Chapter Summaries

Lois planned to redirect public attention from Superman by making him appear closely attached to her, and arranged for paparazzi to photograph them together. She used a mild poison to trigger a convincing reaction in front of Clark, leaving him panicked as she collapsed.

• Schiller understood that Lois wanted to make Superman seem less independent and advised her on how public attention could be redirected.
• Lois paid Schiller for a mild poison and explained that she wanted to protect Superman in honor of her youthful dream of helping others.
• After receiving the packet, Lois sent it to Doctor Dean’s lab for testing and recruited Happy Dog and his brothers to photograph Superman.
• When a monster attacked Metropolis, Lois kept Happy Dog’s group on the rooftop and later rushed to embrace Clark as paparazzi photographed them.
• Back at her studio, Lois explained her plan to Clark, drank water laced with the poison, and collapsed vomiting as Clark panicked.

While Lois recovered in the hospital, she helped Clark realize how many people had protected and supported him. Schiller explained that people saw Clark as a chance to change the world, then confessed he had admired Superman in his previous life.

• Lois told Clark that many people had helped him over the years, prompting him to reflect on the kindness he had received.
• After visiting hours ended, Clark asked Schiller why so many people supported him.
• Schiller explained that ordinary people saw Clark's power as a possibility for changing the world and supported him for their own safety and hopes for a better future.
• Clark asked why Schiller had helped him, and Schiller said he had been Clark's fan in his previous life and loved reading Superman's stories.

Clark woke to news that Superman was an alien and felt crushed by the hostile public reaction, only to discover that people were also asking whether he and Lois Lane were dating. After a photograph of them together spread online, the news of Superman’s origins reframed Lois’s poisoning as a military attempt to target her through his identity.

• Clark read the headline revealing Superman was not from Earth and saw commenters accuse him of deception and blame him for the Metropolis battle.
• Clark opened his emails and found that his Daily Planet colleagues wanted to know whether he and Lois Lane were dating.
• Clark saw a widely shared photograph of himself holding Lois, and online users recognized him as Superman.
• Reporters publicized Lois’s poisoning and her investigation, turning the incident into a major online controversy.
• After news outlets reported that Superman was an alien, people concluded that the military had exposed his identity to target Lois.

After Lois exposed the military’s poisoning attempt, public suspicion turned toward its experiments, and Congress forced the military to blame Lex Luthor, who was arrested. Amanda Waller recruited Clark into the government’s Sky Eye plan, and he followed her to its underground base to discuss responding to future threats.

• The Daily Planet published Clark’s report about missing homeless people, prompting the public to suspect the military had abducted people for experiments connected to the Metropolis monster and Lois’s poisoning.
• Congress launched an inquiry, and the military presented footage proving Lex Luthor had tampered with Zod’s test subject.
• The military arrested Lex Luthor, whose imprisonment and the collapse of Luthor Corp left Clark feeling wistful rather than pleased.
• Amanda Waller approached Clark and explained that the government’s Sky Eye plan monitored Superpower Users and sought his help with threats it could not handle.
• Clark agreed to consider the arrangement, and Amanda brought him to the Sky Eye plan’s underground base to show him its files.

Clark considered joining Sky Eye but hesitated after Bruce warned him that the organization would make refusal difficult. When his landlord forced him out, Clark failed to find another apartment and ended up moving into Bruce’s home.

• Amanda showed Clark Sky Eye’s disaster-response system and offered him paid rescue work and support, but Clark asked for time to think.
• Clark asked Bruce for advice, and Bruce warned that Sky Eye would latch onto him whether or not he agreed.
• A lawyer told Clark that his landlord had terminated his lease and required him to leave within one day.
• Clark searched for housing and called Diana and Lois, but neither could offer him a place to stay.
• Schiller pointed out that Bruce had a guest room, so Clark arrived at Wayne Manor with his belongings and Bruce let him in.

After Amanda Waller targeted the specialist who trained him, Clark decided to find a way to counter Sky Eye without walking into its trap or involving his friends. He flew to the Moon to secretly monitor events on Earth, settling in for the task with a recliner and pillow taken from Wayne Manor.

• Clark woke to learn from the specialist that Amanda Waller had entered his laboratory and threatened to arrest him, hoping to draw Clark out.
• Clark abandoned plans to storm Sky Eye's base and reasoned that he needed to find someone already opposed to the organization.
• Clark chose to investigate from the Moon, where Sky Eye would have difficulty monitoring him.
• Clark flew to the lunar surface with supplies and a recliner, then returned to Wayne Manor for nails and a throw pillow so he could settle in comfortably.

Clark abandoned his tedious surveillance of the lunar base after discovering an empty Kryptonian ship in orbit, where he overheard Amanda Waller trying to recruit imprisoned Lex Luthor. Hearing Luthor’s childlike nightmare prompted Clark to investigate his past, and he searched Luthor Manor for clues.

• Clark left the Moon for a vacant Kryptonian escort ship and used its comforts while listening to events on Earth.
• Clark overheard Amanda Waller offer Lex Luthor better treatment and possible freedom in exchange for working with her, but Lex refused.
• Clark decided to interfere with Waller’s plan, then heard Luthor cry out like a frightened child during a nightmare.
• Clark suspected Luthor’s past might explain his behavior and flew to Luthor Manor to search for clues.
• Clark slipped into the manor’s study while movers emptied the house and found a photograph of young Lex with a man he presumed was his father.

Clark uncovered evidence that Lex had been abused as a child and may have poisoned his school’s water dispensers, then visited him in detention to propose working together against Amanda Waller. Lex blamed Clark for failing to save him as a child, and Clark insisted that he had come now despite everything Lex had done.

• Clark examined photographs and a psychiatric record, then found reports of a poisoning case at Lex’s middle school and suspected Lex had been responsible.
• Clark decided to give Lex another chance and flew into the police station where he was being held.
• Clark told Lex that Amanda Waller had threatened them both and proposed cooperating, but Lex said he should have gone with her to deal with Clark.
• When Clark mentioned Lex’s abusive father, Lex attacked him and accused him of ignoring the prayers he made as a child.
• Clark realized Lex was condemning God for failing to save him, then said he had come now despite Lex’s attempts to harm his family and Metropolis.

Clark challenged Lex Luthor's belief that God had failed him, exposing contradictions between Lex's religious ideas and his suspicion of divine indifference. Lex began to recognize that he had never seriously examined what he believed, while Clark understood more clearly how Lex's suspicion overrode his search for truth.

• Lex argued that Superman was either too weak or too indifferent to save everyone, just as he believed God had failed to save him.
• Clark explained Christianity's doctrine of original sin and questioned why Lex believed God existed if he rejected religious teachings.
• Clark asked why Lex had never considered that God did not exist, prompting Lex to recognize a contradiction in his beliefs.
• Lex realized he could either view his hardships as trials for a divinely chosen Oracle or reject the religious narrative and take control of his fate.
• Clark connected Lex's confused religious reasoning to his broader habit of inventing suspicions instead of investigating facts.

Clark tried to help Lex Luthor find a way to avoid prison, while realizing that Lex’s crisis left him with few options. At Sky Eye headquarters, Amanda learned that Superman had called to report a crime and accuse Lex of kidnapping his mother.

• Clark reflected on Lex’s suspicions about God and considered how preventing crime might require fixing the causes of harm throughout society.
• Clark offered Lex several ways to escape or secure his release, but Lex rejected each one because they would leave him exposed or give the military leverage.
• Clark concluded that only one option remained and warned Lex that he needed to prove himself an outstanding scientist.
• A Sky Eye operator received an incoming call and rushed to tell Amanda that Superman was on the line.
• Amanda hurried to answer, then learned that Clark had reported Lex Luthor for kidnapping his mother and threatening him into attacking the Sky Eye base.

Clark staged Lex Luthor’s kidnapping of Superman’s mother to justify freeing Lex and confronting Amanda Waller, then used overwhelming force against Sky Eye’s base. Batman arrived just as Clark faced the question of what he might have done if Martha had truly been killed.

• Clark pretended Lex had kidnapped Martha and forced him to help Lex escape custody, bringing Lex to the laboratory where the expert was working.
• Clark found Sky Eye’s headquarters and lifted the entire building into the air before setting it down in a park.
• Clark confronted Amanda Waller, who ordered the police to fire on him, and he stopped their bullets and compressed them into a tiny sphere.
• Clark’s anger subsided when Batman called for him to stop, and the two met in the rain as Clark considered what he would have done if Martha had died.

Clark and Batman confronted the consequences of changing the world, and Batman shot Clark with a magical beam to test whether he could overcome an insurmountable obstacle. As Clark’s body was taken away while slowly healing, Schiller revealed that the attack was meant to forge a true Steel Body.

• Clark asked Batman whether he would stop him, and Batman said Clark had to prove he could truly change things.
• Batman told Clark that Damian had died after falling from a building during a kidnapping rescue, then asked what Clark would do when he faced an obstacle he could not overcome.
• Batman activated a hidden device that shot Clark with a magical beam, leaving a hole in his chest as he fell from the rooftop.
• Amanda Waller ordered her subordinates to take Clark’s body to Belliv Prison, but officers noticed that he was still warm and his wound was slowly healing.
• Batman returned to Schiller, who said Zod would eventually return, and Schiller later told Adventure Batman that his real aim was to forge a true Steel Body.

Clark survived the magical wound by adapting his body to absorb and convert both magic and Kryptonite energy, then began healing. At the same time, Doctor Niemann secretly chose to protect Superman from Amanda Waller’s planned dissection, keeping her occupied with a slow procedure.

• Clark’s body struggled against the magical energy while Kryptonite radiation suppressed his power, forcing his immune system to adapt before his energy ran out.
• Clark’s body began converting magical energy, then absorbed Kryptonite energy as well, replenishing its power and repairing his wound.
• Doctor Niemann persuaded another Doctor to help deceive Amanda Waller and conceal that Superman was recovering.
• Doctor Niemann returned to the operating room and instructed the Doctors to delay the dissection by carefully checking every procedure.
• After four hours, Doctor Niemann firmly defended the team’s pace to Amanda, who accepted his explanation and stopped pressing them.

After recovering from his wounds, Superman killed Amanda and revealed the evidence of her crimes in Metropolis, then brought a new power into public view. He left the city facing the armed forces and deposited Capitol Hill above it.

• Doctor Niemann and the other doctors hid Superman’s healing wounds while they helped him recover, and Doctor Niemann declared the operation over.
• Superman woke, killed Amanda with his laser vision, and escaped the laboratory as armed soldiers arrived.
• Superman discovered his transformed energy could lift and create, and carried the laboratory building to a plaza in Metropolis to expose the corpses inside.
• As reporters and armed forces gathered, Superman remembered those who had helped him and resolved to become humanity’s final line of defense.
• Superman vanished, then a mountain bearing Capitol Hill descended over Metropolis.

After Clark moved Capitol Hill into Metropolis, the military and Congress became trapped in a tense standoff that lasted through a freezing night. The president secured Clark’s agreement to disperse the forces, but reporters immediately confronted Congress with questions about unidentified bodies, illegal experiments, and Lois Lane’s poisoning.

• Superman relocated Capitol Hill into Metropolis Plaza, where armed forces surrounding him found themselves aiming their weapons at the US Capitol Building.
• Congress and the military blamed each other and remained deadlocked while reporters watched and snow drove the lawmakers to seek help from the president.
• The president promised Clark immunity for his actions and apologized for Sky Eye and Amanda Waller’s attack on him.
• Clark collected the immunity documents and persuaded the military and police to leave Metropolis Plaza.
• As Congress members left the freezing chamber, reporters swarmed them with questions about unidentified corpses, experiments on homeless people, and Lois Lane’s poisoning.

Clark decided to leave Earth for Krypton to learn what his homeworld was like and what he wanted for society, while Lois promised to wait for his return. As Clark departed, Bruce and Diana discussed their Battleworld trip and Diana offered to seek a Golden Apple that could extend Bruce’s life.

• Reporters connected the research base near the Capitol to missing homeless people, while Clark reflected on the Federation’s responsibility for their deaths.
• Clark concluded that he could not change society from within and decided to visit Krypton to reclaim his alien identity and investigate its history.
• Clark visited Lois at her former apartment, told her he might not return, and Lois insisted that he would come back and promised to wait.
• Bruce watched Clark leave Earth, then met Diana, who described her trip to Battleworld and discussed their concerns about Clark.
• Diana told Bruce that she might obtain a Golden Apple to restore his youth and extend his life, but warned that it could not resurrect the dead.

Bruce, Diana, M'gann M'rz, and Schiller discussed the approaching Multiverse-scale dark crisis and the threats facing Earth. They agreed to assemble the Justice League, while Diana sought a way to heal Bruce and a red glow stirred from armor in the Batcave.

• Bruce told Diana that his old injuries were worsening and asked whether the Golden Apple could heal him.
• Bruce explained that Main Universe Batman had detected abnormal dark readings and warned that a Multiverse-scale crisis might erupt in their universe.
• M'gann M'rz joined Bruce and Diana, reported that Clark had disrupted the military and that Zod's monstrous form remained near Mars.
• Schiller warned that the Dark Force could exploit chaos and identified Darkseid and Steppenwolf as future threats.
• Bruce assigned M'gann M'rz to stabilize the government and military, asked Diana to seek divine healing, and gave her a Battleworld gemstone.
• Diana agreed to pursue the Golden Apple and other remedies as a hellish red glow flashed from armor in the Batcave.

Ben Batman arrived at Battleworld to prepare for the Dark Force invasion threatening his universe, and he sought powerful equipment despite his failing health. Bruce began recruiting the Main Universe Justice League, while Schiller arranged for Diana to visit Battleworld and help bring the heroes together.

• Main Universe Batman and Adventure Batman warned Ben Batman that the Dark Force invasion was real and discussed risky ways to repair his severely injured body.
• Ben Batman rejected standard equipment and asked to use Main Universe Batman's Hell Bat armor as a final trump card.
• Bruce asked Schiller for help using the armor and explained that he planned to recruit members of the Main Universe Justice League individually.
• Schiller told Diana that the Golden Apple could help Batman regain his peak and invited her to Battleworld to meet her counterparts.
• Diana agreed to visit Battleworld, and Schiller said Batman would gather the heroes at Wayne Manor.

Bruce reviewed Barry Allen’s file while the government appointed Schiller to lead Sky Eye and recruit Superpower Users to move Capitol Hill back to Washington. In Central City, Barry secretly used his speed to stop a robbery as The Flash, then fled from a girl who spoke to him and watched Superman’s speech with envy.

• Bruce studied footage of Barry Allen and concluded that the lonely young man’s extraordinary talent should not be wasted.
• After learning that Amanda Waller was dead, the President approved Schiller Rodriguez as Sky Eye’s new leader and tasked him with assembling a team to return Capitol Hill to Washington.
• Schiller accepted the appointment, agreed to organize Superpower Users for the mission, and registered a false identity as Neog Sohip.
• Barry used his speed to disarm a robber, rescue a tourist, and bring a police officer to the scene so the officer could arrest the man.
• A girl approached Barry after the incident, and he blushed and ran away when she invited him to get doughnuts.
• Barry overheard tourists praising The Flash and watched Superman’s speech on a shop television, envying the hero’s handsome appearance.

Barry received a recruitment call from Sky Eye about helping move Capitol Hill back from Metropolis, but his investigation into Superman’s actions led him to uncover the horrific treatment of homeless people at a secret research base. After meeting Lois Lane, Barry saw her photographs and was overwhelmed by the evidence.

• Sky Eye contacted Barry, revealed that it knew he was The Flash, and asked him to help move Capitol Hill back to Washington.
• Barry investigated Superman’s recent actions and found reports connecting Los Angeles’s declining homeless population to unidentified corpses at a secret research base.
• Barry accessed government files about human experimentation and organ transplants, then went to Metropolis to look for Superman.
• Barry searched the streets, saw homeless people and a team collecting bodies, and then entered Lois Lane’s hospital room.
• Barry showed Lois the information he had found, and she offered to show him her photographs.
• Barry viewed Lois’s photographs and vomited until he could no longer stand.