Recaps

He-El endured the blast and heat of a seventeen-megaton nuclear bomb, leaving world leaders stunned to see his silhouette still standing inside the fireball. As they insisted he could not survive, another nuclear bomb struck the fireball.

• Three nuclear bombs launched from California, Oregon, and Nevada converged on He-El over the Pacific Ocean.
• The first seventeen-megaton bomb struck near He-El, whose biological magnetic field dispersed the blast and resisted the intense heat.
• He-El remained standing inside the enormous fireball as the explosion churned the Pacific and sent a shockwave toward Anchorage Base.
• The people in the Oval Office reacted in disbelief and feared that He-El had survived the nuclear blast.
• Another nuclear bomb plunged into the fireball.

He-El survived a neutron bomb and a seventy-megaton three-stage bomb, which burned away his skin before he regenerated. He then controlled the enormous fireball over the Pacific and raised it on his fingertip like a star.

• The ten-megaton neutron bomb detonated, but He-El’s barriers stopped its blast and his cells absorbed its radiation.
• The Oval Office and world leaders watched in despair as He-El remained standing after the second nuclear strike.
• A seventy-megaton three-stage bomb launched from Nevada struck He-El, melting eighteen million of his biological magnetic field barriers.
• The bomb’s heat broke through He-El’s remaining barriers and burned away his skin, but his cells rapidly restored it.
• He-El spread his biological magnetic field around the fireball, made it rotate, and lifted it atop his index finger.

After surviving a nuclear blast, He-El absorbed its radiation and demonstrated that he could create a nuclear explosion himself. He then announced that he was Dawn, had locked down Earth’s networks and weapons, and would begin conquering the nation in Alaska within twenty-four hours.

• People around the world reacted with shock and fear to He-El surviving the nuclear bomb, while several elderly officials in the Oval Office died from the shock.
• The president recalled the workers who had first motivated him to enter politics and wondered how He-El would treat ordinary people.
• He-El absorbed the nuclear radiation and dismantled the fireball with his biological magnetic field.
• He-El created a second nuclear explosion by accelerating Heat Vision particles into an energy-filled cell, naming the technique the Heat-Vision Nuclear Bomb.
• Dawn broadcast a message across Earth, announcing a global lockdown of networks and weapons and warning civilians to stay home as the conquest began in Alaska.

Dawn seized control of Earth’s networks and weapons as He-El began conquering Alaska by taking command of its military. Colonel Bale obeyed the new orders and was promised a promotion, while a crimson morning star appeared in the sky.

• Dawn announced that Earth’s networks, weapons arsenals, and nuclear missile protocols were under her control and warned civilians to remain home.
• He-El flew to Anchorage City, changed into his familiar clothes, and used his biological magnetic field to search for the military base holding civilians.
• The command center ordered Colonel Bale to follow its instructions, and Major General Chris was reduced to blood mist after Bale received the orders.
• Bale acknowledged the orders and was promised a promotion, while Colonel Anston died after refusing to comply.
• Bale learned that senior officers across the base had vanished and saw a crimson morning star streak across the night sky.

He-El conquered Alaska and swept across the United States, replacing officials and killing military leaders while Dawn took control of communications and command. After destroying criminals and the president, He-El settled atop the Capitol at dawn to bask in the sun.

• He-El conquered Alaska in minutes, removed its senior officials, and installed new mayors and police chiefs.
• He-El eliminated senior military generals while Dawn took over the command center and stabilized the lower-ranking officers.
• As He-El crossed the states, he killed gangs, looters, and other criminals, and people online praised him for ending their crimes.
• The president read public comments about He-El and wondered what the alien wanted before Heat Vision cut through the White House and killed him.
• He-El reached the Capitol at dawn, sat atop the building, and basked in the sunlight.

He-El announced his plans to unify Earth, appointed mayors, and promised superpowers to his most valuable subordinates, while the crowd celebrated him as a benevolent guardian. When reporter Kevin insisted He-El was kind, He-El rejected the claim and then killed Kevin and the reporters behind him with Heat Vision.

• He-El addressed the crowd, demanded that world leaders surrender authority, and explained the mayors’ salaries, death quotas, and duties.
• He-El promised superpowers to the thousand subordinates who contributed most to unifying Earth, inspiring people worldwide to seek his favor.
• Kevin praised He-El as a kind guardian deity, and He-El warned him that he was not kind.
• Kevin defied He-El’s threatening Heat Vision and argued that his actions proved he protected civilians and sought to prevent bloodshed.
• He-El let his Heat Vision fade as Kevin celebrated, then suddenly killed Kevin and the reporters behind him.

He-El learned from Ciri that his genes included an unusually stable foundation and open genes capable of awakening many more powers. Ciri’s theory that he had been engineered to carry an overwhelmingly powerful gene made He-El wonder who had created him, but the chapter ended before he named them.

• After nearly killing the panicked crowd, He-El flew to Anchorage Base and questioned the turmoil in his emotions.
• Ciri greeted He-El at the biological research lab and shared a lollipop with him while reporting on her experiments.
• Ciri explained that He-El’s foundational genes were exceptionally stable and that his open genes could grant him additional powers and let him give powers to others.
• He-El concluded that many of his potential abilities would awaken as he absorbed sunlight and considered how much stronger beings elsewhere in the universe were.
• Ciri speculated that He-El’s genes had been designed to support an overwhelmingly powerful gene, prompting him to wonder who had created him.

He-El awakened telepathy, discovered that he could receive and alter other people’s thoughts, and tested its limits on Ciri. He set out for Washington, D.C. to find a master psychologist whose methods could help him develop a Thought Imprint.

• He-El learned that the genetic serum was finished and ordered Ciri to prepare five thousand doses.
• He-El awakened telepathy and received the thoughts of everyone in Anchorage Base.
• He-El tested his new ability on Ciri and found that transmitted thoughts faded quickly and could be distorted by her own thoughts.
• He-El decided to study psychology and develop a Thought Imprint by learning from someone skilled at manipulating minds.
• He-El searched for a master psychologist and flew toward Washington, D.C.

Jupiter cleaned up the massacre at the Capitol Building, then secretly joined the Humanity Self-Rescue Heroes Association as its members discussed their failed attempt to manipulate He-El. When a Gentle-looking Man tried to quit and join the alien, Jupiter attacked him and invoked the blood of Kevin and ninety-three fallen warriors.

• Jupiter coordinated the evacuation, removal of the reporters’ remains, and cleanup of the Capitol Building plaza after He-El’s massacre.
• Jupiter rode in a modified Beetle, spoke with Dawn, and entered the sewers to reach a secret meeting of the Humanity Self-Rescue Heroes Association.
• The members discussed how He-El saw through Kevin’s psychological manipulation and admitted that their plan had failed.
• A Gentle-looking Man announced he was leaving the association to become He-El’s subordinate and gain superpowers.
• Jupiter attacked the Gentle-looking Man at the exit and told him the blood on her heel belonged to Kevin and ninety-three fallen warriors.

Jupiter subdued the Gentle-looking Man and led the Humanity Self-Rescue Heroes Association in planning its next moves against He-El. The group decided to infiltrate Dawn’s political organization, secure superpower slots, and use Edward Yorton’s psychological expertise while preparing to turn He-El’s power against him.

• Jupiter kicked the Gentle-looking Man unconscious after he declared that he wanted to become the alien’s subordinate and gain superpowers.
• The Association debated whether psychological manipulation could still work, and Jupiter assigned Edward Yorton to interpret He-El’s behavior and lead that effort.
• Jupiter ordered members to join Dawn’s organization and help manage He-El’s Earth Empire from within.
• The group set a goal of securing at least 900 superpower slots so its researchers could develop applications capable of killing He-El.
• Jupiter urged the members to press forward despite the likelihood that they would die, and the assembled faces remained confident.

Jupiter and her allies emerged from the sewers after planning a ten-year strategy against He-El’s Earth Empire, but He-El arrived and singled out Edward. He read Edward’s life through a tap on the brow, then left, while Jupiter vowed that humanity would make him regret ignoring them.

• Jupiter and her allies left the sewers after agreeing on a ten-year plan to oppose He-El’s coming Earth Empire.
• He-El descended before the group, overwhelming them with fear and ignoring Jupiter as he approached Edward.
• Edward concluded that He-El had recognized the threat of his Psychological Manipulation plan and accepted what he thought was certain death.
• He-El tapped Edward’s brow, absorbed his life into his mind, and departed without harming the group.
• Jupiter vowed that He-El would pay for disregarding humanity, while Edward wondered whether his plan had failed.

He-El absorbed Edward Yorton’s ideas about psychic abilities and ordered Dawn to deliver him a superpower gene serum. Edward received the serum and vowed to make He-El regret his arrogance.

• He-El reviewed Edward’s memories and was impressed by his ideas for psychic abilities, deciding to protect and empower him.
• He-El ordered Dawn to keep Edward Yorton under close observation and send him a superpower gene serum.
• He-El concluded that creating his ideal Thought Imprint would require many experiments and flew toward Anchorage Base before heading into space.
• A Dawn Dispatch courier delivered the serum and a letter to Edward at Yorton Manor.
• Edward read that He-El hoped he would develop an ability capable of harming the Master, then reached for the serum and vowed to make He-El regret his arrogance.

Three months after He-El conquered Earth, he oversaw the new regime from the International Space Station and sent a psychic projection toward Human Experiment Site One. On Earth, Lazarus committed to building kinetic energy for a future attack on the aliens, but he and Jupiter were startled when He-El’s psychic light appeared.

• He-El rested aboard the International Space Station as Dawn reported that most countries had transitioned to his rule and described Earth’s new laws, currency, food distribution, and superpower gene research.
• Dawn reported that criminals had been deported to designated human experiment sites and that 567 people had received superpower gene drugs.
• He-El created a psychic field projection and sent it toward the Golden Triangle, Human Experiment Site One.
• Jupiter met Lazarus, who said he would run for years to build kinetic energy and eventually strike the aliens, asking Jupiter to direct him if Gaia could not act in time.
• He-El’s psychic light flashed over Jupiter and Lazarus, and they recognized it as Edward.

He-El experimented with psychic abilities by manipulating and killing people in Tachai Village, then used mind-driven mutations to eliminate the guards and rulers of a desert nation. As he prepared to leave, psychic energy gathered from the city formed Edward Yorton’s face, revealing that Edward had reached out to him.

• He-El arrived at Tachai Village and implanted the Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Virtues into residents and armed squads, throwing the village into chaos.
• He-El experimented on the villagers with severed thoughts, created personalities, and Mist Corridor, then extinguished their thoughts and killed everyone in the village.
• He-El entered a desert nation's palace and used whispered suggestions to make guards suffer bizarre bodily mutations or abandon their weapons.
• He-El erased the resisting politician and watched the city's people kneel before him.
• As He-El prepared to leave, psychic energy gathered from people across the city and formed Edward Yorton's face.

Edward Yorton attacked He-El with a psychic tide drawn from the minds of more than five hundred million people, but He-El effortlessly learned and improved Edward’s technique. Edward revealed that the attack had trapped He-El in an accelerating series of dream layers where he would eventually fade away.

• Jupiter and Dawn, along with city mayors and members of the Humanity Self-Rescue Heroes Association, watched the battle through satellite surveillance.
• Edward Yorton gathered psychic power from more than five hundred million people and led the resulting psychic tide toward He-El.
• He-El dodged the psychic tide, learned Edward’s technique, and improved it into a more powerful and controllable ability.
• Edward admitted that He-El was unbeatable in the psychic dimension, while He-El praised Edward’s ingenuity and physical-world attack.
• Edward revealed that the psychic tide had concealed a trap in the dream dimension, where successive layers accelerated until He-El would fade away on the tenth layer.

He-El’s psychic projection was trapped in Edward’s Dreaming dimension, but He-El severed the connection and left his power inside it rather than destroy the dimension. After the Humanity Self-Rescue Heroes Association celebrated his apparent defeat, He-El restored the projection, leaving Edward with no hope of another chance.

• He-El fell through the Dreaming dimension’s layers and recognized its potential, then severed his psychic power’s connection to his projection, leaving that power inside Edward’s dimension.
• The Humanity Self-Rescue Heroes Association members watched He-El’s projection fall and celebrated, believing Edward had defeated him.
• Jupiter watched He-El fall and struggled between her desire to kill him and her judgment that it was not the right time.
• He-El restored his projection with more psychic power before it hit the ground and faced Edward, whose power had nearly vanished.
• Edward sighed as his remaining psychic power dispersed, realizing He-El had survived and would learn to counter the Dreaming dimension.

Edward entered the transformed Dream Dimension and discovered that the psychic fragment there had become a separate life-form. The fragment absorbed Edward, named itself Jor-El, and expanded the Dream Dimension to record He-El’s memories and experiences.

• Edward endured the backlash from using the brainwave amplitude amplifier, then fell asleep under the butler’s care to recover.
• Edward entered the Dream Dimension and found that it had expanded from ten layers to one hundred, with the new layers filled with overwhelming information.
• Edward met He-El, who explained that his severed Psychic Power had formed a new life-form within the Dream Dimension.
• Edward realized that He-El needed a physical body, but He-El questioned why he would want to take over the original’s body.
• He-El touched Edward’s brow, transforming Edward into Light Points and absorbing him.
• He-El named himself Jor-El and expanded the Dream Dimension to thirty-three thousand three hundred thirty-three layers.

The Humanity Self-Rescue Heroes Association met at the President Wilson Hotel to discuss the Crystal Core Energy Aggregation Accelerator and their dwindling options against He-El. The meeting ended with the members confronting how their attempts to gain power had sent their strongest allies down dangerous paths.

• Jupiter and seven Association members checked the conference suite for surveillance devices and discussed how He-El had moved the world's major particle accelerators to Mount Jura.
• Jupiter warned that scientists worldwide would finish the Crystal Core Energy Aggregation Accelerator in three years, and that each activation would consume 40% of humanity's resources.
• The members said sabotage had failed and that Gaia had merged with Australia's geomagnetic field, while Edward and Lazarus could no longer help them fight He-El.
• They learned that Molecule Man and 130 scientists had entered the microscopic realm with the global species gene bank to pursue a microscopic civilization.
• The members argued over whether their superpowers and scientific research could still produce a way to destroy He-El.

He-El prepared Earth’s scientists to build an accelerator that could restore his ship’s energy, while considering the civilization he intended to create and monitoring resistance against his rule. The chapter ended when an invisible infrasound wave began emanating from the Pacific Ocean.

• He-El ordered Dawn to gather the world’s accelerators and scientists in Geneva to build the Crystal Core Energy Aggregation Accelerator.
• He-El toured Earth’s major cities and considered how their cultures might shape New Krypton, while condemning humanity’s cruelty and the people who worshiped him for treating them fairly.
• He-El resolved to perfect the Thought Imprint so his future people would remember that he had created them.
• He-El secretly listened as the Humanity Self-Rescue Heroes Association discussed using invisibility and other powers to resist him, and Jupiter urged them to investigate Dr. Ciri.
• He-El judged the group’s resistance weak and continued watching the accelerator project before an invisible infrasound wave began emanating from the Pacific Ocean.

Ciri struggled to develop a targeted superpower agent when the Precursors used infrasonic waves to control her and make her approach a Lantern Goldfish Monster. He-El rescued her and began crushing the monster, but Ciri asked him to stop so she could enter it and join the Precursors.

• Ciri failed to make a targeted superpower agent and began reexamining the Original Blood samples.
• Infrasonic waves activated Ciri’s hidden Precursors genes and controlled her as she left the laboratory for the coast.
• Ciri resisted the control but was forced to leap toward the Lantern Goldfish Monster’s open jaws.
• He-El halted the area, pulled Ciri to safety, and confronted the monster, which served as a viewing organism for the Precursors.
• He-El began compressing the Lantern Goldfish Monster, and Ciri asked him to stop so she could enter it and go over to the Precursors.

Ciri asked to study the Precursors’ genetic technology, and He-El agreed to give her four and a half years before leaving Earth. He knocked her unconscious and sent her into the Lantern Goldfish Monster, leaving the bewildered Precursors to decide whether to take her.

• The Precursors panicked over He-El’s power and considered using Ciri to obtain his genes, but He-El froze the surroundings and lifted their Lantern Goldfish Monster from the sea.
• Ciri recovered from vomiting and told He-El she wanted to study and record the Precursors’ genetic science.
• He-El approved Ciri’s ambition and said he would leave Earth in four and a half years.
• Ciri tried to call for protective gear before entering the Lantern Goldfish Monster, but He-El knocked her unconscious and infused her with blood and psychic power.
• He-El threw Ciri into the monster’s buffering fluid, returned the creature to the sea, and told the Precursors, “The survival of a civilization rests on her.”

He-El was crowned emperor of the newly founded He-El Empire in a lavish ceremony attended by Earth’s mayors and watched by people around the world. As Jupiter led the celebrations, He-El reflected on the compassion that had kept him from forcing humanity to develop superpowers, and the chapter left Earth preparing for his eventual departure with Ciri.

• Washington, D.C. hosted a worldwide celebration as the coronation ceremony began at He-El Palace.
• Jupiter presided over the ceremony while 13,861 mayors knelt before He-El and pledged their respect.
• He-El told the mayors to rise, then laughed as the crowds across Earth celebrated his coronation.
• He-El reflected that he had spared Earth from being pushed into developing superpowers through the threat of destruction.
• Jupiter led Earth in cheering for He-El, unaware that he would leave the world with Ciri four and a half years later.

Four years after He-El made knowledge the path to wealth and superpowers, Jupiter learned that he planned to leave Earth with Ciri. She asked Dawn where Ciri was and learned the doctor would arrive on Anchorage's coast the next morning.

• He-El’s worldwide education programs led millions to become Ability users and ushered Earth into an age of Knowledgeism.
• Jupiter reflected on the peace and prosperity she had helped maintain under He-El’s rule and decided he could remain emperor as long as he behaved himself.
• Jupiter asked Dawn what He-El planned to do next, and Dawn revealed that he was packing the Crystal Core Energy Source and waiting for Ciri before leaving Earth.
• Jupiter questioned why He-El was taking Ciri and privately insisted that he could not leave or take anyone with him.
• Dawn told Jupiter that she, Jupiter, and Earth were merely tools to He-El, then said Ciri would reach Anchorage’s coast at about 11:34 the next morning.

After He-El returned with Ciri, Jupiter demonstrated that her Instant Transmission could place a coin inside any material and threaten his life. He-El challenged her to try, but she could not act, and he left Earth with Ciri, leaving Jupiter and humanity behind.

• The Lantern Goldfish Monster brought Ciri back to Anchorage Coast, where Jupiter appeared and transported her to He-El Palace.
• Jupiter demonstrated Instant Transmission and embedded a coin in a blue diamond, showing how the collision destroyed both the diamond and the coin.
• Jupiter threatened to place a coin in He-El’s brain and urged him to remain on Earth, but He-El rose from his throne and dared her to act.
• Jupiter froze, overwhelmed by fear and her belief that humanity depended on He-El, and let him pass without attacking.
• He-El and Ciri dissolved into Light Points and left Earth; Jupiter collapsed and learned from Dawn that it would continue recording superpowers for He-El, leaving her alone to face humanity’s needs.

He-El took Ciri through the Traversal Vortex into deep space and spent 190 days flying toward the Starry Sky Explorer while keeping her alive by supplying her brain with nutrients from her atrophying body. He reached the ship and passed Zero’s Level Zero verification, reestablishing himself as its master.

• He-El adapted to deep space and used his biomagnetic field to protect Ciri from the vacuum’s effects.
• He-El calculated that reaching the Starry Sky Explorer would take about 190 days at a sustainable speed, then put Ciri to sleep and began their journey.
• He-El carried Ciri and their supplies through space, evading meteor streams while considering how to obtain a larger spacecraft.
• As they traveled, He-El gradually diverted Ciri’s body’s oxygen and nutrients to her brain, causing her limbs and organs to atrophy.
• After 190 days, He-El reached the Starry Sky Explorer and entered its outer airlock.
• He-El passed Zero’s Level Zero verification by answering its questions and singing Love's Offering to the tune of the Great Compassion Mantra.