Green Arrow #18 – “The Horseman Part 2” – Mike Grell/Dan Jurgens/Dick Giordano, Frank McLaughlin
Last issue, a biker calling himself the Horseman came to Seattle looking for a red-headed stripper named Dawn, busting up various strip clubs looking for her. Dawn ended up being beaten to death and crucified, but the Horseman doesn’t know that yet, so he’s still smashing up strip clubs looking for her. The owner of some of the clubs (D’agostino), whose girls aren’t all working
for him willingly, tells his chief henchman (Fredo, who’s one of the guys who killed Dawn) to find the Horseman and take care of him. The coroner tells the cops that it would take at least two guys to crucify Dawn, which makes the cops think the Horseman didn’t kill her since he works alone. The Horseman busts up another club, but Fredo and his thugs are waiting outside to kill him. Green Arrow shows up and helps the Horseman pound Fredo and his punks. Green Arrow tells the Horseman about Dawn being killed and the Horseman fills him in on 
the backstory. Dawn got into drugs and stripping back in Vancouver, but got tired of the life and wanted out. Her employers didn’t want her to quit because she knew too much about their operation, so she went to a cop for help. But the cop (who’s obviously the Horseman himself) was more interested in advancing his career than helping Dawn. She ended up at a big party full of top Canadian mobsters and took photos of them, but was sold to D’agostino before she could get them to the cop. She tried using the photos as leverage to get free from D’agostino and that apparently got her killed. The cops show up to arrest
Fredo and his accomplice for Dawn’s murder, which seems to wrap things up. But another stripper mentions Dawn talking about an “insurance policy” to help her get out of the life. Green Arrow takes a safe deposit key from Dawn’s room and gives it to the Horseman, telling him to finish what Dawn started. Back in Vancouver, the Horseman (in full RCMP regalia) finds the roll of film Dawn left in a bus station locker and vows to put it to good use.
Young All-Stars #25 – “Armageddon ’42” – Roy and Dann Thomas/Ron Harris/Bob Downs
This one starts with the beaten Russian hero Fireball showing up at All-Star Squadron headquarters to let Atom know about Iron Munro (and several nuclear scientists, including Einstein) being kidnapped by Ubermensch and Gudra last issue. Atom checks in with the rest of the Young All-Stars and learns that various Axis supervillains have not only kidnapped other nuclear scientists, they’ve also stolen enough uranium to construct a nuclear bomb. When Atom learns about Tigress’s death and Dyna-Mite being taken, he uses Munro and Dyna-Mite’s communicators to track them to Kansas. Atom and
Fireball head out there right away (mainly because Atom was getting bored with monitor duty), telling the rest of the All-Stars to meet them there. In a secret subterranean base, Baron Blitzkrieg, Sumo, and Axis Amerika attach the kidnapped scientists to a wheel. Blitzkrieg has figured out a way to draw the scientists’ intellects into the machine, using their knowledge to detonate a nuclear bomb he’s planted in Kansas City. If it works, Blitzkrieg plans to use another, bigger nuke elsewhere. The Axis villains argue amongst themselves about various things: what to do with the captured scientists, 
whether they should kill Munro or not, and who should be allowed to waste Dyna-Mite. Horned Owl wants to kill Dyna-Mite to avenge his dead son, but Ubermensch wants Munro kept alive because he thinks he can learn something from him. The other All-Stars attack the secret base, bringing Blitzkrieg and most of his minions out to fight them. Ubermensch ignores Blitzkrieg’s orders and revives Munro, showing him a recent photo of his father Hugo Danner (who’s supposed to be dead) standing over the body of a dinosaur. Munro has no idea how his father could still be alive, so Ubermensch decides to kill him after all, taunting him by saying that Danner is his father too … in a manner of speaking. While
Ubermensch tells Munro what he means (a story we don’t get to hear yet), the others fight outside. Phantasmo gets inside just in time to save Dyna-Mite from Horned Owl. Phantasmo frees Dyna-Mite and they try to shut down the machine before it sets off the nuke in Kansas City. Munro fights back against Ubermensch, pounding the shit out of him. Gudra begs him not to kill Ubermensch, admitting that she loves him. Gudra offers to bring Tigress (whose body she’s brought from New York) back from the dead in exchange for letting her and 
Ubermensch go. Munro agrees and Gudra uses her Valkyrie power to revive Tigress, but warns that no one comes back from death unchanged. (I assume this is the start of Tigress’s turn towards villainy.) Blitzkrieg and Sumo (and some of Axis Amerika) get away, but the bomb doesn’t go off and all the scientists are safe. We still haven’t resolved the plot about one of the foreign heroes (including Fury) possibly being a traitor, but I think that’ll be addressed next issue.
Suicide Squad #27 – “Scattermove” – John Ostrander, Kim Yale/John K. Snyder III/Pablo Marcos
This is part two of a mega-crossover called the Janus Directive which runs through this title as well as Checkmate, Captain Atom, and Manhunter. Since I don’t normally cover those titles, I won’t be covering them now either, so we’ll only be looking at bits and pieces of the overall crossover. (It does cross into Firestorm later, which I will be covering, of course.) This story starts with Amanda Waller calling a meeting of the leaders of Task
Force X: Checkmate (Harry Stein and Harvey Bullock), Project Peacemaker (Bridgette D’abo), and Suicide Squad (Bronze Tiger). She tells them she’s found out about a conspiracy called the Janus Directive, where either the Captain Atom project or the Force of July have turned traitor and are gunning for Task Force X. In typical Waller style, she wants her people to take out the opposition first, ordering Peacemaker and Checkmate to either capture or kill Wade Eiling and Heinrich Megala, while Suicide Squad goes after Abraham Lincoln Carlyle, the current sponsor of Force of July. Waller not only wants Carlyle 
dead, she wants the Squad to retrieve the Medusa Mask that once belonged to Psycho Pirate (and which we last saw in Infinity Inc. Special #1). Bronze Tiger isn’t happy about being sent to waste Force of July, especially since Waller won’t reveal where her info about the conspiracy came from. Of course, it seems obvious that some villain is probably manipulating the good guys into fighting each other, but that doesn’t occur to Waller (which is strange, since she usually assumes conspiracies within conspiracies). Harry Stein isn’t quite so convinced and tells Bullock to get Valentina Vostok and Black Thorn to dig into the supposed conspiracy (and to just capture Eiling and
Megala, not kill them). Elsewhere, we see two people fleeing from pursuers trying to gun them down; apparently the two know something about the Janus Directive. Bronze Tiger assembles his team (Vixen, Captain Boomerang, Dr. Light, Count Vertigo, Duchess, Ravan, Shade, and Punch & Jewellee) and briefs them on the mission against Force of July. Bronze Tiger has Flo check with Oracle, who can find absolutely nothing about the Janus Directive … which worries him even more. At Carlyle’s estate, the Squad fights Force of July, who were expecting them to show up. After a tough fight, 
Shade gets the Mask from Carlyle (giving him a fatal heart attack in the process) and the Force of July is defeated (some of them getting killed), but Bronze Tiger wonders who tipped the Force off about the attack. Elsewhere, Peacemaker and Checkmate go after Eiling and Megala, but subtlety isn’t one of Peacemaker’s strong points, so he tries to blow them away with a helicopter like in Lethal Weapon. They capture Megala and Eiling falls off a cliff, so they leave … but Eiling is still alive and swears revenge.
Suicide Squad #28 – “Death Game” – John Ostrander, Kim Yale/John K. Snyder III/Karl Kesel
This is part 4 of the Janus Directive and it starts with the two people we saw being chased in the above issue. They’re still being pursued and try to make a covert phone call to get some help, but they’re grabbed by their pursuers before they can say much. The main thing that happened between this issue and the last one is that Checkmate sent a team to invade Belle Rêve and assassinate Amanda Waller. She survived (of course), but Bronze Tiger was incapacitated by Black Thorn. Waller is on the warpath and now doesn’t trust anyone. She orders a team to go trash Koning Industries
(Checkmate’s front) and kill Megala … as well as anyone who gets in their way. She plans to use the Medusa Mask for something, not caring that leaving Belle Rêve could put her in more danger. Things are already underway at Koning Industries, since Eiling sent Peacemaker there to retrieve Megala. But Peacemaker defied orders and is fighting Major Force, while Lois Lane watches. Stein realizes everyone’s being set up and tells Vostok to find Eiling and convince him of that. The Suicide Squad (Vixen, Duchess, Shade, and Count Vertigo) shows up at Koning to add to the chaos. While Duchess 
takes Major Force down, the others get past Peacemaker and go after Megala, but Vixen has changed their orders to capture him instead of just killing him. But “Megala” turns out to be a fake (a robot maybe?) and blows up, almost killing Count Vertigo. Vixen dodges Lois Lane’s questions and says they need to let Waller know about Megala being a fake. In Washington, Black Thorn tells Eiling to call Stein (at gunpoint) to figure out what’s going on. Eiling was trying to get Captain Atom involved, but he’s with the Justice League now and doesn’t want to get mixed up in all this sleazy government bullshit. But Nightshade and King Faraday show up at Captain Atom’s place to try to
change his mind. Meanwhile, the fugitives that we saw captured are taken to the mastermind behind the whole conspiracy so he can find out what secrets they’ve been telling. Who is the big mastermind? Well, we’ll have to wait until next issue … nah, I’m just screwing with you. It’s Kobra.