Chapter Summaries

The group debated how to improve life for the poor, and Bruce argued that social unity could be fostered by raising morale and creating a shared sense of sacrifice. Hal Jordan moved the Capitol Building back to Washington for a promised job reinstatement, but politicians reneged and targeted his girlfriend to recruit him; Hal flew to her home, ready to confront them.

• Barry proposed creating a foundation to provide food, clothing, and treatment, while Ron argued that direct aid would be inefficient and the group debated other solutions.
• Bruce described how Cold War unity and abundance had encouraged social tolerance, then said improving morale or lowering expectations could make people feel happier, adding that the League would have to sacrifice.
• A politician offered Hal Jordan reinstatement as a test pilot and relief from compensation claims if he moved the Capitol Building back to Washington without harming anyone or damaging equipment.
• Hal used his green power to lift Capitol Hill and set it down precisely in its original location, angering legislators whose plans for a revote were disrupted.
• Politicians refused to reinstate Hal the next morning and sent someone to pressure his girlfriend into persuading him to work for them.
• Hal received his girlfriend’s distressed call and flew to her home, realizing something had happened and vowing not to let anyone get away.

Carol Ferris outmaneuvered government agents who came to force her to summon Hal Jordan, then warned Hal that political opponents had branded him a terrorist for moving the Capitol Building back to Washington. Hal realized he had been manipulated and was left furious and bewildered.

• Government agents confronted Carol Ferris at home and demanded that she call Hal Jordan, whom they accused of terrorism.
• Carol stunned an agent, escaped into a hidden safe house, and investigated footage of Hal’s recent actions and powers.
• Carol called Hal and lured him to her apartment, where he drove off the agents searching for her.
• Hal panicked when he could not find Carol, but she reappeared and explained that the opposition party planned to target him.
• Hal learned that the Capitol Building’s relocation had become a political weapon and realized he had been manipulated into moving it.

After government agents threatened Carol, Hal realized that retaliating would serve one political faction or the other, so he and Carol decided to seek Superman’s help in Metropolis. As they arrived, Diana spotted them, and Bruce asked her to investigate because the pair had likely run into trouble.

• Hal grew furious after agents threatened Carol, but Carol persuaded him that moving the Capitol Building again would benefit the opposition, while the ruling party had also broken its promises to him.
• Carol suggested Hal seek Superman’s help, and Hal decided he needed support from a circle of Superpower Users rather than his former test-pilot connections.
• Carol arranged for them to travel to Metropolis, where she had inherited two houses, and Hal carried her there by flying instead of waiting for a flight.
• Diana saw Hal and Carol flying over Metropolis and called Bruce to ask whether Superman had returned.
• Bruce checked surveillance footage, identified Hal and Carol, and sent their information to Diana, asking her to visit because they had probably run into trouble.

Diana invited Hal and Carol to join Batman’s new superpowered organization after learning about their conflict with the Federal Government, and they accepted once they learned Bruce Wayne was behind it. At Wayne Manor, the Justice League welcomed them as members and prepared to begin its plan the next morning.

• Diana visited Hal and Carol, revealed that Superman had left Earth, and invited Hal to join Batman’s organization.
• Diana described the group’s members and revealed that Batman was Bruce Wayne, prompting Hal and Carol to accept the invitation.
• Hal told Diana about the Federal Government’s treatment of them, and she explained that the organization would operate mainly in Metropolis.
• Hal and Carol arrived at Wayne Manor two days later, where the assembled members welcomed them.
• Bruce toasted Hal and Carol as new members of the Justice League and announced that their plan would begin the next morning.

Bruce introduced Justice Hall, the Justice League’s new base, and assigned the team its first mission: help Metropolis’s homeless before Christmas. The members planned an immediate supply effort and a longer-term shelter while Bruce stayed behind to work on a complex blueprint.

• Bruce showed the team Justice Hall’s living spaces and concealed underground facility, then gave them a mission to help Metropolis’s homeless before Christmas.
• The team discussed their differing views on killing and agreed that Victor would provide support remotely while Arthur should avoid working alone.
• Diana urged the team to prioritize warmth, and Hal volunteered Carol’s family’s freight companies to purchase and distribute supplies within three days.
• Victor reported that all sixty-eight Metropolis shelters were full, so the team planned to count homeless people, map their locations, and find a place to settle them.
• The team dispersed to begin mapping the homeless population while Bruce returned to a complex blueprint on his computer.

Barry and the others established an aid station in an abandoned factory to help Metropolis’s homeless people survive the winter. After transporting more than twenty frail people there, they began feeding and sheltering them, leaving open the possibility that some could recover enough to find work.

• Barry and Victor identified where Metropolis’s homeless people gathered and found that many were too weak to survive the winter.
• Diana, Ron, Hal, Barry, and Victor organized an aid station in an abandoned factory, arranged supplies and trucks, and spread word of the new shelter.
• Barry found more than a dozen elderly people unable to collect charity meals and arranged for a truck driver to transport them to the factory.
• The new arrivals received food and asked whether they could stay; Ron promised shelter through the winter.
• Ron explained that people who were not on drugs might find off-the-books work after recovering, and Barry saw that several days of adequate food could help them regain their strength.

Diana and Ron built up the shelter to more than a thousand people, while Barry and Hal brought in homeless people and helped some find work. After the shelter’s residents organized patrols, a young man warned Diana that suspicious people who looked like police were near the east smokestacks, and she and Ron went to investigate.

• Hal brought in more homeless people, and Diana and Ron stocked the shelter with abundant food and heaters.
• Diana and Ron struggled to manage residents suffering from drug addiction, and they sent some back to their original communities.
• Barry encountered a gang that threatened him for taking away its potential drug customers, but he still brought two people to the shelter.
• Barry and Hal continued recruiting people until the shelter population surpassed one thousand, and residents found work, learned skills, and formed security patrols.
• A young man told Diana that he and Witt had seen suspicious people near the east smokestacks, so Diana told the patrols to hide while she and Ron went to investigate.

Diana learned that bringing homeless people to the factory district had drawn the attention of powerful drug interests and community officials. After the Justice League blocked a questionable welfare inspection, Diana met with a local social worker to learn what was behind it.

• The Sheriff warned Diana that relocating homeless people threatened the territory and business of a drug trafficking ring, though he let his officers conduct only a token search.
• Arthur told Diana and Ron that the community could assess their welfare activity and might issue an eviction order, undermining their legal position if they resisted.
• Diana organized the shelter residents to clear snow after a heavy snowfall, while Hal provided expired frozen steaks for breakfast.
• Community officials arrived to inspect the shelter, but Diana and Arthur refused entry because the officials could not explain the need for the assessment.
• Diana arranged to meet the Black social worker, who said she supported giving the abandoned factory district to people in need and began explaining the situation.

Diana and the Justice League faced escalating legal and bureaucratic pressure aimed at forcing the homeless people out of their shelter. After learning their lease did not permit relief work, Diana realized they had only three days to resolve the problem before facing eviction and possible lawsuits.

• A social worker warned Diana that officials could use legal charges against the homeless people to force them out, so Diana worried about finding them somewhere safe to go.
• Health officials demanded disinfection, environmental officers ordered the homeless people moved, and the FBI tried to inspect the shelter without a warrant before Victor drove them off.
• Ron and Arthur concluded that helping the homeless was straightforward and inexpensive, and that some larger, invisible force was preventing governments from doing it.
• A caller warned Diana that officials were investigating the shelter's lease for illegal use and could only hold the complaint for three days.
• Victor told Diana the lease could not be changed to allow relief work, and the property owner warned that the community or city could sue them.

Ron and the others tried to protect the homeless shelter from a lawsuit and a smear campaign, but their efforts collapsed as people fled and supplies dried up. After the shelter emptied and the court summons arrived, Diana recalled Bruce’s proposal to make their organization a deterrent powerful enough to force political change.

• Victor told Ron that the factory owner had refused to testify, but the lawsuit could still proceed because the shelter used the land illegally.
• Ron ordered the homeless people moved to jobs or safer shelters, while Diana resisted an elderly man’s plea to send them back into the cold.
• Bruce offered space in Gotham’s shelters, and Ron realized that powerful interests were spreading rumors to stop people from going there.
• Victor failed to suppress the rumors, food and fuel deliveries became difficult, and many residents left for Gotham or returned to their former settlements.
• Diana arranged hospital care for three pregnant women, then tore up the court summons after the shelter was emptied.
• Diana remembered Bruce’s plan to create a new Cold War by making the Superpower Users a deterrent, a proposal she and Ron had initially rejected.

Diana and the heroes were ambushed by Doomsday after Schiller revealed that Sky Eye had recruited him, and they fought the powerful creature until Schiller used government authority to force them to release him. After the heroes were briefly detained and freed, Schiller warned Diana that a greater crisis was approaching as snow began to fall over Metropolis.

• Diana refused Schiller’s offer to have the heroes join Sky Eye, so he unleashed Doomsday on them.
• Doomsday overwhelmed the heroes until Arthur summoned seawater, and they coordinated to bind the creature with the Lasso of Truth.
• Schiller declared Doomsday an official Sky Eye employee and had police and federal agents threaten Diana with arrest.
• Ron told Hal to release Doomsday, who showed that he had regained his reason and left with Schiller.
• After the heroes were released from the police station, Schiller warned Diana that they would soon face a longer and harder road as snow fell over Metropolis.

Steppenwolf attacked Metropolis seeking the Mother Box, badly injuring the team before Diana drove him away. After returning to headquarters, the heroes suffered terrifying nightmares whose details vanished when they woke.

• Diana, Hal, Ron, Barry, Arthur, and Victor confronted Steppenwolf as he attacked Metropolis, and he injured Diana, Barry, and Arthur.
• Ron recognized Steppenwolf and found Darkseid’s name in his memories, while Diana realized the invader was searching for the Mother Box.
• Diana restrained and wounded Steppenwolf long enough for Ron to take Victor to safety, but Steppenwolf escaped after warning them about Darkseid.
• Diana explained that Victor might know what Steppenwolf sought and warned the team that someone could exploit their weakened state.
• The heroes dreamed of devastating personal tragedies, then woke unable to recall the nightmares and gathered for coffee.

Bruce organized plans to build a new space station while Steppenwolf attacked Amazon in search of the Mother Box. Diana and Ron confronted him as Arthur sought Atlantean reinforcements, leaving Arthur and Mera approaching the Trench Tribe.

• Bruce discussed building a new space station with Hal and arranged for Victor to assemble it from prepared materials with Bruce’s help.
• Diana and Arthur left to rest, but Diana learned Steppenwolf had attacked Amazon and hurried there with Ron and the others.
• Diana found Amazon under attack, and Steppenwolf claimed he had killed her mother; Ron revealed Steppenwolf was lying and fought him instead.
• Arthur went to Atlantis for reinforcements, but most of the Seven Seas kings refused to help, so Mera led him toward the Trench Tribe.
• Mera comforted Arthur as they reached the dark trench where the Trench Tribe lived.

Arthur and Mera found Atlantis under attack by Steppenwolf’s Parademons, while Arthur suspected the Mother Box was the reason for the invasion and went to confront him. In Metropolis, Barry’s Speed Force went out of control during a nightmare, and Lois and Hal discovered that Green Lantern energy could break its hold on him.

• Mera led Arthur through the trench to the Trench Tribe king, but their request for aid was interrupted when Parademons invaded Atlantis.
• Arthur concluded Steppenwolf was likely searching for a Mother Box in Atlantis, told Mera to release Orm, and rushed to the barrier to fight Steppenwolf.
• Barry suffered a terrifying nightmare in the hospital as blue lightning spread through the building, and Lois evacuated people before reaching his room.
• Hal shielded the hospital with Green Lantern energy, which helped Barry wake and end the Speed Force’s rampage.
• Lois reasoned that the force controlling Barry might fear Green Lantern energy and noted that Barry’s eyes glowed yellow when he awoke.

Hal learned that Parallax, a fear-born monster, may have attacked Barry, and planned to help Barry face his fear and lure it to the League. Diana obtained Golden Apples for Bruce, while Bruce and Schiller advanced a scheme to put the Justice League under greater pressure and draw out the mysterious Dark Force.

• Hal asked Victor to hack Green Lantern Headquarters, and Victor found information identifying Parallax as a monster formed from fear whose yellow power opposed Green Lantern energy.
• Hal concluded that Barry might have encountered his deepest fear and asked him to overcome it, confront Parallax, and lure it to the Justice League.
• Diana met her mother at Mount Olympus, learned that Darkseid sought the Mother Box, and left to claim Golden Apples for Bruce.
• Diana brought an orchard of Golden Apples to Justice League headquarters, and Bruce thanked her as she warned that Hera would soon hunt her.
• In the Batcave, Bruce and Schiller discussed using the Golden Apples and escalating pressure on the Justice League to reveal the mysterious Dark Force.
• Schiller recalled that Bruce had summoned him to Wayne Manor the night before he became head of Sky Eye.

Bruce Wayne recruited Schiller to lead Sky Eye and manipulate the Justice League into recognizing the need for a new society. Bruce planned to make himself indispensable to the heroes, and revealed that Diana was the first person he intended to draw in because he needed the Golden Apple.

• Bruce offered Schiller the position of Sky Eye chief, and Schiller agreed to help unite the Justice League around Bruce.
• Bruce explained that he wanted heroes to see the truth of life in the Abyss and choose to join his emerging society.
• Schiller recognized that Bruce intended to make himself the only person capable of resolving a crisis, as he had done by elevating Superman.
• Bruce predicted that Diana would be the first to seek his help because she faced the greatest pressure and understood Batman's abilities.
• Bruce revealed that Diana had to be the one to approach him because he needed the Golden Apple.

Victor defended the Justice League headquarters from a police search and Doomsday, unlocking the power to edit reality through his Mother Box. After his new ability left him weakened, Steppenwolf confronted him as the injured Arthur and Mera arrived.

• Victor refused Neog Sohip’s search warrant, and Doomsday attacked him outside the headquarters.
• Victor used firefighting rockets and a thermal spear against Doomsday, but the creature overwhelmed him and hurled the spear at him.
• The Mother Box awakened, allowing Victor to shrink Doomsday, turn the officers’ guns into water guns, transform the police cars into doughnuts, and repair the damaged street.
• Victor realized he could not see Schiller’s data, then collapsed from the strain of using his new power when Steppenwolf arrived.
• Arthur and Mera reached the street, and Arthur, badly wounded from fighting Steppenwolf near Atlantis, insisted on helping Orm face him.

Arthur awakened the ocean’s power of evolution, reversing the Parademons and corroding Steppenwolf’s armor until Steppenwolf fled Atlantis for Metropolis. Arthur and Mera followed to stop him, and Arthur realized Victor might have part of what Steppenwolf wanted.

• Arthur and the Atlanteans fought Steppenwolf, and Arthur was nearly killed while remembering his father waiting for him at the lighthouse.
• Arthur’s will to survive awakened the ocean’s power within him, and he caught the Golden Trident as Steppenwolf’s armor began to rust.
• Arthur’s power made the Parademons devolve, while Steppenwolf’s body and armor changed as he escaped toward Metropolis after sensing a Mother Box.
• Arthur helped Mera and Orm, then told Orm to gather Atlantis’s forces while he and Mera pursued Steppenwolf.
• Arthur saw Victor in Metropolis and suspected that Victor possessed part of what Steppenwolf sought, then summoned a wave through the streets.

A creature in the clouds unleashed terrifying visions that incapacitated much of the Justice League while Steppenwolf pursued Victor and the Mother Box. Hal fought on despite his injuries and depleted ring, then drew on Parallax’s Yellow Lantern energy and launched himself toward Steppenwolf.

• Arthur and Ron tried to protect Victor from Steppenwolf, but Victor spotted a tourist whose glowing eyes made him collapse.
• A monster appeared in the clouds and inflicted visions on Arthur, Victor, Ron, and Diana, leaving them vulnerable as Steppenwolf attacked.
• Diana wounded Steppenwolf, but he defeated her and seized Victor, realizing the Mother Box might have fused with him.
• Hal arrived and fought Steppenwolf, but Steppenwolf overwhelmed him and tore open his body.
• Hal reached toward Parallax and let its Yellow Lantern energy enter his empty Green Lantern ring.
• Hal burst from the sea glowing with yellow light and charged toward Steppenwolf.

Hal tried to convert Yellow Lantern energy into Green Lantern energy through Victor’s Mother Box, but Steppenwolf killed him before the Green Lantern Corps could intervene. Victor awakened with both energies inside him and began using the Mother Box to convert fear energy into Green Lantern energy and draw more from Parallax, hoping to save Hal.

• Hal realized he needed an external medium to combine the incompatible energies and poured his Yellow Lantern energy into Victor’s Mother Box.
• Hal recited the Green Lantern oath to summon the Corps, but Steppenwolf attacked and crushed his spine before they arrived.
• The Green Lantern Corps reached Earth, and their leader tried to help Victor by pouring Green Lantern energy into him.
• The two energies reached equilibrium inside Victor, awakening him as he saw Hal’s corpse.
• Victor used the Mother Box to convert Yellow Lantern energy into Green Lantern energy, then began drawing fear energy directly from Parallax.