With Rebirth now in full swing and so many exciting new titles to try, we can’t blame anyone for needing a reminder of what happened in the last issue. Or maybe you’re looking to add a new book to your list and need to get caught up on earlier chapters? Either way, we’re here to help. Every Tuesday, we’ll be recapping the prior issues of that week’s new Rebirth and Hanna-Barbera comics, as well as sharing our favorite moments. It’s a quick, easy way to ensure you’re up to speed and ready for New Comic Day. We hope you find these recaps helpful, but be aware that they do contain some spoilers!

 

 

Batman #5

By Tom King, David Finch, Sandra Hope, Matt Banning and Jordie Bellaire

Unhinged and unmoored by the manipulations of the Psycho-Pirate, Hank Clover has begun a rampage to destroy the city of his super hero namesake. In his eyes, the only solution to the suffering Gotham has wrought is by wiping it cleanly off the map—something he can actually do, thanks to the metahuman powers that he and his sister purchased from Amanda Waller. But like most deals with the devil, there was a cost: Hank’s abilities will scale to the exact level of whatever threat he’s facing, but at the cost of literal years of his life. The more power he uses, the shorter his lifespan becomes, and in this moment, self-preservation is the last thing on Hank’s mind. Bruce calls in the Justice League as backup, but even they are unable to truly stop the rampage. Gotham Girl, still overwhelmed by the Psycho-Pirate’s manipulation which left her cowering and terrified, sees from the monitors in the Batcave that her brother is about to kill Batman, and is spurred to action despite her fear. She flies to the scene, knocking her brother away with only seconds to spare. She’s in time to save Bruce, but unfortunately, too late to save Hank, whose powers have burned him out completely by the time they touch down.

Unforgettable Moment: We’ve always known that Alfred Pennyworth is loyal, but this issue really put that to the test. In a brief, desperate moment, the butler makes a bid to slow down the rampaging Gotham by donning his own version of the bat suit and racing to the scene. Luckily for him, Bruce makes it in time to relieve him before any fists start flying.


Nightwing #3

By Tim Seeley, Javier Fernandez and Chris Sotomayor

Nightwing and Raptor have set out on their next Parliament of Owls mission: to locate and destroy the blueprints of the Owls’ labyrinthine base of operations in order to preserve their secrecy. All things considered, it’s a pretty simple task—except that the Owls expect the two of them to execute the architect of the plans as well, and on top of that, they’ve got company for the entire operation. Barbara Gordon, concerned about Dick’s recent uptick in evasive behavior has decided to come along to lend a hand, and she’s none too pleased with the moral compromises Dick seems to be making in his undercover mission to bring down the Parliament, or with his willingness to trust Raptor. Luckily, her fears are ever so slightly put to rest when Raptor executes a plan to fool the Owls into believing they had murdered the architect and assists in Dick retrieving a copy of the blueprints for himself. It would seem that Raptor’s been playing this game for much longer than Dick realized and he’s got some big plans for taking the Parliament down. Now all Dick has to do is hope that those plans don’t push him to make any compromises he can’t come back from.

Unforgettable Moment: Sometimes a little outside perspective on a situation can be helpful. Other times, it can just make things more painful. Despite their successful mission, Babs is anything but impressed. She’s worried that this behavior means more than just a deep commitment to a righteous cause, that maybe Dick’s new duplicitous style has more to do with enjoyment rather than necessit…and maybe she’s right.


Superman #5

By Peter J Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, Doug Mahnke, Jaime Mendoza and Wil Quintana

Superman brings Lois and Jon to the dark side of the moon—where Batman has a secret fortress built into one of its craters. Eradicator follows them in, where the battle continues. Eradicator swallows Superman up, leaving Lois and Jon exposed and in danger. As the Kryptonian purifier closes in on Jon, Lois finds one of Batman’s mechanical bat suits and attacks Eradicator just as it was about to destroy Jon. Meanwhile, Superman speaks to the Kryptonian ghosts within the Eradicator, who serve as a major power source for the alien assassin, and convinces them to work together in order to stop the Eradicator. Superman absorbs the spirits into his body—cutting off the Eradicator’s power and causing his body to reject Superman and “spit” him out. Once out, Superman draws on the combination of his strength and the power of the Kryptonian spirits to destroy the Eradicator. 

Unforgettable Moment: Superman absorbing the Kryptonian ghosts and coming to the rescue of Lois and Jon is too good!


Harley Quinn #2

By Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Bret Blevins, Chad Hardin, John Timms and Alex Sinclair

Coney Island is on total zombie lockdown thanks to a shipment of infected meat, and Harley and her friends are trapped in the quarantine zone. This is a problem for the recently bitten Red Tool, who has just had his arm cut off by Harley in an attempt to save him from succumbing to a zombie bite. Harley’s plans might be a bit short sighted but at least she’s got a lot of them. To save Red Tool from blood loss, she launches him from the roof of their makeshift stronghold straight through the window of a nearby hospital. Score one for ingenuity; it looks like Red Tool will live to bother Harley another day! With that out of the way, there’s the matter of the increasingly ravenous zombie hordes to take care of. Despite Harley’s gleeful and largely successful work to mow down zombie after zombie, things are still looking pretty bleak. Lucky for her, and all of her friends, a surprise ringer arrives to save the day—Poison Ivy’s here to bring some metahuman firepower to the mix. It’s good to have friends, especially ones that can destroy whole swaths of zombies with the flick of a wrist.

Unforgettable Moment: Harley’s never been one to get too wrapped up in concerns of morality, so when the time comes to brutally tear through some zombies, who could blame her for having a little fun with it? Especially when undead horses and baseball bats are involved.


Justice League #3

By Bryan Hitch, Tony S. Daniel, Sandu Florea, and Tomeu Morey

The Kindred have begun forming into giant humanoid constructs made up of the bodies of those civilians they’ve infected, alien spacecraft continues to flood cities with tiny parasitic drones, and the Earth itself is at risk of being shaken apart by a series of earthquake-producing machines buried near its core. In other words, the Justice League is having a very busy day. While the Green Lanterns concern themselves with the ships and the drones in space, Diana and Arthur confront the giant human constructs, and Batman travels to Kansas to make a bid for Superman’s help. He’s the only one of them with the speed and strength to withstand the heat of the Earth’s core and destroy the earthquake devices before the next attack. It’s a dangerous job, even for Superman, but with the lives of the entire planet, not to mention the lives of his wife and child, at stake, he’s more than willing to try. Meanwhile, the humanoid constructs—four in total—converge upon one location in the middle of the ocean together. The powers that were stolen from them, apparently, have returned, and the universe is about to bear witness... But to what?

Unforgettable Moment: Batman’s pep talks occasionally leave something to be desired. As he and Cyborg prepare to open a Boom Tube to transport Superman to the center of the Earth to destroy the quake machines, Bruce helpfully provides some encouraging facts—namely that Clark is about to experience a whole lot of pain for a task that won’t at all be quick or easy. Here goes nothing.


Supergirl: Rebirth #1

By Steve Orlando, Emanuela Lupacchino, Ray McCarthy and Micahel Atiyeh

Sometime ago, on Argo City (which survived Krypton’s destruction), scientist Zor-El banishes Lar-On—a man suffering from Red Kryptonite sickness that causes him to turn into a monster. On present day Earth, Supergirl works with the D.E.O., headed by Cameron Chase. Her foster parents, Jeremiah and Eliza, also work for the group. Experimenting with improvised Kryptonian tech, Supergirl is launched via a rocket into the heart of the sun—with hopes of restoring her waning powers. The rocket leaves behind a massive amount of Phantom radiation, which pulls Lar-On out of the Phantom Zone and onto Earth. Struck by the moonlight, he quickly transforms into a monster—which the D.E.O. attacks. With her powers restored, Supergirl races back to Earth to fight the misunderstood Lar-On. As the sun rises, Lor-On transforms back into a man and is placed in a containment chamber at D.E.O. headquarters. Supergirl is officially assigned a secret identity—Kara Danvers—and placed in high school to work as an agent for the D.E.O. Back on a now-destroyed Argo City, a menacing Zor-El opens what looks like a casket, to reveal a mysterious, robotic figure, which instantly powers on. 

Unforgettable Moment: It’s all about that last page. Zor-El shrouded in shadow, walking among the ruins of the city and activing that robotic figure leaves us with so many questions that we want answered…like, now!


Aquaman #5

By Dan Abnett, Phillippe Briones and Gabe Eltaeb

Aquaman and Mera are met with a barrage of gunfire as they try to make their escape from the Homeland Security holding facility. They do a number on the large military force trying to prevent their getaway—but Aquaman makes it clear that there shall be no deaths.  Meanwhile, heated debate in the White House Situation Room leads to the Chief of State ordering that lethal force be taken against Aquaman and Mera, while deep beneath the waves, Commander Murk and the Drift escape the American Navy. Atlantis learns that Aquaman and Mera are under heavy attack with orders calling for their deaths, causing Atlantis to mobilize its war fleet. Elsewhere, Black Manta meets the “Fisher King” at the N.E.M.O headquarters, and Lieutenant Joanna Stubbs bumps into officer Erika Watson who are both at Aquaman’s lighthouse. Erika is on orders to lock the lighthouse down and Joanna is there to give him a mysterious item. Finally, as Aquaman and Mera make their way to the ocean, their path is blocked by someone that might not be as easy to get by—Superman.

Unforgettable Moment: Amongst all the chaos, Superman floating gently in the path of the two escapees and speaking in a gentle tone is exactly how you imagine Big Blue to handle things.


Green Arrow #5

By Benjamin Percy and Juan Ferreya

With no other options on the table, Ollie and Diggle have opted to mount a two man infiltration mission on the Ninth Circle’s floating fortress to rescue Dinah and, hopefully, bring their organization down in the process. But with Dante just moments away from “baptizing” Dinah in burning acid, time is at a premium. Fortunately for Dinah, however, Emi’s been working on a trap of her own right under the Ninth Circle’s nose. Apparently her loyalty isn’t as easily bought as both Shado and the Ninth Circle’s leader, Dante, would like to believe. She assists in Dinah’s escape and the groups rendezvous just in time for Ollie to set off an explosive chain of events, blowing the Inferno apart as he, Dinah, Emi and Diggle jump for safety. In the chaos, the group is separated with Emi being snatched up by Cyrus Broderick and Shado, Diggle and Dinah just barely making it back to their boat, and Ollie being knocked unconscious and tossed into the water by debris only to wake up later alone and marooned on—wait for it—a deserted island. Here we go again.

Unforgettable Moment: Ollie Queen is a lot of things but subtle really isn’t one of them. While he’s doing his best to be stealthy as he infiltrates the Inferno, he overhears some of Cyrus’s monologue on the nature of peace, war, and money—all of which are things Ollie happens to feel very strongly about. He can’t stop himself from making a colorful comment, even if it completely blows his cover.


The Flintstones #2

By Mark Russell, Steve Pugh and Chris Chuckry

Barney buys a new contraption called a TV. The gadget opens up Fred and the rest of Bedrock’s inhabitants to a whole new world of consumerism and “crap” to buy. Driven by the advertisers’ call, Fred and family head to the grand opening of the Bedrock Mall. While there, they purchase all kinds of items that are guaranteed to make life easier, but in actuality, make things far more cluttered and complicated. With their paychecks dwindling, Fred and Barney pick up second jobs as door-to-door vitamin salesmen. Barney excels at it, while Fred flounders. Not even church can help guide Fred—as he sees his church leaders caught up in the “what’s hot and what’s not” fads of consumerism. Fed up with failure and overwhelmed by everything, Fred snaps on his vitamin sales boss. Drowning in home appliances, Fred and Wilma talk about what truly makes people happy. They decide to return the products that are making their lives more difficult. While at the store, the clerk tells Fred he can only offer store credit for one of the items. While looking around, a small dinosaur in a cage catches Fred’s eye and he takes him home. It’s Dino!  

Unforgettable Moment: This is an easy one…seeing Dino for the first time!
 

We'll be back in a week with another set of Reader Recaps. Also, don't miss our weekly new comic book unboxing every Tuesday on Periscope for an exclusive preview of the week's new comics!