Legion of Super-Heroes #34 – “Forgotten Foe” – Paul Levitz/Greg LaRocque/Mike DeCarlo
Last issue, Saturn Girl, Dream Girl, Brainiac 5, and Chameleon Boy escaped from the prison planet where they’d been confined and brainwashed. The first planet they come to after escaping is Naltor, Dream Girl’s homeworld, where they’re welcomed by the High Seer (Beren). Turns out they spent weeks on the prison planet and things have changed on Earth in that time, with the Legion being disbanded and their headquarters shut down. Beren says most travel and communication with Earth has ceased, but offers to gather support with other worlds to confront Earth’s government.
The Legionnaires tell him they’d rather handle things on their own. Meanwhile, the four Legionnaires who went to Hykraius (Wildfire, White Witch, Quislet, and Tellus) were ambushed by Zymyr and warped to a desert world. As they try to survive the sudden environmental change, Quislet and Wildfire (who’s now in his energy form because his containment suit was destroyed) turn the tables and follow Zymyr through a warp … right into a trap. Saturn Girl and the other three escaped Legionnaires decide to travel to Earth incognito, since there’s obviously something going on at the highest levels of 
government. They wear civilian clothes and board a space liner that’ll take them home (although Dream Girl is travelling under her real name, which doesn’t sound very clandestine). Brainy gets too curious with a robot and almost gives himself away, but Dream Girl distracts everyone by causing a scene with some dude she was hitting on. The Naltorian crew detects Chameleon Boy’s presence and since Durlans are a quarantined species, he’s forced to change shape and hide. On Earth, Element Lad (the current Legion leader) and Shvaughn Erin are enjoying each other’s company, apparently
blissfully unaware that anything’s wrong on Earth. Obviously, Universo is screwing with their minds and they don’t even realize it. Out near Dominator space, Mon-El, Ultra Boy, and Blok fight off a Dominator attack but end up being attacked by Ambassador Relnic’s ship. Before they can figure out what’s going on, they’re pulled through a space warp. On the passenger liner for Earth, the four Legionnaires discuss their situation while pretending not to know each other. Dream Girl again wonders why the four of them were shanghaied and 
Chameleon Boy points out that they’re the four most intelligent Legionnaires, which Dream Girl seems flattered by. When the ship reaches Earth, there are scanners set up to detect Chameleon Boy, so the Legionnaires say to hell with it and fight their way out, stealing a nearby shuttle to get away. Universo knows they’re coming and sends the Science Police (who are all under his mental control) to shoot them down. They survive the crash, but realize they’ve been turned into outlaws, pursued by the Science Police and other Earth authorities. That strikes a chord and the four of them realize that Universo is behind everything.
New Teen Titans #31 – “Resolution” – Marv Wolfman, Paul Levitz/Eduardo Barreto/Romeo Tanghal
Last issue, the Titans attacked Brother Blood after his supposed resurrection, but the faith of his believers all over the world has been channelled into him, making him strong enough to fight all of them at once. And Raven has been brainwashed to his cause, using her own powers (heightened by Blood’s energy) to blast the Titans unconscious. Blood proclaims Raven his new queen, which pisses off his old squeeze, Mother Mayhem (who is carrying his child and heir). Mayhem doesn’t want to be replaced
and she decides to do something about it. Cyborg is somewhat immune to Raven’s emotional powers, so Blood uses the energy he’s absorbed from his faithful to blast Cyborg, frying some of his circuits. Raven makes Starfire and Flash fight each other and Wonder Girl uses her lasso to try to bring Raven down. Meanwhile, the heroes recruited by Frances Kane last issue are dispersing some o the crowds in Washington and New York. Human fickleness is really highlighted here, as the crowds just lose their faith and wander off after Katma Tui tells them Blood is a fraud, but it turns out Mother Mayhem had 
something to do with it as well; she blew out a feedback circuit so some of the “faith energy” was lost. While Wonder Girl and Raven fight, Changeling wires Robotman’s severed head into Cyborg, giving him a second shot at Blood. But the feedback problem is fixed and Blood blasts them again. He tells Raven he’s altered her powers so she doesn’t just feed off emotions, she can now project her own feelings onto others. Blood channels all his power through her and orders her to kill the Titans, but the machines converting the emotions of the faithful into power overload … possibly because of more sabotage by Mother Mayhem. Blood’s power makes Raven connect with almost every soul on
Earth …including her own. With her true soul restored, Raven attacks Blood, stripping him of all his power in front of the watching world. Azrael (who’s still brainwashed) flies away with the now-powerless Blood, but his hold on humanity has been broken. In the aftermath, the Church is dissolved and Blood’s followers are charged with various crimes. Raven and Nightwing are welcomed back to the Titans, although both feel bad about being controlled by Blood. Apparently, Blood had actually been influencing Nightwing since their first encounter, which explains (somewhat) why he’s been acting like such a 
prick lately. He and Starfire make up and she’s ready for some lovin’, but he still has a problem with her being married, even if it’s just a phony marriage for political purposes. Flash and Frances head home, and Robin heads back to Gotham. Cyborg hopes he can rebuild Robotman and Wonder Girl goes home to see her husband, leaving Changeling to wonder how they’re going to deal with Steve Dayton and Hybrid. There’s an epilogue showing what happened to Brother Blood; Azrael took him to a monastery in Virginia, where he lives a life of peace tending sheep. But as long as he’s alive, there’s always a chance he could come back …
Suicide Squad #1 – “Trial By Blood” – John Ostrander/Luke McDonnell/Karl Kesel
This one starts with a group of super-powered terrorists (called Jihad) attacking Hub City airport just as the President’s plane arrives. Jihad takes out all the security, slaughters hundreds of people, and blows up Air Force One before escaping. Turns out this is actually happening at an airport in Qurac, whose president (Marlo) has arranged the attack to demonstrate how good Jihad is. The victims are Qurac citizens from prisons or lower classes, plus some actors who thought they were shooting a movie. The general the demonstration was arranged for is impressed and asks how soon Jihad can be ready for an attack in the
United States. At Belle Reve prison in Louisiana, John Economos is giving a tour to reporter Vicki Vale, telling her how Belle Reve is one of the few prisons equipped to handle supervillains. He shows her Parasite (who was just captured in the latest Firestorm issue) and she wonders if keeping him immobilized and feeding him just enough power to keep him alive is ethical. John tells her that’s for a court to decide, but in the meantime, someone has to keep dangerous supervillains incapacitated. After Vicki leaves, we see other staff (Flo, Crowly, Dr. Lagrieve and Dr. Herrs) reporting to Amanda Waller, who’s in 
charge of the new Suicide Squad, a team that recruits supervillains to go on potentially deadly missions in exchange for their sentences being reduced or wiped out. The Suicide Squad debuted in the Legends mini-series and we meet the current members, plus a couple of new recruits: Rick Flag (who was in the original, non-superpowered Suicide Squad) is the leader; Deadshot (who actually does seem to have a death wish), Bronze Tiger (who’s technically not a villain, but did belong to the League of Assassins for awhile), Captain Boomerang, Enchantress, Mindboggler, and Plastique make up the current team. Flag explains the idea to Plastique and Mindboggler, attaching explosive bracelets to their wrists so if they try to take off or do anything
criminal, they can have their arms blown off. The others have earned the right not to wear the bracelets, but Waller insists Captain Boomerang have one because she doesn’t trust him. Waller shows them the footage from the Qurac airport and briefs them on Jihad and their powers. She wants Suicide Squad to take out Jihad in Qurac, before they come to the States for their assassination mission, but Jihad is holed up in a mountain fortress called Jotunheim. The Squad are told that this isn’t an officially sanctioned mission, so if anything goes wrong, they’ll be disavowed by the government. As the team prepares 
to take off in their supersonic jet, Flag gets a shock when he finds his old teammate (and girlfriend) Karin Grace is part of the team too. He’s glad to see her, but she’s pissed off that he never came to visit after the rest of the team was killed in their final mission and she suffered a nervous breakdown. Before they take off, Flag and Bronze Tiger have to break up a fight between Boomerang and Mindboggler (with Flag acting kinda like Batman in the new Justice League comic). So I guess this is gonna be a Marvel-style comic, with plenty of internal conflict; I guess that makes sense, since they are villains, but I hope they don’t go overboard with it.