Superman Action Comics #1

So they're rebooting this story, so Superman is newly arrived on Earth, 6 months ago and apparently has picked up the culture pretty quickly. We start with the cops rushing through a building in pursuit of Superman, who has tossed people around in route to Mr. Glenmorgan, a corrupt executive who, when we first see him, Superman is holding him over his head while standing on the edge of the roof of the tall office building. Superman gives the ultimatum for him to confess before he'll put him down. When he doesn't, he jumps off the edge and lands on the street, shattering the concrete in the process. Mr. Glenmorgan confesses rather than do that again, and the cops corner Superman and try to catch him, but he runs faster than a speeding bullet to get away.

Now we see General Lane in a military war room, discussing the Superman problem with Lex (presumably) Luthor. We learn that General Lane's daughter gave Superman his name and that Lex has promised to "deliver" Superman.

Superman hears occupants inside a building that is getting hit by a wrecking ball, so he stops it physically, part of Luthor's plan. The people run out and we see a couple of tanks confront Superman. One shoots him with some kind of electrified net, which hurts him badly as , he rips it apart. He hits that tank with the wrecking ball just as the other shoots him with a shell - which is interesting because had it missed they would have hit the other tank. All the occupants of the building gather around him to prevent him getting shot again and he is able to flee.

He lands on the roof of his apartment building and changes into his Clark Kent look, looking pretty roughed up and his landlady asks him for rent money which he has. Clark calls Jimmy Olson, who is getting on a train with Lois Lane and about to confront Glenmorgan's enforcer, Gus Grundis - we learn that Clark works for the rival newspaper. He warns them not to get on the train - not sure how he knows this. Nonetheless, there actually IS a bomb on the tracks ahead, and Superman appears right away, warns the people (at least in that one car) that he's going to stop the train - he opens the door and runs forward of the train. Just as Grundis pulls his guns and aims at everyone, Superman is at the nose of the train to try to stop it, just as everyone in that car is able to apprehend Grundis. Superman flails at the ground to try to stop the train, but just then the bomb goes off on a train bridge in the metro area - the train flies off the tracks and down a city street.

Back at the war room, they're watching the live feed - Lane is angry that Luthor put his daughter at risk, but Luthor says he's now delivered Superman and on the last page, we see that Superman has been crushed between the nose of the train and the front of the Daily Planet building.

Batman Detective Comics #3

Batman sees it's not really Gordon, but a dead composite of people stitched together to look like him. As his side is going numb with paralysis, he starts the fight so he can hurry out before it's too late. He fights his way out and jumps through the window taking the jester with him.

At the abandoned Mercy Hospital, Gordon is in a cage and discovers sutures in his side. Olivia is there, outside the cage. She says Dollmaker wants to adopt her. She says Dollmaker is a victim too. Gordon tells her how to get a message to Batman.

Batman, beating up the jester for information, but discovers he doesn't have a tongue.

Outside the police station, news people shouting out questions. Charlotte Rivers is a TV reporter who is front and center. In the background, we see a small hooded figure (Olivia) entering the station.

The Batcave, Bruce is ruminating on the Wesley Mathis case files. He's looking at a cut up image implying that Mathis is now a composite of all his victims? We learn Mathis had been shot by a young Gordon in front of Mathis' son, Barton. Barton said his father had taken him on his "hunting trips" and then cannibalized the bodies. Barton went into foster care and disappeared a year later. Alfred tells Bruce that someone had turned on the Bat Signal.

Back at Mercy Hospital, Dollmaker and Matilda discuss cutting up Gordon. Dollmaker wants to wait and says that Gordon killed his father (so he's Barton, right?). He states that Gordon doesn't "even recognize your dead victim's face even when you're staring right at it" - so is Dollmaker Wesley Mathis or is he Barton wearing his father's face?

Batman arrives to find Olivia at the Bat Signal, who tells him that Dollmaker will operate on him again soon and hands him a note from Gordon: "Come to Mercy Hospital" with the 'r' in Mercy backwards.

The police try to grab Olivia, but she tazers him.

At Mercy Hospital, Batman figures it's another setup for him. He shouts for Dollmaker, but hears his voice on an intercom and sees a monitor showing Gordon strapped down and gagged - he sees an abandoned operating room. Then "Bentley" the big henchman from before grabs Batman around the neck from through the wall and chokes him unconscious.

Batman wakes up in the middle of a spotlit enclosure, with manacles attached to cabled puppet strings and at least six faux Jokers with knives surrounding him also hanging from puppet strings.

Batman Detective Comics #2

Bruce Wayne is rock climbing in Wayne Tower and is joined by Hugh Marder of Mecha-North, which is being acquired by Wayne Industries. It's a risk that Bruce wants to take to bring jobs to Gotham City.

Now Charlotte Rivers shows up, who Bruce had stood up for a date in issue 1. She's angry, but they end up kissing and more - they set up a stay-at-home date for the weekend at Charlotte's.

Batman on his cycle ruminating about the prior night, when they discovered Joker's face on the wall at Arkham. Commissioner Gordon and Dr. Arkham discussing how Joker got out without any security notice. Gordon steps out and is joined by Batman. We find that it was a Ray Quimby who took Olivia out of the police station. His record states he was arrested 10 years ago helping a killer named Wesley Mathis, who cut up and ate his victims. They wonder if it was Quimby who is the killer and if he busted Joker out. A dispatch states that Quimby was sighted with Olivia entering an old building.

Batman arrives and sees a parked cop car. Gordon arrives and hears a thumping in the trunk - when he opens it, somebody grabs him. Batman is now upstairs and discovers a dead Quimby with five knives sticking out of him, blood still pooling. He finds the dead cop, who's been dead at least twelve hours, so we know he wasn't the one who called in the sighting.

Batman is attacked in the dark by two guys, one who punches him exactly where Joker had stabbed him. They have skin sutured onto their bodies, just like the dead uncle Joker had killed at the beginning of #1. He's knocking them around pretty good when someone jabs him with a hypodermic and clubs him with a sledge hammer. He's down, but not out and we see a nurse with a mask standing over him with a sledge hammer - one of the guys calls her "sis" (Matilda). Batman headbutts the guy and "sis" is about to sledge him again when "Father" (Dollmaker) shows up with some henchmen; a clanging monkey, a evil toothy jester, and a hulking guy.

The issue ends when they bring in Gordon with sutures all over his head and face.

Batman Detective Comics #1

We open with Batman running across rooftops and narrating and cut to a scene of a naked Joker in a fight with another villain, who he stabs repeatedly and kills. Batman bursts in on the scene (somehow he's now no longer jumping rooftops, but jumps out of the Batjet and crashes through the window as the Joker flees out the opposite window (doll heads roll around the room). Before Batman can give chase, he hears a girl asking for help in the flaming room. Armored cops now burst in, intent on capturing Batman. Commissioner Gordon saves the girl as Batman flees just in time for a police chopper to open fire on him. Gordon chastises them and we learn that this is under the order of the Mayor.

Seems Batman escaped because he's now driving back into the Batcave and meeting Alfred's hologram. They discuss the Joker's kill and we learn that he's been on a murder spree, and they don't know why.

Cut to Commissioner Gordon on the roof by the Bat signal. We learn that the girl is 11-year-old Olivia Carr and the murder victim was her uncle. She was picked up by a family member already, but she told police that Joker said he was staying above Roscoe Pharmacy. Batman runs off, knowing it will be a trap. The police are already there when Batman sees through his binoculars that the Joker is in there, but realizes it is a fake (doll) with a pull string which makes him laugh. It explodes, killing loads of cops and throwing Batman out the window. He notes the one person in the crowd who flees to the train (Joker).

He follows and Joker throws down a paralyzing bomb of smoke which Batman shrugs off and after a brutal fight in which he gets stabbed twice and shocked, he subdues Joker.

Cutting to Arkham, a beaten Joker is chained and straight-jacketed in a chair. Dr. Arkham exits telling him that a doctor will be in to look at his injuries.

Final scene, the door opens to admit the "doctor" and we learn that Joker had staged things to get here and be seen by the Dollmaker. It had been Dollmakers relatives that Joker had been killing because he wanted only Dollmaker to do a procedure on him. The last kill, Olivia's uncle, was Dollmaker's son. (and so, perhaps Dollmaker was the relative who picked up Olivia?) The last page shows Joker's skinned face hanging on the wall, Joker commenting that it felt "fangasmic" and Dollmaker talking about them both celebrating their rebirth.

Uncanny X-Men #1

Cyclops is the head of this group of X-Men housed on an island sanctuary off San Francisco called Utopia. They continue to battle negative perceptions of mutants and his idea is to form a team to battle evil and bring humanity around to their side. This team is grouped into subgroups, starting with what he has termed the Extinction Team, which includes Storm, Emma Frost, Magneto, Namor Colossus, Hope, Danger, and Magik.

In this issue, a mutant called Sinister, who takes the viewpoint that mutants are superior to humans and would prefer to exterminate them, takes control of the Celestial standing near San Francisco - this is a towering alien robot standing in the San Francisco area. This causes it to surge energy and the Extinction Team teleports there just in time for the head to launch off the shoulders - they immediately assume Sinister is behind it.

The giant head starts emitting rays that is able to disable Colossus and Emma Frost - Colossus changes into Juggernaut (???) and charges back in - ultimately Magneto takes control of the giant metal being (sans head). Sinister lands the head at the Palace of Fine Arts in downtown and with a release of energy turns everyone in the area into a faux Sinister. Fiendish! I'm sure it will accomplish something!