Justice League America #26 – “Slice and Dice” – Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis/Ty Templeton/Joe Rubinstein
The title of this comic officially changes (again) with this issue, but I’ll keep referring to it with the same Tag to make searching for it on my site easier. This story starts with Blue Beetle on monitor duty and hating every boring minute of it. Oberon’s not happy either, since he has to keep reminding Beetle to pay attention. Beetle takes a phone call while Oberon goes to complain to Max Lord about his slacking off. Beetle emerges from the monitor room acting weird (even for him) and gets a butcher knife from the kitchen. He tries to kill Max, wounding Oberon
when he gets in his way. Max is also wounded and takes off, followed by the suddenly homicidal Beetle, who insists he has no choice but to kill Max. Guy Gardner is ready to follow, but gets delayed when something happens with Fire. Beetle corners Max in an alley, but before he can finish him off, Huntress shows up to stop him. (This is the new Huntress, Helena Bertinelli, and nobody recognizes her.) She fights Beetle to keep him from killing Max, wounding him with her crossbow before knocking him out. Unfortunately, Batman shows up to find an unknown person standing over the unconscious Beetle, so he assumes the worst. (Max has passed out from blood loss, so he can’t 
back up Huntress’s story.) Batman and Huntress tangle, but he finally realizes what’s up when Beetle revives and tries to kill Max again. Beetle claims he has to kill Max for “the Queen” and Batman figures out he’s being mind-controlled. Batman knocks Beetle out and Huntress disappears. Max recovers, but they aren’t sure who wanted him dead and wonder if Fire’s delay of Guy is connected. They figure they can interrogate Beetle when he wakes up, but we’ll have to wait until next issue to see that.
Justice League Europe #2 – “Somebody Up There Hates Us” – Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis/Bart Sears/Pablo Marcos
Last issue, the new European branch of the Justice League got off to a rocky start when a guy staggered into their headquarters muttering something about “braces” and promptly died. The guy turned out to be an ex-Nazi pretending to be British, which pissed off the local Parisiens. A mob stormed League headquarters, but they turned out to be controlled by someone remotely. This issue opens with Captain Atom attending the dead Nazi’s funeral hoping to pickup a clue, but no one else
shows up. Captain Atom has been conditioned to expect the worst, so he’s surprised when Catherine Cobert tells him everything is going well; even the teleport tubes are functioning properly. Sue Dibny has appointed herself for permanent monitor duty, so Captain Atom asks her to run a check on the dead Nazi, cross-referencing with Meta-humans known to use mind-control. She comes up with three possibilities, in Dover, Frankfurt, and Santa Cruz. Captain Atom splits the team into pairs, sending himself and Animal Man to California. Unfortunately, the facility they came to check has been destroyed and 
they’re attacked by Wild Huntsman (who they don’t recognize as a former member of the Global Guardians. Huntsman thinks they’re Nazis and won’t listen when they try to explain, so Captain Atom is forced to blast him. Instead of just stunning him, the blast puts Huntsman into a near-comatose state. In Germany, Power Girl and Rocket Red find the place they came to investigate is already on fire. They’re attacked by another Global Guardian (Rising Sun) who they fail to recognize. Again, Rising Sun believes them to be Nazis and again, as soon as Power Girl punches him, Rising Sun falls into a near-death state. Meanwhile, Ralph (Elongated Man) Dibny, Flash, and Metamorpho take the ferry to Dover. Metamorpho is depressed because the Gene-Bomb set off during the Invasion revived him but wiped out his
memory of the last five years (which means he doesn’t remember marrying Sapphire). Before the ferry docks, they’re attacked by Tuatara (yet another Global Guardian who nobody knows) and as soon as they defeat him, he goes into a coma state like the others. Elsewhere, we see two more Global Guardians (Jack O’Lantern and Owlwoman) watching things from the Dome. Jack has apparently set all this up (even feeding false info into the League’s computer system somehow) and is acting on behalf of “the Queen”. We’ll have to wait to find out who he’s talking about, but I don’t think it’s Queen Elizabeth II.
Legion of Super-Heroes #60 – “When Magic Shall Return” – Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen/Al Gordon
This one starts with Sensor Girl lamenting winning the election for leadership of the Legion. Timber Wolf (who was elected deputy leader) is a bit more excited and tries to get Sensor Girl to take her role seriously. In the Aegean Sea, a hydra starts attacking people and a contingent of Legionnaires (Timber Wolf, Tellus, Phantom Girl, and Saturn Girl) show up to deal with it. When force doesn’t work, Tellus uses his telepathy to calm the beast enough for Timber Wolf to deposit it on a deserted island until
someone can come pick it up. But they’re left wondering where a mythological beast like a hydra could have come from in the first place. We get the first of several interludes with a red-skinned giant chained deep underground. He’s been trapped there for millennia, but something has changed and he feels some give in his chains, thinking he may finally be able to break them. On an orbiting weather control station, a couple of freaky little creatures show up and start making fire and water appear spontaneously. Shrinking Violet, Element Lad, 
Polar Boy, and Blok tackle the creatures, trapping them to stop their rampage. But the stations have lost control of all Earth’s weather patterns, as if their science was being superseded by something else. At the Museum of Mystic Arts in California, the curator (Antonio Stefanacci) is shocked to find out he actually has magical powers, and the artifacts in the museum also have real magic instead of just being inert showpieces. A punk kid uses a wand to cast random spells until Invisible Kid takes it away from him. The museum is restored to its former state and Sarvisa (who’s visiting from Sorcerer’s World) explains that the museum may have restored itself. He also
mentions the message he was asked to bring to Earth, but still doesn’t know who it’s for. We soon find out the answer to that question, as Sarvisa’s messenger bird finds Sensor Girl at Legion HQ and warns her that magic may be having a resurgence in the universe, which may herald the end for science.