Batman #390 – “Women Dark and Dangerous” – Doug Moench/Tom Mandrake
This one continues from last time, with Batman and Nocturna making out in the abandoned observatory. Batman’s still conflicted about Nocturna’s thieving ways, especially since she’s taken over what’s left of the False Face Society and made them steal for her. Nocturna’s rationalizations about only stealing from rich people and using the money to study the weird weather caused by the Crisis doesn’t completely convince Batman … although he doesn’t take Nocturna in either. She accuses him of hedging his bets, only falling in love with women who are close to the wrong side of the law so he has an excuse not to love them fully. Speaking of which, Catwoman is prowling around Gotham and comes
across another murdered False Face goon. She knows the cops suspect her of the killings, so she has to find the real killer to clear herself. She sees a living False Face and follows him to the hideout where he tells Nocturna (and his fellow thieves) what happened. Catwoman follows Nocturna’s hot-air balloon as best she can and sees it heading for the observatory. Meanwhile, Vicki Vale is hanging out (and making out) with her hunky new boyfriend Jim Traynor, and when Batman sees them together he’s not jealous at all. Robin drops by bullock’s place to tell him Night Slayer is the one responsible for the murders and Bullock tries to get Robin to admit that Nocturna is his mother. At Wayne Manor, Julia Pennyworth has realized Bruce Wayne isn’t all that into her and is ready to move on. Catwoman arrives at the observatory but before she 
can confront Nocturna, Robin intervenes. He tells her Night Slayer is the killer, but Catwoman wants to use Nocturna as bait to catch Night Slayer. She ends up decking Robin, which pisses Nocturna off, but before they can fight Batman shows up. He and Catwoman end up fighting and she accuses him of never really loving her. She ends up near the top of the observatory and gets hit by lightning from the strange storm. Batman catches her and heads out to get her to a hospital, followed closely by Robin. Another earthquake hits, cutting the peninsula they’re on in half, so now the observatory is isolated on a rocky island. Batman doesn’t care about that, since he’s finally realized how much Catwoman really means to him … but is it too late?
Detective #557 – “Still Beating” – Doug Moench/Gene Colan/Bob Smith
Catwoman is still alive in hospital, though she’s in pretty bad shape. The doctor admits she has a 50/50 chance and they’ll just have to wait and see, which doesn’t sit well with a man of action like Batman. He admits (well, almost) to the doctor that he loves Catwoman, which makes it harder for him to just sit and do nothing. At police headquarters, Bullock fills Commissioner Gordon in on what happened in the above issue (including the fact that Night Slayer is the False Face killer), and suggests putting a guard on Catwoman’s room just in case she really is involved with
the killings. Robin talks to Batman about the weird weather and everything, wondering if it really is the end of the world. Batman doesn’t know, but says they can face it together. Batman reflects on his feelings for Catwoman and Robin goes to the Batcave, where he fields a call from the JLA. Nocturna sends the False Faces a message that they should give Night Slayer her location to avoid any more killings, which is convenient since Night Slayer has just found their hideout. They tell him Nocturna’s in the observatory, but he’s so crazy he kills them 
anyway, accusing them of knowing all along. Catwoman wakes up and Batman tells her he loves her, more than any other woman he’s known. She doesn’t buy it, saying he loved her when she was a criminal, but now the allure has faded. Batman swears that’s not true. Meanwhile, Robin is standing guard over the approach to the observatory (now isolated on an island because of an earthquake), but he gets a shock when Night Slayer shows up ready to waste him to get to Nocturna.
Green Arrow – “The Pursuit of Wisdom” – Joey Cavalieri/Jerome K. Moore/Bruce Patterson
Last issue, Onyx told Green Arrow there was trouble at the monastery where Green Arrow once trained. Another student (Lars) had taken over, trying to
turn the monks into his private army. Green Arrow agreed to help, but when he and Onyx went to the monastery, they found themselves surrounded by armed monks. Green Arrow deals with the monks pretty easily, but Onyx is taken. Lars has her strapped to a giant bell (Holy Deathtrap, Batman!) and takes the Wisdom Key the Master gave her. The Key will give Lars access to the Book of Ages, giving Lars untold power. Green Arrow rescues Onyx just before the bell tolls and goes after Lars. Lars has already unlocked the chest containing the Book of Ages, but the Book has its own defenses and Lars ends up a charred skeleton, not having heeded the Master’s lessons about the false allure of power.
Batman & the Outsiders #28 – “Abduction From Below” – Mike W. Barr/Alan Davis
This one starts with Gaby (Halo Doe getting a haircut. No, seriously. She gets her hair cut really short as a way of individualizing herself, since she’s an ancient energy being stuck in a borrowed human body. Tatsu (Katana) Yamashiro is a bit startled by Gaby’s new ’do, but likes it. They’re interrupted by Lia Briggs, the bank teller with self-esteem problems Tatsu met last issue. Gaby leaves and Lia apologizes for her unprofessional behaviour at the bank. Tatsu realizes Lia needs someone to talk to and invites her to stay for tea. Outside, we see the weird guy with the glowing eyes waiting for Lia to come out and he’s got a couple of big bruisers with him. In Switzerland, Metamorpho and Sapphire are on
their honeymoon when some guys (with glowing eyes … probably not a coincidence) try to kidnap Prince Hallam of Markovia. Metamorpho fights them, but has his will power stolen and placed in a glass sphere, leaving his body under the command of the weird attackers (who refer to Metamorpho and Hallam as “surface dwellers”). Hallam’s men get him to safety, but Metamorpho is taken by the strange assailants. In Gotham, Tatsu and Lia are jumped by the glowing-eyes dude and his two thugs (who seem to be under his control, like Metamorpho in Switzerland). Tatsu is knocked out and Lia is taken, but Tatsu recognizes one of the thugs as an enforcer for crime boss 
Morgan Jones. She contacts Batman and the Outsiders and they invade Jones’s yacht. Katana pounds the thug who knocked her out earlier and Batman gets the drop on Jones. Jones denies kidnapping Lia and Batman’s new radiation detector goes off, leading him to some glass shards on the thug Katana pounded. He concludes that the radiation could indicate the thug’s mind was taken over, so he wasn’t a willing participant in the kidnapping. Meanwhile, the glowing-eyes guy tells Lia she’s destined to be Queen of the World.
Outsiders #2 – “Family Ties” – Mike W. Barr/Jim Aparo
Last issue, a scientist named Shanner, whose family died from radiation poisoning, built robot duplicates (called the Nuclear Family) of them to carry out his plan … setting off a nuclear explosion to show people how dangerous nuclear power is. A sociology professor named Wye (who’s studying the effects of fear on humans) helped Shanner, thinking he was just going to pretend to set off a nuclear blast. Outsiders member Looker took the place of one of the robots, but was found out and knocked unconscious. Wye gives her an injection to keep her under and decides Shanner is nuts, so she makes an
excuse and leaves, knowing Shanner needs all five robots to carry out his plan. The fifth robot is still at Outsiders’ headquarters, where Dr. Jace tells the team she can’t bypass all the safeguards to reprogram it. Black Lightning gets an idea and they take the robot to a quiet place before setting off one of its alarms. That brings the rest of the Neuclear Family, who are expecting a trap. In fact, the Nuclear Family manages to beat the Outsiders and reactivate their missing member. They leave the Outsiders alive, wanting them to die with everyone else in the upcoming nuclear holocaust. Black Lightning still has one of the walkie-talkies used by the Family and Dr. Jace traces it to Professor Wye, 
who’s headed out of the city. The Outsiders capture her and she tells them Shanner plans to blow up Los Angeles with a nuke. They give her shit for not calling the cops, but she says that would’ve jeopardized her chances of getting out safely; she’s such an altruist. The Outsiders bust into Shanner’s hideout, but he won’t tell them where the Nuclear Family are going to strike. (We see Katana is still bothered by how close Halo and looker have gotten.) Black Lightning figures out where the Family will set off their blast and the Outsiders rush to the scene … the newly-opened nuclear plant in Esperanza Canyon. The two teams are pretty well matched and the Outsiders can’t stop the Family from linking hands to begin the nuclear blast on top of the reactor. Geo-Force flies Metamorpho up to the top and Metamorpho changes into TNT, blowing the robots apart
before they can reach critical mass. There’s an epilogue with the Force of July busting out of the cave where they were buried, intent on getting revenge against the Outsiders. There’s also a short solo story about Looker heading out on the town and running into the Untouchables, a trio of thieves who use invisibility and intangibility to rob people. Looker’s mental powers let her see the Untouchables and fight back, but they grab a kid to use as a hostage, threatening to make her tangible when half her body is inside the floor.
Vigilante #24 – “Mother’s Day” – Paul Kupperberg/Tod Smith/Rick Magyar
This one starts with a woman (Helen Sherman) leaving the hospital where her daughter has just died of knife wounds inflicted by some unknown scumbag in Times Square. Helen heads home in a daze, but overhears two punks on the subway talking about killing a girl in Times Square and follows them. A couple weeks later, the fake Vigilante is pounding street people, looking for info on Santiago, the drug lord whose lawyer Vigilante killed last issue. Adrian Chase (the former Vigilante, now a judge), has workmen at his place fixing it up. Unfortunately. His relationship with Marcia isn’t so easily repaired, as she won’t even answer his calls since he told her about being the original
Vigilante (and wanting to hunt down the new version). In court, Adrian presides over the hearing for the two punks Helen Sherman has accused of killing her kid. Their lawyer points out that Helen’s hearsay (and emotional state) are circumstantial at best and Adrian is forced to dismiss the case. Helen freaks out, telling Adrian he’s denying her daughter justice. The two punks are assholes about it, taunting her, but also telling her they didn’t actually kill her daughter. She doesn’t believe them, since she heard them bragging about it on the subway. Elsewhere, Electrocutioner is wasting some criminals and sees a newspaper story about Santiago’s disappearance. He decides Santiago should be his 
next target, if he can find him. In Adrian’s chambers, Helen apologizes for her outburst in the courtroom, but begs Adrian to change his mind. He says he sympathizes (and mentions his own murdered family) but has to follow the law. Helen gets pissed off again and says if the courts can’t get justice for her daughter, she’ll do it herself. Adrian is worried knowing (from first-hand experience) her anger makes her capable of anything. Marcia is at her psychiatrist’s office again, trying to work through her feelings about Adrian being the Vigilante. She hasn’t told the psychiatrist Adrian’s name, but he’s shrewd enough to figure out who she’s talking about. Meanwhile, a cop named Stein is trying to find the new Vigilante and gets a tip that Vigilante’s after Santiago, so if Stein finds the drug lord, Vigilante won’t be far behind. Helen
buys a gun and goes looking for the two punks, but Adrian finds her and tries to talk her out of revenge. She’s so far gone, she shoots him in the shoulder and goes after the punks, who are scared shitless and insist they didn’t kill her daughter. She starts blasting and one kid jumps out the window, but she wounds the other one and tracks him to the basement. Adrian staggers in and tells Helen not to shoot the kid, no matter how pissed off she is; he says when decent people start breaking the law, for whatever reason, the criminals win. Helen hands over the gun and the kid takes off. Adrian tells Helen the cops picked up another punk on an unrelated charge and he confessed to killing her daughter. Helen realizes she almost shot two innocent people and asks why Adrian didn’t tell her the cops had her daughter’s killer right away. He says she had to stop herself from becoming a killer for the right reasons and that someday, the difference will matter to her. There’s an epilogue about Lieutenant Stein having problems at home and being swamped with trying to track down Vigilante. He ends up blowing away some guy who tried to rob a convenience store. I’m not sure what the point is … maybe that Stein isn’t averse to killing criminals if he thinks they deserve it?