the "evil" Supergirl origin as a Kryptonite-induced fantasy, but it would certainly be an interesting twist if their little chats were all in Kara's subconscious.

DC Comics (re)Presents

Nostagia buffs will be pleased to note that a number of retellings and re-imaginings of older material are scattered throughout the current releases. Superman/Batman Annual #3, one of two offerings from veteran scribe Len Wein this week, presents an all-new version of the Composite Superman’s origin. In this rebooted debut the villain is presented as one of Professor Ivo’s failed precursors to the Amazo android – the grotesque result of an attempt to clone the JLA for his own criminal enterprises. There’s a very small nod to Final Crisis here, with a flashback revealing that Ivo collected his DNA samples of J’Onn J’Onzz shortly after the Martian Manhunter’s first battle with the Human Flame.

Early 70s JLA issues are revisited in Justice League of America #29, once more from the pen of Len W. Some of us may have been surprised that such a two-bit villain as Shadow Thief could have been identified by the Milestone characters as a major threat to the universe in recent issues of this book. An issue-long recap of some of the first couple of Starbreaker stories is followed by the revelation that Carl Sands is merely the agent of the cosmic vampire. Given Starbreaker’s penchant for destroying planets and feeding on the subsequent energies it looks like the Shadow Cabinet were right to be so concerned. The final trip down Memory Lane comes courtesy of Black Lightning: Year One #2 which details Jefferson Pierce’s first meeting with Clark Kent in Metropolis and continues to shoehorn BL’s retroactively revealed daughters into his early continuity.

Batman Family

Fresh from the revelation that he’s the father of Wendy and Marvin, in the latest Teen Titans, there are more major developments for the Calculator in Birds of Prey #126. This one sees the villainous information broker manipulating the BoP’s adversaries the Silicon Syndicate in order to destroy the Kilg%re and absorb his virtual reality-traversing abilities. There’s a minor tie-in to The Death of the New Gods here as the Calculator’s ally Gizmo (whose ethnicity has shifted once again since last week’s issue of Titans!) uses a damaged Mother Box, scavenged from the corpse of a dead Fourth Worlder, as part of their operation.

The General/new Anarky’s campaign to take control of Gotham, through the chaos of the gang war, comes to an end in Robin #182 and there are serious repercussions for all concerned! Tim, as Red Robin, shows a disturbing pragmatism about the civilian casualties involved which reminded me more of the Tim who becomes Batman in the "Titans of Tomorrow" arc in Teen Titans than the "Boy Wonder" we have been reading about for the last few years.

There are turning points for a number of other supporting players this time around. Robin demands Stephanie Brown gives up the Spoiler identity after discovering her part in the gang war’s beginnings. Steph may have succeeded just too well in her mission to make Tim a stronger, harder Robin! Tim himself looks set to stake his claim to the mantle of the Dark Knight but his decision to give Jason Todd a second chance by engineering his escape from custody could provide him with a serious rival for the role. There’s also a promotion for Detective Jamie Harper. Wonder if she’s aware her "uncle" is currently operative as the Guardian over in the Super-books...?

Join us tomorrow for the concluding part of this week’s roundup...