Chapter Summaries

After the police told Hughie that Vought had made prosecuting The Train nearly impossible, Billy Butcher recruited him by promising a chance at revenge. Butcher brought Hughie to a secret gathering place for heroes, where surveillance footage revealed The Train joking about Hughie’s girlfriend’s death.

• Hughie asked the police to reopen the case, but an officer said his earlier forgiveness and Vought’s interference made prosecution practically impossible.
• Billy Butcher approached Hughie outside the police station and offered to help him deal with The Train.
• Butcher explained how Vought concealed superheroes’ casualties and misconduct, and Hughie agreed to join him.
• Butcher took Hughie to a luxury villa where superheroes secretly partied and behaved decadently.
• Butcher showed Hughie security footage of The Train laughing with a companion about killing Hughie’s girlfriend, leaving Hughie enraged.

Hughie joined Billy Butcher’s plan to expose the Superheroes and planted a listening device in Vought Company’s conference room. Invisible Man discovered it and attacked Hughie, but Billy Butcher, Mother's Milk, and Frenchie intervened, beginning a fight against the invisible assailant.

• Billy Butcher showed Hughie police records disproving The Train’s bank-robbery excuse and persuaded him to join the plan to gather evidence against The Seven.
• Hughie hid a listening device in his phone case and planted it beneath the conference table at Vought Company while staff discussed his compensation agreement.
• Invisible Man confronted Hughie at his shop and beat him after revealing the listening device.
• Billy Butcher crashed a car through the shop entrance, but Invisible Man struck him down before Mother's Milk and Frenchie joined the fight.
• Mother's Milk, Billy Butcher, and Frenchie attacked Invisible Man, whose invisibility and carbonized skin made him difficult to locate and harm.

The Boys' support personnel used electricity to incapacitate Invisible Man, allowing Billy Butcher to hand him over for arrest. Meanwhile, superpowered terrorists devastated a foreign military operation, forcing the Black Ops Division to halt its campaign against Vought as America's leaders chose to support Vought as a counterbalance to Chang Wei's growing power.

• Invisible Man charged through gunfire and punched Mother’s Milk into a wall, leaving him badly injured.
• A support person from The Boys arrived and used an electrical attack to incapacitate Invisible Man, exploiting his weakness to electricity.
• Billy Butcher kicked Invisible Man and handed him over to support personnel for legal punishment.
• CIA staff watched live footage of superpowered terrorists devastating foreign forces and destroying advanced weapons.
• The Black Ops Division's operation against Vought Company was halted as America's upper ranks chose to support Vought against Chang Wei's growing influence.

Vought Company developed V24, a temporary Superpower drug, and Stan tried to secure government support as he shifted the company toward military and pharmaceutical businesses. Meanwhile, with Homelander and other major heroes imprisoned, Vought’s remaining heroes faced a difficult fight against superpowered terrorists.

• Vought Company produced V24, which gave soldiers Superhero-level abilities for 24 hours, and planned to sell each dose to the government for two million dollars.
• Stan met privately with the Secretary of Defense and described Vought’s plan to leave the Superhero business within five years and focus on military and pharmaceutical sectors.
• Stan proposed creating a Superhero Investigation Bureau to oversee heroes and limit the Black Ops Division, but the Secretary of Defense declined to discuss the idea further.
• Vought’s available team against the superpowered terrorists consisted of Xuanse, The Train, Starlight, Queen Maeve, and lower-ranked heroes because Invisible Man, Homelander, and Deep were imprisoned.
• Vought’s remaining heroes lacked the battle experience of the terrorists, leaving them at a disadvantage on the battlefield.

Chang Wei sent Dark God's members to attack Sage Grove Center, Vought's heavily guarded facility for experimenting on superpowered people with Compound Five. The chapter ended with Torrent preparing to lead the assault.

• Chang Wei ordered Dark God's subordinates to attack Sage Grove Center.
• The chapter described how Vought confined superpowered patients there and used smoke devices and Sonic Weapons to protect its experiments.
• Chang Wei gave Dark God's members abilities and memories from the Hellfire Club mutants he had devoured.
• Black King Sebastian Shaw, Red Devil, White Queen, and other superpowered members gathered to attack the center.
• Torrent eagerly began spinning his body at high speed to demonstrate his ability.

Torrent and Black King Sebastian Shaw attacked Sage Grove Center, overwhelming its guards as they headed toward the building holding the superhumans. The guards fled, while a group of people hid in a surveillance room inside the hospital wing.

• Torrent formed a massive tornado ringed with sharp blades and sent it crashing into the heavily guarded employee building.
• The tornado demolished half the building and swept away people caught in its path, while guards fired uselessly at Torrent.
• Black King Sebastian Shaw advanced through gunfire, absorbed the bullets’ kinetic energy, and unleashed an Energy Wave that devastated the guards.
• The surviving guards fled, and Black King continued toward the hospital wing where the superhumans were held.
• A group of trembling people hid in the hospital wing’s surveillance room.

At Sage Grove Center, Lamplighter and the guards feared Sebastian Shaw as he walked through the ward corridor, opening the patients’ doors. They hoped the mysterious woman would come, but the chapter left them facing the danger of the released patients.

• A guard asked Lamplighter to stop Sebastian Shaw, but Lamplighter said even Homelander might not be able to handle him.
• The guards lost hope when they learned Lamplighter could not protect them from Sebastian Shaw.
• A young guard hoped the mysterious woman would arrive, while an older guard doubted she would dare to face Sebastian Shaw.
• Sebastian Shaw walked through the ward corridor and began opening the doors one by one.
• A Vought Company guard feared that the dangerous patients would turn on them once they were released.

Sebastian Shaw freed the unstable superhumans imprisoned at Sage Grove Center and offered them a chance to take revenge on Vought Company. He chose twenty to join him and gave them twenty minutes to hunt Vought employees before meeting at the entrance.

• Sebastian Shaw invited the freed patients to follow him and take revenge on Vought, while Red Devil caught a fleeing speedster and dropped him from a great height.
• Sebastian Shaw introduced himself as Black King and persuaded the frightened patients that joining him would let them escape Sage Grove Center and retaliate against Vought.
• Sebastian Shaw selected twenty of the thirty-two superhumans to accompany him, including Cindy and Sam.
• Sebastian Shaw ordered the chosen superhumans to gather at the entrance in twenty minutes, and Cindy realized he had given them time to attack Vought employees.
• Cindy used telekinesis to crush three Vought employees into clouds of blood, prompting the others to understand that they had been given a chance to hunt.

Twenty superhumans slaughtered Sage Grove Center staff as Sebastian Shaw watched and incited them to believe that people with superpowers were destined to rule humanity. The massacre left the center in ruins, with Lamplighter captured and Shaw’s followers embracing his supremacist ideology.

• Cindy and the other superhumans found Lamplighter hiding in the surveillance room and captured him after overpowering his flames.
• The superhumans slaughtered Vought Company staff throughout Sage Grove Center, turning the facility into a scene of mass bloodshed.
• Sebastian Shaw watched the violence with satisfaction and urged the superhumans to follow him and change the world.
• Shaw declared that people with superpowers were humanity’s future and had the right to dominate ordinary humans.
• Shaw used rhetoric about survival of the fittest and strong leadership to rally the superhumans around his supremacist cause.

After the Sage Grove Center attack exposed the Seven’s weakness, Vought Company pushed to free Homelander and pressured the Black Ops Division into reopening his case. Homelander was brought to court for the retrial, where the judge opened proceedings.

• The Sage Grove Center attack alarmed Vought Company, and its executives agreed that Homelander should be released to face the superpowered terrorists.
• Chang Wei decided it was time to let Homelander out so he could see that the world had changed and his old invincibility was gone.
• Vought Company lobbied the Department of Defense, Congress, and the Secretary of State until the Black Ops Division agreed to reopen Homelander’s case.
• Vought Company sent Homelander a legal team that planned to argue a shapeshifting criminal had impersonated him and Chang Wei, causing the attack and misunderstanding.
• A bailiff brought Homelander from his cell to the courtroom, where the prosecution, military officials, and members of Congress gathered.
• The presiding judge struck his gavel and opened the retrial.

Homelander stood trial for attacking the Black Ops Division and Minister Chang Wei, but the court dismissed the original charges and sentenced him to one year of supervised public service. After the verdict, he left the courtroom to face a crowd of reporters, eager to return to the spotlight.

• The prosecutor accused Homelander of attacking the Black Ops Division and injuring and killing staff, while his lawyer claimed shapeshifting criminals had tricked him.
• Homelander supported his lawyer's account, and congressional and Department of Defense representatives in the courtroom showed divided support for him.
• The judge weighed the evidence against political pressure and, after receiving confirmation of a ten-million deposit, dismissed the original charges and sentenced Homelander to one year of public service and correction training.
• Homelander left the courtroom relieved and faced a throng of reporters, seeing their attention as a chance to return to the spotlight.

Homelander learned that Vought could not free him from the Black Ops Division’s internal court and was released to confront the superpowered terrorists. After hearing Madelyn had been kidnapped, he led The Seven toward the threat, still insisting he was stronger than his enemies.

• Homelander addressed the cameras after his release, then stormed into Edgar’s office demanding to know why Vought had not gotten him out sooner.
• Edgar showed Homelander that the Black Ops Division had its own court for crimes involving Superpowers, and said the terrorists’ threat had helped secure his release.
• Edgar told Homelander that Madelyn had been kidnapped and might have leaked Compound Five; Homelander vowed to find the terrorists and rescue her.
• Vought’s intelligence network located Dark God, while Edgar urged Homelander to defeat the terrorists and warned that Vought’s future contest with the Black Ops Division depended on him.
• Homelander led the team with Starlight and Queen Maeve; when Maeve warned that the enemies were powerful, Homelander declared himself stronger.

Homelander led the shorthanded Seven toward Dark God’s hideout for a publicity-heavy mission intended to restore his authority. After Red Devil ambushed him and escaped with teleportation, the team faced Sebastian Shaw and Dark God outside their building.

• Vought Company promoted Homelander’s mission, and he led Queen Maeve, Xuanse, The Train, and Starlight toward Dark God’s hideout while cameramen filmed.
• Homelander warned the crew to avoid bloody footage as the team approached the terrorists’ building.
• Red Devil appeared suddenly, punched Homelander, and teleported away when Homelander retaliated.
• Queen Maeve identified Red Devil’s teleportation, and Homelander ordered The Train to watch him despite The Train’s doubts about his failing health.
• Sebastian Shaw led a group out of the building, and Homelander confronted Dark God with a show of righteous indignation.

Homelander attacked Sebastian Shaw after Shaw mocked him, but his Laser Eyes and punches failed to harm or move Shaw. Shaw restrained both of Homelander’s hands, leaving Homelander shaken and insisting that he was the strongest.

• Sebastian Shaw taunted Homelander, who fired his Laser Eyes at Shaw without effect.
• Homelander charged and punched Sebastian Shaw, but Shaw caught his fist and mocked him.
• Homelander threw a second punch, and Sebastian Shaw caught that one too, trapping both of Homelander’s hands.
• Homelander struggled unsuccessfully against Shaw’s grip, then roared that he was the strongest as his eyes glowed red again.

Sebastian Shaw brutally overpowered Homelander, while the other Dark God superhumans defeated Vought’s fighters. Xuanse was trapped by Sam, and his helplessness brought back his fear of Soldier Boy.

• Sebastian Shaw kicked Homelander hundreds of meters, then grabbed and smashed him into the ground.
• Sebastian Shaw mocked Homelander, punched him in the abdomen, and made him spit blood as Vought’s photographer watched.
• White Queen attacked Queen Maeve in her diamond form while Red Devil repeatedly outmaneuvered The Train with teleportation.
• Torrent knocked Xuanse down, and Sam seized and restrained him despite Xuanse’s desperate attempts to escape.
• Xuanse remembered how Soldier Boy had beaten and disfigured him, renewing his fear of people with immense physical strength.

Sebastian Shaw defeated Homelander and The Seven, then displayed the battered Homelander to reporters broadcasting live. The footage spread across America, leaving Vought Company unable to contain the story.

• Sam brutally battered Xuanse while Homelander watched the other members of The Seven lose.
• Sebastian Shaw told Homelander that Compound Five had given him his power, shocking Homelander with the possibility that he had created someone stronger than himself.
• Sebastian Shaw stomped Homelander into the ground, then pulled him free and held him up for reporters filming from a helicopter.
• Reporters broadcast Sebastian Shaw's victory over Homelander and The Seven, sparking public shock and outrage.
• News agencies rushed to spread the footage despite Vought Company's likely public relations response, and the story circulated throughout America.

Edgar and Vought Company faced a public and financial crisis after Homelander suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Sebastian Shaw. Sebastian Shaw then broke Homelander’s back on live camera, leaving his fate uncertain.

• News agencies broadcast Homelander’s defeat despite the risk of Vought Company’s retaliation.
• Edgar and Vought’s directors reacted in alarm as the failed operation threatened the company’s plans to sell Compound Five to the military.
• Investors sold their Vought Company shares, sending its stock price and market value plummeting.
• Sebastian Shaw continued beating Homelander and raised him above his head for the cameras.
• Sebastian Shaw slammed Homelander down onto his raised knee, and Homelander’s spine cracked.

Sebastian Shaw broke Homelander’s spine and tossed him aside, and the footage spread worldwide, plunging the public into panic. As people argued over whether Captain America or Chang Wei could stop Shaw, Shaw waved at the camera.

• Homelander fought desperately to escape Sebastian Shaw’s grip, but Shaw broke his spine.
• Shaw threw Homelander to the ground as a helicopter cameraman recorded the fight.
• Footage of Homelander’s defeat spread worldwide, shocking Edgar and Vought’s board and terrifying the public.
• Netizens called for Captain America and Chang Wei to confront the superhuman terrorists, while others doubted they could win.
• Sebastian Shaw suddenly waved at the camera.

Sebastian Shaw announced live that he would move against Vought Company and distribute Compound Five to the public, declaring that superpowers should be free. His broadcast provoked fierce public debate and left Vought executives and government officials scrambling over how to respond.

• Sebastian Shaw had a reporter and cameraman broadcast his plan to seize Compound Five and make it available to the public, while Homelander lay badly injured behind him.
• Viewers across America and social media users reacted to the broadcast, with some supporting Shaw’s challenge to Vought’s monopoly and others warning that Compound Five could endanger society.
• Vought executives argued over how to protect Compound Five and whether mobilizing company security would worsen the conflict.
• The White House held an emergency meeting where the intelligence chief warned that Shaw’s actions appeared carefully planned and possibly backed by unknown forces.
• The Secretary of Defense urged a military operation against Shaw, while the Minister of Justice argued for negotiations to avoid bloodshed and public backlash.

After Sebastian Shaw’s attack and Homelander’s defeat, public debate over Vought Company’s control of superpowers intensified, while protests and secret groups gathered momentum. Homelander awoke in a company hospital consumed by regret, as Billy Butcher celebrated the defeat he saw as the start of Vought’s downfall.

• A sociologist argued on television that Vought Company should address public doubts about Compound Five rather than suppress them, prompting widespread debate.
• Protesters gathered outside Vought Company, and mysterious groups began recruiting and raising funds online in support of Sebastian Shaw.
• Vought Company’s emergency team took Homelander and the surviving members of The Seven to a secret hospital, where Homelander woke with a broken spine.
• Homelander blamed his arrogance and past actions for creating Sebastian Shaw and putting Madelyn in danger, then fired lasers through the hospital ceiling in rage.
• Billy Butcher toasted Homelander’s defeat with his companions and viewed it as the beginning of Vought Company’s downfall.
• The Black Ops Division remained inactive amid the chaos.