Faces of Evil

Faces of Evil was a theme that featured DC's villains for the month.  There wasn't a unified crossover or story, but the villains featured in the individual stories and their names appeared over the main title.

Action Comics #873

New Krypton part 10

Faces of Evil: Lex Luthor

Just as the conflict between the heroes of Earth and the people of Kandor becomes nearly irreconcilable, Alura initiates her plan.  The city of Kandor floats away from Earth and a crystal structure forms underneath it, creating a New Krypton directly opposite Earth.  The Kryptonian conflict may have been temporarily averted for now, but it will continue to be a problem through the next year.

Agent Liberty finds the location where Lex Luthor has been operating on Doomsday's corpse while talking to General Lane, but he's killed by a blast of heat vision from the new Superwoman.  Brought back from obscurity after over a decade of absence, Agent Liberty's arc abruptly ends here.

Alura persuades Supergirl to stay with her on New Krypton, but after Supergirl leaves she has a private meeting with her secret ally, General Zod.

Supergirl #37

Who is Superwoman? part 1 of 2

Faces of Evil: Super Woman

Alura sends Supergirl on a mission to Earth to find Reactron, the murderer of Zor El.  Before Supergirl can enter Earth's atmosphere, she's stopped by the mysterious new Superwoman, who says she can't be on Earth.  Supergirl tries to continue anyway, but Superwoman punches her in the face and knocks her out.  

 In Metropolis, Lois Lane had been hoping to land an interview with Agent Liberty, but she's shocked to discover he's been murdered.

This issue doesn't have a triangle number on it, but the next issue of Superman continues as if it does with number 12.

Superman #684

Faces of Evil: Parasite

Superman frees the villains who were trapped in the Phantom Zone by the Kryptonians, but before the Parasite can be taken into Science Police custody, he's able to pull Mon El out of the zone for a brief moment.  Later, he's able to use what remains of the stolen Daxamite powers to escape from prison.

In Metropolis, the Guardian introduced himself to the Science Police as their new leader.  In Keystone City, the Kryptonian Nightwing and Flamebird have a meeting with the Golden Age Flash, Jay Garrick.  

Superman travels to the other side of the sun to New Krypton to warn Alura that Zod has escaped from the Phantom Zone.  She reveals that she already knows, because she's the one who freed him and made Zod her army's new leader.

Superman/Batman #55

Super/Bat part 3 of 4

Batman faces off against the JLA armed with Superman's powers, while a powerless Superman dons a batsuit and goes with Zatanna to the Oblivion Bar to find the Silver Banshee.  The amulet that the Silver Banshee stole grants its bearer whatever they want most, but it comes with a terrible price.  In Batman's case, it gave him Superman's powers, but Clark Kent would have died if not for the JLA.  Superman uses the amulet to make Batman see his parents, which brings him back to reality so he can give the powers back to Superman.  With things back to normal, however, Superman secretly wishes he could live a normal life and Batman secretly misses the power he held. 

Final Crisis: Superman Beyond 3D #2 of 2

Final Crisis was still going on at the time, but you wouldn't know it in any of the main line of DC comics, only if you were reading the tie-in miniseries.  The architect of Final Crisis, Grant Morrison, writes this series which seems more like another chapter of Final Crisis than any of the other tie-ins.  Artist Doug Mahnke would also be brought in to complete the last two issues of Final Crisis.  The story already seems to be going off the rails into incomprehensible territory, so I'll do my best to explain it.  The Supermen trapped in Limbo have their first encounter with Mandrakk, the big villain who would be defeated in Final Crisis and then never seen or heard from again.  Mandrakk asks Superman what words he'd like written on his tombstone, and Superman writes his epitaph in stone with his own finger.  Superman succeeds in bringing back some of the bleed, the Monitor's elixir that they repeatedly remind him cannot be held, or bottled, or consumed.  But it turns out they were just wrong, and Superman can, so with a kiss Lois Lane's life is saved.  She awakens and tells Clark that she had the most amazing dream and she saw his tombstone, but she read the inscription and knew everything was going to be okay.  On the last page, we see the tombstone with the words "To be continued" written on it.