Legion of Super-Heroes #52 – “Rites of Passage” – Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen/Mike DeCarlo
This one starts at Legion headquarters, where everyone is still reeling from Brainiac 5’s sudden departure last issue to return to his home planet of Colu. Brainy left a strange bio-construct to act as a sort of avatar for COMPUTO, but since it looks like a baby Validus, it kinda freaks everybody out. Polar Boy asks Dream Girl to be the new head scientist for the Legion but she refuses, advising him to stop relying so much on other people and figure things out for himself. On Braal, Magnetic Kid is receiving an honour (since he’s from Braal), but
that’s just an excuse for him (and Lightning Lass and Tellus) to investigate the strange earthquakes plaguing the planet lately. A quake hits at the ceremony and the Legionnaires try to mitigate the damage, but they still can’t figure out what’s causing the quakes. On Daxam, doctors try to repair some of the damage done to Mon-El by Time Trapper a couple issues ago, but all they can do is stabilize him and hope he lives. He’s freaked out at the thought of Shadow Lass seeing him all beat to shit, but she’s willing to stay with him through 
anything … a fact she demonstrates by cutting off part of her finger and putting a ring on the stump. I’m not sure if that’s a Daxamite ritual or something from Shadow Lass’s planet, but Mon-El is quite moved by it. On Braal, Magnetic Kid takes his friends out to see the metallic monsters and another quake hits, opening a fissure in the ground. The monsters sensed the quake coming, so Tellus gets some information from their primitive minds on where the source might be. At the Trans-Cultural Museum on Earth, Blok ponders how alone he feels and wishes there were other silicon-based lifeforms for him to interact with. An alien tells Blok he can help and leads him into some kind
of warp passage. On Braal, the three Legionnaires find an open pit mine and a renegade Gil’Dishpan at the bottom. He’s been causing the earthquakes and brings down a pile of rock on the Legionnaires before taking off. Magnetic Kid protects them from the rocks, but they still don’t know why the Gil’Dishpan was there, or why he was causing earthquakes all over the planet.
New Teen Titans #49 – “You Can’t Go Home Again” – Marv Wolfman/Eduardo Barreto/Romeo Tanghal
Last issue, Red Star came to America in a sort of cultural exchange, ordered to let STAR Labs examine his super-powers. But Hammer and Sickle showed up to tell him his orders had been rescinded and a fight broke out with the Titans. The three Russians took Starfire hostage and fled in a stolen ambulance, but they didn’t know Cyborg was clinging onto the back. Cyborg smashes the windshield and tosses Hammer out so he can pound him. The ambulance’s brakes are out, so Red Star has to stop it from
plowing into the crowd by sheer muscle. Even though she’s still tied up, Starfire attacks Sickle and kicks her ass. Cyborg ends up fighting Red Star and takes him down with his white noise blaster, but Hammer recovers and blasts the two Titans. Red Star won’t let Hammer and Sickle kill the Titans, so the Russians leave them and take off. But at their hideout, Hammer and Sickle reveal their second reason for coming to America … they’ve been ordered to kill Red Star. He’s been framed as a traitor back in Russia by members of the Politburo who oppose the Soviet Union getting too friendly with the Americans. 
Gorbachev needs their support to keep power so he can bring his country back from economic disaster, so he chose to believe Red Star was a traitor and signed the execution order. Red Star manages to get away from his former friends and goes back to see the titans, letting them know what happened. They’re not inclined to trust him, but Danny Chase confirms his story through his government contacts. Hammer and Sickle are long gone when they check the hideout, so the Titans figure thy can lure them out of hiding. They plant a story in the newspapers about Re Star getting a job at STAR Labs and that brings Hammer and Sickle to kill him. The Titans jump them and capture them
rather easily, although they know they’ll be sent back to Russia without being charged with anything. But Red Star is now in exile, unable to return to his homeland and anyone he cares about. Changeling suggests he join the Titans, but Red Star knows the American government will want to debrief him and get him to make statements denouncing the Russians, which he won’t do. So that’ll leave him as a man without a country, unable to claim asylum in the States or to return home.
Suicide Squad #19 – “Personal Files—Amanda Waller” – John Ostrander/Luke McDonnell/Bob Lewis
This is basically a downtime issue, dealing with various personal stuff surrounding the team, mostly focusing on Amanda Waller. It kinda reminds me of X-Factor #87, though it’s not exactly the same vibe (and maybe not quite as good, since it’s missing Peter David’s signature humour). Things start with Nemesis returning and a science team (led by Dr. Yvonne Callendar) trying to figure out if they can reprogram Ifrit to serve them. Shade accidentally frees Ifrit and Waller has to hit the recall button to get
the cyber-villain back in her control box. Shade admits he doesn’t know much about the M-vest and didn’t expect it to interact badly with Earth’s “primitive” technology. Waller gives him shit but gets called away to deal with something in the hangar. Yvonne offers to teach Shade how to integrate better with humanity and I’m pretty sure she’s hitting on him. Waller is informed that Black Orchid has been accessing the computers again; she’s allowed to as long as she makes herself available for missions, but Waller wants to 
know what info she’s getting. In the hangar, Briscoe (the pilot who has a strange fixation with his helicopter) and Mitch (the gay dude in charge of maintenance) are fighting. Waller breaks them up and threatens to kick them both out if they start any more shit. We find out Briscoe named the helicopter Sheba after his dead kid and the fact that he sleeps in it worries Simon (the head psychologist). We also learn that Deadshot is on a “leave of absence”, which is a reference to his limited series that was out at the time. Simon tells Waller that Nightshade has been more comfortable talking to Reverend Craemer than him about what happened in the nightshade dimension with
her brother. We get a quick interlude with Nightshade and Craemer, where she tells him how she now has a succubus inside her and wonders if she’s damned to Hell. Craemer (who seems pretty progressive for a minister … he even suggests God might be a woman) tells her not to overestimate her own importance, nor that of her supposed sins. Craemer also tells her to wait before deciding whether to quit the team or not. Waller confronts Duchess, accusing her of being Lashina of the Female Furies. Duchess keeps up her pretense of having amnesia, but Waller knows she’s bullshitting … she just can’t 
figure out why. Waller and Bronze Tiger interview Dr. Light, who wants to join the squad and get out of prison early. He threatens to expose them, but Waller scares the shit out of him and tells the others she might consider adding him to the team. Waller is still worried about being blackmailed by Senator Cray and her ex-colleague Tolliver, who pays her a visit to remind her he wants her job. Rick Flag overhears the threats and is ready to blow Tolliver away, but Waller stops him. Later she gets some good news .., Checkmate has dug up some dirt on Tolliver.