Chapter Summaries

The Young Avengers tracked down Billy, whose Shazam powers had failed because the gods of Olympus were involved in an unfolding crisis, and recruited him to their team. As they searched for Faust, Tim proposed finding someone in another universe who could reach him, though getting the Tartarus Key from him remained the problem.

• Tim found that Shazam mainly operated in Wisconsin, so Dick’s team traveled to Fawcett City and used Raven’s illusion to draw him out.
• When Shazam did not appear, Jason messaged his social media account, and Shazam revealed that his powers were malfunctioning and directed them to an underground parking garage.
• Dick’s team found Billy hiding in a car and learned that his transformation had failed because his powers came from the gods of Olympus, where something had gone wrong.
• Billy asked to join the Young Avengers, and Dick accepted him on the condition that he follow the team’s rules and training.
• Raven suggested searching for traces of Faust, and Tim proposed contacting someone in another universe who could reach Faust and help them locate him.

Dick's group recruited Funa Faust and found Archmage Faust transformed into a toad in his looted vault. Circe had stolen the Key of Tartarus and was heading to the Underworld, leaving the group to pursue her despite the danger posed by Cerberus and Hades.

• Amanda sent Dick's group to a farm near Metropolis, where Raven defeated Funa Faust, who revealed that her father had abused her and her brother and agreed to help find the key to his dark vault.
• Funa led Dick's group to Archmage Faust's vault beneath Barclays Bank, but they discovered it had already been ransacked and the Key of Tartarus was missing.
• Raven broke into a neighboring secret chamber, where Funa found her father transformed into a toad and Aisha nearly ate him before Jason intervened.
• Faust told Dick's group that Circe had stolen the key and planned to open the Gate of the Underworld at sunset in Samaria Canyon.
• Faust warned that Cerberus guarded the Underworld's entrance and that attacking the beast could provoke Hades, while Dick's group prepared to pursue Circe.

Dick and the Young Avengers entered the Underworld to stop Circe, but found Persephone and Hades dead and the realm in ruins. Faust suspected Circe had released Zeus and Hera’s imprisoned eldest son, the Firstborn, leaving the gods of Olympus in danger.

• Dick and Jason prepared to knock out Cerberus and led the team through the Gate of the Underworld.
• The team found Cerberus dead, followed blood-red soil through Persephone’s wheat field, and discovered Persephone’s corpse impaled on a stake.
• The group reached the River Styx, where Aisha devoured the tormented souls, allowing Raven to carry them across.
• Dick and the others crossed the ruined Elysian Fields and found Hades dead in his palace.
• Faust revealed that Circe may have freed Zeus and Hera’s imprisoned eldest son, the nearly invincible Firstborn.

The Young Avengers investigated Hades and Ares’s deaths on Mount Olympus and concluded that Ares and Poseidon may have planned to exploit Zeus’s evacuation to interfere in the human world. They realized Atlantis had been targeted to draw Aquaman Arthur into the scheme, and identified Mercury as the likely target.

• The Young Avengers passed through the portal to Mount Olympus, where they found Zeus and Hera missing and discovered Ares’s slain body near his temple.
• Jason argued that Ares had no reason to stop the eldest son from leaving, and the team questioned why Ares had died beside the portal.
• After Aisha confirmed Ares had died where he fell, Jason proposed that Ares had stayed behind to carry out a plan while Zeus and the other gods evacuated.
• Jason connected Ares’s possible plan to Poseidon’s attack on Atlantis and reasoned that it was meant to draw Aquaman Arthur into the conflict.
• The Young Avengers concluded that Mercury was the intended target.

The Young Avengers pieced together that a hidden enemy had manipulated Poseidon and the events surrounding Ares to weaken Mercury’s defenses. They decided to seek out Zeus and the other Olympian gods in Apollo’s Light domain to learn what had happened on Mount Olympus.

• Aisha, Jason, and Dick concluded that Poseidon had been driven into a frenzy and that the Black Hand was trying to pull the Justice League away from Mercury.
• Dick reasoned that the Justice League might have released the Firstborn to kill Ares and disrupt the enemy’s plan, while Jason and Dick suspected that a man had actually controlled Circe.
• Funa urged the team to find the Olympian gods and ask whether they had noticed anything unusual before the attack.
• Faust explained that Zeus and the others might have taken refuge in Apollo’s Light domain, and said the team could reach it by following Helios’s Sun Chariot through its gate.
• Dick questioned Faust’s account of the Sun Chariot, and Faust rebuked him for worrying about science on Mount Olympus beside Ares’s corpse.

Dick and Jason joined the Justice League on Mercury as attacks on students continued, and Bruce’s investigation turned toward Cassandra Cain. Lilith’s attempted prophecy yielded no answer before she was taken away, while Dick and the others found traces of Helios near the sun.

• Dick suggested searching for Helios near the real sun, and he and Jason led their group to Mercury while Funa, Billy, and Faust stayed at Wayne Tower.
• Bruce showed the Justice League a photograph that narrowed the possible suspects to the Wonder Twins and Cassandra Cain, and the group learned that all the attacked students had fought Cassandra in the ring.
• Jena and Lilith tried to establish Cassandra’s innocence, but Lilith became distressed and then attempted a prophecy using Zan’s water form, a Phoenix feather, and other unusual objects.
• Lilith suffered an episode during the prophecy and Doctor Brand took her away, while Dick and the others found traces of Helios near the sun.

Dick and the Young Avengers reached Apollo’s Light domain and learned from Zeus that the Olympus disaster was tied to Hecate and the dark force she had kept beyond a barrier. Zeus revealed that Hades and Ares were doomed because of their betrayal of Hecate, while the threat of darkness still loomed over the universe.

• Raven protected Dick, Jason, and the others as they crossed a portal in the sun into Apollo’s Light domain.
• Dick and Jason met Apollo, who confirmed that the gods were gathered in the Light domain and sent them to Zeus with a Pegasus and a protective Crystal.
• Zeus told Dick that the disaster could consume the entire universe and that the gods had come to avoid a threat they could not kill.
• Zeus explained that Hecate’s barrier had kept the source of dark magic at bay, and that her death would allow the darkness to return.
• Zeus said Hades and Ares were doomed because they had betrayed Hecate, calling their deaths a disaster of love.

Dick and Jason investigated the sacrifices of Hades, the Queen of the Underworld, Ares, and Poseidon, suspecting Zeus had allowed them to further Hecate’s revival and protect the barrier. They discovered that Diana had recently returned to Mount Olympus and met with Ares and Poseidon, while Hera revealed Hecate could reshape a person’s soul and make them willingly sacrifice their life.

• Zeus avoided explaining why Poseidon and Ares had gone to the human world, and Dick suspected he was concealing the Black Hand’s plan.
• Dick told Apollo that Zeus might be helping Hecate revive and preserve the barrier by sacrificing several gods, and Apollo called Hermes to question him.
• Hermes revealed that Diana had returned to Mount Olympus weeks earlier through a portal, prompting Dick and Jason to investigate her movements.
• Hera confirmed that Diana had met with Ares and visited Poseidon, but warned that Hecate’s influence might not be ordinary control.
• Hera explained that Hecate’s Mother aspect could reshape someone’s soul and personality through rebirth, making that person sincerely devoted to her and willing to die for her.

Dick, Jason, Aisha, and Raven reasoned that Hecate could secretly remold personalities and that Schiller had likely detected Diana’s corruption and guided their investigation to gather evidence. Apollo revealed that the weapon they needed against Hecate was the Sunrise Gun, also known as the Spear of Longinus.

• Jason argued that Hecate’s rebirthing ability must have limitations, and Raven suggested it worked spiritually through a material-world medium.
• The group concluded that Schiller’s Psychoanalytic Method could expose Diana’s altered personality and that the Justice League had likely prepared for her betrayal.
• Dick, Jason, and Aisha deduced that Poseidon had been left alive so his actions could provide evidence against Diana, and they suspected the sun’s vicinity was part of the plan.
• Apollo told them that neither he nor Helios could defeat Hecate and identified the Spear of Longinus as a powerful weapon stored in the Light domain.
• Apollo revealed that the Spear of Longinus was also called the Sunrise Gun.

Dick, Jason, Raven, and Aisha investigated the Sunrise Gun as a possible way to defeat Hecate, but found they could neither see nor use the occult weapon. Hera then revealed that the ancient Lords of Order had once imprisoned Hecate, and that their strongest member was Nabu.

• Apollo explained that the Sunrise Gun was forged from the occult Sun and could not be used through ordinary physical force.
• Apollo showed the group the weapon’s rack at the top of the Light domain, where Raven sensed something invisible but could not reach it.
• Dick, Jason, and Aisha reasoned that the Justice League likely wanted to kill Hecate’s Mother aspect before facing the others.
• Hermes brought the group to Hera, who said the God King needed Hecate to maintain the barrier against darkness, but she could not let her children die.
• Hera told them that the Lords of Order had imprisoned Hecate in ancient times and identified Nabu as their most powerful member.

Dick and the Young Avengers traced Nabu’s fate to Doctor Fate, whose soul lived in the Helmet, and learned that Doctor Fate was Kent Nelson, Professor Schiller’s junior disciple. When they sought Nelson at Luthor Hospital, he attacked them, then stopped after Lex called; the chapter ended with Nelson explaining that sharing a teacher with Schiller had nothing to do with their ages.

• Hera told Dick that Nabu had founded the Archmage Alliance, and Faust said Nabu was believed to have perished in the war between the Lords of Order and the Chaos Lords.
• Jim revealed that Nabu’s body had been destroyed and his soul now resided in the Helmet worn by Doctor Fate, whom he identified as Nelson, Professor Schiller’s junior disciple.
• Dick’s group went to Luthor Manor, where Lex offered the Young Avengers a large sponsorship and warned them that Nelson might not help them.
• Nelson appeared in his Doctor Fate Helmet at Luthor Hospital and attacked Dick’s group, prompting Raven, Aisha, and Funa to fight him above Metropolis.
• Jason called Lex, and Nelson stopped fighting and returned to the office; after removing his Helmet, he explained that he and Schiller had studied under the same teacher.

Jason and Dick learned from Nabu that God’s power had been used to imprison Hecate, then retrieved Angel’s halo from Gotham University as a possible source of that power. Back at Wayne Manor, Aisha theorized that Schiller was keeping Hecate occupied by making himself her target, and the group turned to the Justice League’s plan for controlling Wonder Woman.

• Jason and Dick questioned Nelson, who sent them to ask Nabu how Hecate had been imprisoned; Nabu said the ancient magic array had used divine power.
• At Luthor Manor, Lex told the group that Angel’s halo, which God had given Schiller, had dispersed Gotham’s dark clouds and was now stored beneath Gotham University.
• Lex contacted Shivan, and Victor Freeze led the group to the vault, where they retrieved Angel’s halo.
• At Wayne Manor, Aisha proposed that Schiller was preventing Hecate from using her ability to alter people’s spirits by keeping himself as her target.
• The group agreed that Schiller might be avoiding the halo to keep its divine power from alerting Hecate, then considered how the Justice League would control Wonder Woman.

Jena revealed that a Justice League mole had prompted a secret evacuation and decoy operation, with the real Mercury Base moving the students to safety while a fake Mercury remained in orbit. The decoy suddenly turned green, raising new questions about who had created it.

• Oliver argued that Cassandra Cain should be confined, but Bruce and Clark refused for lack of evidence and concern for her wellbeing.
• Diana proposed sending Cassandra to Earth, and Jena volunteered to escort her; Barry then led Jena, Zan, and Cassandra to a classroom where the students and attack survivors had gathered.
• Jena told Zan that a mole was in the Justice League and explained that Lilith had stalled for time while Bruce prepared to catch the mole and evacuate the students.
• Jena led the group outside, where they discovered that the real Mercury had moved away and a duplicate Mercury with a matching base had taken its place.
• Jena questioned where the fake Mercury Base had come from, and the decoy planet turned green before the group’s eyes.

Bruce and Hal trapped the Justice League inside a Green Lantern prison to prevent anyone influenced by Hecate from endangering Earth, while Hal used the crisis to expand his authority over the Solar System. Bruce revealed that Diana had been manipulated into helping Hecate’s Mother aspect, which he had deliberately lured into danger.

• After the Wonder Twins left, Bruce accused Diana of being influenced by Hecate and proposed keeping her under surveillance, but she denied the accusations and condemned him for dividing the Justice League.
• Bruce activated a Green Lantern prison around Mercury Base, trapping the entire Justice League, and explained that Hal and Schiller could not be controlled by Hecate.
• Hal placed the Solar System under the Green Lantern Corps’ protection and announced plans to form a Guardians of the Galaxy team, using Earth’s history of disasters to justify the expansion.
• Diana questioned what would happen if Mercury were attacked, but Hal said his forces and the other Lantern Corps were prepared to defend the Solar System.
• Hal asked Bruce where the other aspects of the Triple Goddess would appear, and Bruce said the Mother aspect would soon be trapped.
• Bruce told Diana that Schiller had deliberately guided her into touching him and that she had thereby sent her beloved mother to her death.

Schiller resisted Mother by exposing her resentment and delusions, then dragged her into a vortex and was taken over by Circe. Mother and Circe ended up trapped in unfamiliar places, while Greed and Professor X prepared to study the captured woman.

• Schiller endured Mother's attacks and challenged her claims of being a loving mother, accusing her of killing Persephone and clinging to Hades despite his love for Persephone.
• Schiller seized Mother's wrist and pulled her into a terrifying vortex; after they vanished, Circe took control of Schiller's body.
• Two faces realized Mother's presence had disappeared and sent a Maiden-like figure to find her, while Circe awoke in a cell at Florence Supermax Prison and sensed Hecate approaching.
• Amanda ordered her staff to ignore disturbances in Room 2206, leaving Circe trapped as Hecate's laughter drew near.
• Mother woke in a room surrounded by similar-looking people, and one of them gouged out her eye as they prepared to take her to an operating room.
• Greed told Professor X that they had captured the sample, and the two went to examine her while Pride, cursed into a black snake, remained with Greed.

Professor X took Mother to his mindscape for examination while Bruce recalled how Schiller and Pride had lured Hecate into a trap and captured her. The chapter explained the plan’s connection to Greed’s advice about Mount Olympus, where Hera was identified as a better leader than Zeus.

• Professor X took the captured Mother from Schiller's High Tower to his mindscape, while Pride demanded payment from Greed for his role in the plan.
• Bruce recalled how he and Schiller planned to contain Diana and expose the force controlling her without alerting Hecate.
• Hecate shifted her incubation efforts from Diana to Schiller, but Schiller endured her illusions and used his failsafe to bring Mother back to the High Tower.
• Pride contacted Greed through the Battle World System, and they arranged to sell Mother to Professor X so he could investigate her power and help rescue those suspected of being controlled.
• Greed advised Schiller to exploit the crisis to reorganize Mount Olympus, arguing that Hera should lead in place of Zeus.

Schiller’s plan to undermine Zeus and Mount Olympus led Hera to turn against Zeus after Ares died, while Schiller arranged for the Young Avengers to find and help him. The group discovered that Schiller’s body contained a powerful presence, then used his materials and magic circle to summon a giant phantom who called someone his daughter.

• Schiller used Circe’s witchcraft and Faust’s Key to free the eldest son, who killed Hades, and the resulting events led to Ares’s death and Hera’s growing opposition to Zeus.
• Aisha told Dick and the others that Amanda had reported Schiller’s arrest at Florence Supermax Prison, so the group traveled to meet Amanda.
• Amanda explained that Schiller had asked her to lock him away and gave Dick a package of magical materials and a magic-circle diagram.
• The group found Schiller’s bloodied body in his cell, and Raven sensed that his soul was absent while a powerful presence occupied the body.
• Raven detected two women inside Schiller’s body, and the group arranged the magic circle and summoned a gigantic phantom that welcomed its daughter and praised the sacrifice.

Raven, Dick, Jason, and Tim’s plan captured the Maiden and Crone, but the Upside-Down Man swallowed the Crone and joined Bruce’s Dark Council. Schiller then sent everyone into a dream for treatment, where they awoke beside a bald old man.

• Tim negotiated with Trigon, who took the Maiden and rewarded Raven with more power.
• Raven, Jason, and Dick used Angel’s halo to trap the Crone, but Jason removed it at the Upside-Down Man’s demand, allowing him to swallow her.
• Bruce recruited the Upside-Down Man into the Dark Council, promising him a universe when the plan began.
• Diana worried about Mercury’s security, while Hal insisted they wait for Schiller’s return.
• Schiller announced that the research into Mother’s abilities had succeeded, then sent everyone into a dream with a smashed bottle of liquor.
• Everyone awoke beside a bald old man who stood smiling kindly at them.

After arranging Diana’s treatment in Marvel, Bruce, Clark, and Hal met Hera to negotiate the Justice League’s help with Mount Olympus. Hera agreed to act in Zeus’s stead when he was away and offered divine rewards and weapons, leaving the alliance’s terms set for the coming conflict.

• Professor X examined Diana, and the Justice League sent her to Marvel for a month of recuperation so she would not be caught up in the events on Mount Olympus.
• Bruce, Clark, and Hal met Hera in Apollo’s Light domain to discuss the Justice League’s assistance.
• Hera offered to make Bruce and Selene’s future daughter her godchild and grant her divine power, and promised the Justice League access to the Golden Apple Tree if they resurrected Ares.
• Hal challenged Hera to address the root of Mount Olympus’s troubles, and she agreed to act as God King whenever Zeus was absent.
• Hera offered access to Hephaestus’s forging and revealed that Apollo kept several powerful shells made for him by an old friend.

Bruce and Hal arranged for Loki to lure Zeus into an ambush, where the eldest son badly wounded him. Afterward, the group reported the outcome to Schiller, while the revived Ares and Green Lantern Corps sealed the eldest son away on Venus.

• Hal and Bruce obtained and preserved a Golden Apple, then visited Hephaestus, who refused to show them the dangerous shells he forged.
• Bruce proposed luring Zeus with a beautiful woman so the eldest son could attack him, and he recruited Loki after Natasha recommended her.
• Loki posed as a magic professor, caught Zeus’s attention during a picnic, and lured him away from the Light domain.
• The eldest son ambushed Zeus and left him badly wounded, while Ares and the Green Lantern Corps later sealed the eldest son on Venus.
• Aisha, Raven, Dick, and Jason visited Schiller and told him Zeus had been defeated, Arthur was avoiding his duties, and the eldest son might become a student exam question.