Chapter Summaries

Clark realized the Kryptonians might have gained powers after exposure to the green powder and rushed back to Metropolis to prepare for trouble at the museum exhibition. Lois explained that everyone would target Schiller to get the gemstone before the exhibit, just as an explosion split the Luthor Hotel in half.

• Clark concluded that the green powder might have unlocked the Kryptonians' powers and returned to Metropolis to prepare for a possible fight at the museum.
• Bruce questioned Schiller about his identity and motives, and Schiller left him a box containing something that glowed green.
• Clark used Diana Prince's work ID to enter the Metropolis Museum and persuaded its manager to block off a large window near the exhibit.
• Clark picked up Lois, who explained that factions would try to replace the gemstone before the artifact reached the museum and would target Schiller to get it.
• An explosion tore through the Luthor Hotel beside Clark and Lois, splitting the building in half as it began to topple toward the road.

Clark saved the Luthor Hotel after Zod’s agents and military officers accidentally cut through its supports while searching for Schiller. The aliens fled, Schiller remained missing, and Clark suspected he had arranged the conflict to disrupt the gemstone exhibition.

• Zod reasoned that the gemstone displayed in the artifact might be real and decided to track the military officers pursuing the specialist who could switch it.
• Zod’s three subordinates followed military officers to the Luthor Hotel and entered through its rear loading passage.
• The officers and aliens exchanged fire in the hotel suite, and the aliens’ laser guns sliced through the building’s load-bearing walls.
• Clark caught the collapsing hotel, carried it to a nearby park, and returned to find Schiller missing.
• The aliens mistook a congressman and a woman for their target, but Clark struck one alien and drove the group away.
• The officers admitted they had come looking for Schiller, and Clark wondered whether Schiller had caused the confrontation to set people against one another before the exhibition.

Clark reconstructed the Luthor Hotel scene and deduced that Schiller had arranged the disaster to target Lex Luthor and provoke him through Superman. A television report then revealed the collapse had caused far more casualties than Clark expected.

• Clark resisted asking Lois to solve Schiller’s plan and instead asked her how she reasoned through clues.
• Lois advised Clark to focus on details, prompting him to recreate the Luthor Hotel scene from memory.
• Clark examined the frozen scene but found no obvious clues, then reasoned that Schiller had deliberately lured the military to the hotel because it belonged to Lex Luthor.
• Clark concluded that Schiller had used the hotel’s collapse and Superman’s rescue to provoke Lex Luthor.
• Clark turned on the television and heard a report that the collapse had affected over ten thousand people and caused more than two thousand casualties.

Clark visited Diana’s Arctic research base and helped decipher data from a Kryptonian radiation detector, then reconsidered whether his emotional and intellectual development matched his apparent adult age. When Lex Luthor angrily called again, Clark interpreted the outburst as a request for help.

• Clark watched exaggerated casualty reports about the building accident and suspected that people were exploiting the disaster to damage Luthor Corp.
• Lex Luthor demanded to meet Clark, but Clark hung up and flew to Diana’s Arctic base instead.
• Clark joined Diana and the expert, then struggled to translate technical terms while helping decipher the detector’s incomplete data.
• Diana’s reassurance that Clark was still young led him to question Kryptonian development and search for an explanation for his behavior.
• Clark read about regression and concluded that anger could be a signal of helplessness and a request for help.
• Lex Luthor called Diana’s phone and shouted for Clark, who stayed on the line after deciding Luthor’s anger meant he needed something.

Clark refused Lex Luthor’s request to publicly defend Luthor Corp after the Luthor Hotel collapse, then considered how Luthor’s breakdown could affect Earth’s response to the aliens. After Lois told him the crisis had become an international scandal, Clark realized she might be urging him to take a leading role for Earth.

• Clark rejected Luthor’s demand that he clear up public opinion about the hotel collapse and mocked him before ending the call.
• Diana warned Clark that the incident seemed deliberate, and Clark reasoned that Schiller had targeted Luthor to remove a forceful advocate for war against the aliens.
• Clark considered whether Schiller had wanted to prevent an extreme conflict and concluded that Earth needed a rational, capable leader to manage both internal affairs and negotiations.
• Lois told Clark that the dispute had escalated, with the military and Federal Government facing intense criticism, and said he needed to act.
• Clark reconsidered his identity as an Earthling and realized Lois might believe he was the person suited to lead Earth.

Clark addressed the public about the Luthor Hotel collapse and the alien threat, presenting Superman as a unifying leader. After his speech, he realized Schiller had orchestrated the crisis to force him to grow into that role.

• Clark announced that the hotel collapse was caused by aliens rather than poor construction and revealed that a Kryptonian flagship was parked in low Earth orbit.
• Clark reassured the crowd, described the military’s victory over another alien ship, and urged humanity to unite against future threats.
• Bruce praised Clark’s televised speech, and Clark repeatedly asked whether he had done well.
• Clark traced Schiller’s maneuvers through the crises and realized they had been designed to make him capable of and willing to lead humanity.

Clark took custody of the green gem and warned the human authorities that it could strengthen Kryptonians, but they ignored him. As Zod tried to use a stolen human weapon to create more super-soldiers, it wounded a Kryptonian and released green powder that weakened everyone aboard the flagship.

• Clark accepted responsibility for safeguarding the gem and urged the military not to use it against Kryptonians, then discovered the gem he received was only thumbnail-sized.
• Zod learned that two Kryptonians exposed to gem powder had gained rapidly increasing strength and ordered them to steal the gem from the Metropolis Museum.
• Clark gave the gem to Diana, fought off the two Kryptonians at the museum, and drove them away before they could take it.
• The two Kryptonians stole a gem-powered weapon from a military training base and brought it back to Zod.
• Zod ordered the weapon used on his crew to create super-soldiers, but its shot tore through a Kryptonian’s chest and released green powder that weakened everyone on the ship.

After Zod accidentally killed a Kryptonian soldier, he blamed himself and decided to descend to Earth to find the Genesis Codex. Two other Kryptonian soldiers abandoned the mothership and, after landing in New Mexico, were detained and released as immigrants.

• Zod mourned killing his subordinate, then told his adjutant he would go to Earth while she guarded the ship and engine.
• Two Kryptonian soldiers discussed abandoning Zod’s plan and decided to escape to Earth in a small spacecraft.
• The soldiers landed in the New Mexico desert, where guards detained them at an immigration checkpoint.
• The soldiers learned enough English to claim they were from South Africa and were released from the detention center.
• The soldiers were taken to a prosperous area and read a sign that said “Ding Fatso Square.”

Clark reunited with Diana and her research team, helped them move from the Arctic to a Los Angeles laboratory, and learned more about hidden superpowered beings on Earth. After wearing the green gemstone weakened his powers enough for alcohol to affect him, he got drunk on three sips and woke with a hangover.

• Clark welcomed Diana and the expert back to Los Angeles after arranging military approval and a laboratory for their research team.
• Clark met the Black Officer, learned his name was John Jones, and discovered he was also a Superpower User.
• Diana told Clark that Atlantis existed and that she was a demigod, the daughter of Zeus.
• Clark gave the expert hair and blood samples and reflected that the green gemstone let him use less effort to control his strength.
• Clark drank three sips of a cocktail while wearing the gemstone, passed out, and woke the next day with a hangover.
• Diana brought Clark warm water and reminded him that he needed a blood examination that afternoon.

Clark’s blood test revealed that his exposure to green gemstone powder had increased after he drank Schiller’s cocktail, and the expert began a full physical examination. Diana and M'gann concluded that Schiller had deliberately exposed Clark to small doses to try to desensitize him, though they still did not know how Schiller knew about the blood test.

• Clark told Diana that he wanted to pursue Lois Lane and asked whether humans and Kryptonians could have children together.
• At the laboratory, an expert found an unusually high level of a substance in Clark’s blood, which Clark identified as coming from his green gemstone.
• Clark realized that Schiller had put gemstone powder in his green cocktail and angrily accused him; Colonel Jones assured Clark that his examination would remain secret.
• Diana learned that Colonel Jones was M'gann M'rz, a Martian Hunter who had settled on Earth after the Martians went extinct.
• Diana and M'gann discussed Schiller’s schemes and concluded that he may have been exposing Clark to small doses of gemstone powder to desensitize him.

Clark underwent tests and began desensitization training for the strange powder in his blood, then explored Los Angeles and investigated the difficult lives of undocumented workers. While recruiting sources for a report, he recognized an alien among the restaurant workers and decided to offer him a job.

• The doctor told Clark the powder was not poisonous but recommended medicine, continued exposure, and exercise to build antibodies.
• Clark ran through Los Angeles, ate at a Chinese restaurant, and heard the owner explain why he hired undocumented workers.
• Clark decided to report on immigrant life and secretly helped unload a delivery while interviewing workers about their hardships.
• Clark spotted a tall worker whose internal structure was not human and recognized him as an alien hiding among ordinary people.
• Clark followed the alien into the kitchen and wrote a business card offering him work with excellent compensation.

Clark struggled to find a safe way to investigate illegal immigration until Schiller offered to act as his intermediary and convinced him to train against Kryptonite. The next day, Clark met Schiller at a café and discovered that Schiller himself was the intermediary.

• Clark discussed his investigation into illegal immigrants with Lois, who warned him that undercover work was dangerous and urged him not to appear in person.
• Clark encountered Schiller in a bar, learned that Schiller owned the bar and street, and discovered that green powder Schiller had added to his drinks was Kryptonite.
• Schiller warned Clark that a coming multiversal crisis could expose Supermen to Kryptonite and urged him to undergo desensitization training so he could stand independently.
• Clark agreed to train with Kryptonite and let Schiller find an intermediary for his investigation.
• Clark woke at his hotel the next day and met Schiller at a café, where Schiller revealed that he would serve as the intermediary.

Two Kryptonian deserters, Claude and Jia, joined Schiller Rodriguez’s drug trial and grew stronger after taking the pills, while Clark discovered that Schiller had misled him about their reports. Searching for the men led Clark into a tent district filled with people in severe distress, where he realized a newborn had just been delivered and suspected a larger crisis was unfolding on Earth.

• Schiller Rodriguez recruited Claude and Jia for a paid drug trial, and the two agreed despite intending to fabricate their reports.
• Claude and Jia swallowed the trial medicine, then began writing detailed accounts after learning that their strength had increased and they were breaking dishes at work.
• Clark reviewed their second-phase report, and Lois pointed out that its claims about illness and pharmacy visits did not make sense.
• Clark realized Schiller had deceived him, but could not find Schiller or the two Kryptonians at their restaurant.
• An old man directed Clark to a tent district in nearby woods, where Clark saw people in severe distress and a woman holding a newborn with its umbilical cord still attached.
• Clark stopped searching for Claude and Jia and decided to investigate the tent district and the crisis affecting its residents.

Clark rescued Daisy’s premature newborn from the Tent District, but the baby died at the hospital. After discovering that men were collecting homeless people’s bodies for a research center, Clark returned to bury the infant and encountered an old man who knew Daisy and Jabo.

• Clark cut the newborn’s umbilical cord with Heat Vision and tried to escape with the baby, but a man claiming to be its father shot him while he carried Kryptonite.
• Daisy struck the man with a rock, giving Clark a chance to flee the Tent District with the infant.
• At the hospital, Doctor told Clark that the baby had died from hereditary drug addiction and AIDS, and secretly gave him the child’s body.
• Clark returned to the Tent District, overheard men discussing corpse collection and a research center, and followed the vehicle carrying Daisy’s body to the facility.
• Clark flew after the vehicle despite carrying Kryptonite, then returned and buried the baby in the woods.
• An old man recognized the infant as Daisy’s child and told Clark that Daisy had once been a real estate agent before asking why the baby was with him instead of Jabo.

Clark learned from an old man how Jabo’s Tent District survived by exploiting and killing its residents. The old man described its rules and his own reasons for staying, leaving Clark to confront the district’s brutal system.

• Clark asked the old man about the Tent District, and the old man warned him that residents would dig up the baby’s corpse to sell it.
• The old man explained that Jabo and other men forced women to bear sick children for pharmaceutical companies to buy.
• The old man told Clark that the Sweeper killed homeless residents and sold their bodies, while district leaders removed the weak to make room for newcomers.
• The old man explained how drugs, disease, and exploitation trapped residents in a cycle that often ended with their deaths.
• The old man described how his bookkeeping skills and past connections helped him survive, and said he no longer believed people could climb out of poverty.

Clark reflected on how despair and poor mental health kept many homeless people from working, then discussed Earth’s social problems and the threat of aliens with Bruce. Bruce argued that Gotham’s welfare system and its volatile citizens restrained exploitation, while humanity ultimately had to reform itself.

• Clark buried the baby's body in a remote suburb, then flew to Wayne Manor and asked Bruce whether he had a device for contacting aliens.
• Clark told Bruce he wanted to help prepare for Kryptonians and other aliens, then recounted what he had learned about homelessness and despair.
• Bruce explained that his charities provided crisis aid and welfare jobs, while Gotham’s unpredictable residents deterred business owners from mistreating them.
• Bruce told Clark that alien pressure might help temporarily, but humanity had to change itself.

Zod was captured by the military after trying to rescue a child, then experimented on until Lex Luthor’s gemstone triggered a monstrous transformation. He escaped the underground base and flew toward the city, leaving the military scrambling to stop him.

• Zod survived in the wilderness after landing on Earth, discovered his powers, and entered a city while the military tracked him.
• Zod recalled how soldiers used a burning building and a child as bait to capture him, deepening his hatred of humanity.
• Lex Luthor entered the military laboratory to study Zod and secretly activated the power of the gemstone on his ring.
• Zod transformed into a giant, spiked monster, broke his restraints, and slaughtered the soldiers in the laboratory.
• Zod escaped the base, destroyed the military vehicles and aircraft pursuing him, and flew toward the city.

Clark fought a Kryptonite-equipped monster that attacked the city, then recognized it as General Zod after driving it into space and burning away its armor. He returned to Earth and reunited with Lois, who warned him that the military planned to blame an alien invasion and expose his identity.

• Clark argued with the editor-in-chief over publishing his report, then spotted a giant monster approaching the city.
• Clark fought the monster through the city and sky, discovered Kryptonite on its hand, and discarded his own Kryptonite necklace.
• Clark took the battle into space, weakened the monster with an enormous heat-vision blast, and recognized it as General Zod.
• Clark returned to Earth, retrieved his necklace, and reunited with Lois, who told him the military planned to label the monster an alien invader and reveal his identity.

Lois planned to expose the military’s possible role in creating the monster, but she staged a poisoning to turn the attack into a major story and protect Clark’s identity. Clark discovered the ruse after the editor-in-chief publicized the incident, and confronted Schiller at Lois’s hospital room.

• Military officers decided to blame the monster on aliens and spread rumors that Superman was an alien to divert attention from their own involvement.
• Lois explained her plan to use Clark’s earlier reporting to raise doubts about military experiments, then collapsed after drinking poisoned water.
• Clark learned that the editor-in-chief had already published his report and stopped him from drinking poisoned coffee.
• The editor-in-chief rushed to the hospital and portrayed Lois Lane’s poisoning as an attempt to silence her over her report.
• A Doctor told Clark that Lois had suffered only mild metal poisoning, and Clark overheard Lois and Schiller admitting that she had staged it for publicity.
• Clark entered Lois’s room and confronted Schiller, who blamed Lois for the scheme.

Lois met Schiller Rodriguez to discuss helping Superman overcome suspicion about his alien origins. She outlined how people could be diminished by being treated as someone else’s accessory or reduced to an unrelated label, and the chapter left her plan still at the stage of a rough concept.

• Lois arranged to meet Schiller Rodriguez at a café after receiving his email.
• Lois thanked Schiller for the lead about the royal family’s artifact-switching scandal and offered to repay him.
• Lois told Schiller she wanted to help Superman by easing public doubts about his alien identity.
• Lois explained that she hoped to make Superman seem less threatening by managing how people perceived him, but said she needed Schiller’s connections.
• Lois described how treating someone as another person’s accessory or repeatedly identifying them by an unrelated object could diminish them and create social pressure.